Triad collaboration of hotel employers, employees and customers for service innovation in a changing world

The purpose of this paper is to build a triad collaborative service innovation model, examining the effects of an employer's customer orientation, employee adaptability and customer participation on service innovation in a changing world through the knowledge of customers' needs. This study uses data from both frontline employees and their customers. A total of 300 valid matching data records were obtained. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data and to estimate the proposed research model. This study finds that an employer's customer orientation, an employee's adaptability and a customer's participation positively influence customer need knowledge, which in turn enhances service innovation. Accepting the model contributes to the literature by providing new evidence that both employees and employers should realize the importance of customer needs and by showing the effect of customer need knowledge on service innovation.