ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS OF BUSINESS, HOTEL WEBSITE QUALITY AND DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS RELATIONSHIP IN HOTEL INDUSTRY

Razvoj modernih tehnologija i inovacija uzrokovao je dinamične promjene na tržištu, što je rezultiralo brojnim prilikama, ali i izazovima na tržištu. Uslijed uvođenja disruptivnih tehnologija i novih poslovnih modela, pretpostavljalo se da će uloga posrednika u turizmu oslabiti. Međutim, dogodilo se upravo suprotno, napretkom tehnologije posredničke strategije su postale diversificirane i složenije, evoluirale u online posredničke agencije, što je rezultiralo sve oštrijom konkurencijom i intenzivnom borbom za moći između hotelijera i posrednika. Rastom moći posrednika, hotelijeri gube svoj udio direktnih rezervacija, plaćaju provizije agencijama, gube snagu identiteta i prepoznatljivosti marke te imaju narušene dugoročne odnose s posjetiteljima. Kako bi odgovorili na promjene na tržištu i zadržali svoj tržišni udio direktnih rezervacija, hoteli razvijaju različite strategije. Cilj ove doktorske disertacije je ispitati faktor utjecaja na direktne rezervacije, konkretno, istražiti je li kvaliteta mrežnih stranica povezana s većim udjelom direktnih rezervacija u hotelijerstvu. U svrhu ostvarenja ciljeva istraživanja kreiran je model koji povezuje organizacijske aspekte hotelskog poslovanja, tržišnu orijentaciju, interfunkcionalnu orijentaciju i inovativnu kulturu, koje će se ispitati anketnim upitnikom, s kvalitetom mrežnih stranica. Smatra se kako će hotelska organizacija koja je usmjerena na promjene tržišta, ima dobro povezane funkcionalne jedinice te je usvojila organizacijsku kulturu koja brzo i lako odgovara na promjene i usvaja inovacije imati i kvalitetniju mrežnu stranicu. Okvir evaluacije mrežnih stranica predstavljen je po prvi puta, on ispituje razvijenost e-trgovine, inovativnost i raznolikost sadržaja kombinacijom inovativnih metoda poput rudarenja teksta i analize mrežnih stranica hotela. Finalno, kvaliteta mrežnih stranica povezuje se s udjelom kanala distribucije. Za ispitivanje povezanosti varijabli u modelu korištena je SEM metoda evaluacije strukturnim jednadžbama. Znanja prikupljena izradom ove doktorske disertacije mogu se iskoristiti i u znanstvene i aplikativne svrhe. Sam model istraživanja može se primijeniti u bilo kojoj industriji koja uključuje posrednije te se također okvir evaluacije mrežnih stranica može koristiti za razne industrije. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su kako inovativni organizacijski aspekti utječu na kvalitetu mrežnih stranica, dakle da će inovativnija okolina pozitivno utjecati na prihvaćanje i razvoj tehnologija u hotelskoj organizaciji. Nadalje, zaključeno je kako različiti aspekti kvalitete mrežnih stranica različito utječu na udio direktnih rezervacija. Primjerice, mrežne stranice koje imaju puno različitih kategorija i tema, neće rezultirati većim udjelom direktnih rezervacija što bi se moglo protumačiti kako posjetitelji ne preferiraju mrežne stranice gusto smještenog sadržaja, već „čišće“ i preglednije. Ipak, mrežne stranice koje imaju bogate opise i više riječi imat će veći udio direktnih rezervacija. Posjetitelji preferiraju stranice koje će im bogatim opisima prenijeti dio atmosfere i filozofije koju hotel predstavlja. Finalno, aktivnost na društvenim mrežama također će rezultirati većim brojem direktnih rezervacija. Društvene mreže postale su glavni izvor informiranja u brojnim industrijama, a hotelske mrežne stranice nude i opciju rezervacija, tako da postaju sve relevantniji izvor ostvarenja direktnih rezervacija. Rezultati istraživanja otvaraju brojne potencijalne teme budućih istraživanja, rezultati se mogu ispitati i na drugim uzorcima, primjerice europskim ili svjetskim hotelima, mogu se uključiti i druge kategorije evaluacije mrežnih stranica poput estetike te se kvaliteta stranica može ispitati putem potencijalnih kupaca.The digital economy nowadays has dramatically changed the way the business operates and performs daily operations, and business models altogether. Dynamic market changes have affected some industries more than others, for instance, tourism and hotel industries are sectors on which technology advancement and innovations had a massive impact. Distribution channels in the hotel industry are completely remodeled by Internet operations, and some players have implemented modern technology and developed their businesses while others disappeared from the market. For instance, the predictions for intermediaries in tourism was that their role will weaken, however due to new business models. However, the opposite happened, with the advancement of technology their strategies became diversified and complex, evolving into online travel agencies (OTA-s) resulting in increasingly fierce competition and intense struggle for opportunities between hoteliers and brokers. As the power of intermediaries grows, hoteliers lose their share of direct bookings, pay agency commissions, lose the strength of brand identity and recognition, and have disrupted long-term relationships with visitors. In order to respond to market changes and maintain their market share of direct bookings, hotels are developing different strategies. The aim of this doctoral dissertation is to examine the factor influencing direct reservations, specifically, to investigate whether the quality of websites is associated with a higher share of direct reservations in the hotel industry. In order to achieve the goals of the research, a model was created that connects the organizational aspects of the hotel business, market orientation, intrafunctional orientation, and innovative culture, with the quality of the website. It is believed that a hotel organization that is focused on market changes, has well-connected functional units, and has adopted an organizational culture that responds quickly and easily to changes and adopts innovations will have a better website. The input elements of this model are market orientation, intrafunctional orientation, and innovative culture. Influential qualities will be examined for these elements. the hotel website on the basis of which the hypotheses were formed, with the third hypothesis having three sub-hypotheses. The website evaluation framework was introduced for the first time, it examines the development of e-commerce, innovation, and diversity of content through a combination of innovative methods such as text mining and hotel website analysis. Finally, the quality of web pages is related to the share of distribution channels. The SEM method of evaluation by structural equations was used to examine the correlation of variables in the model. The academic community is also showing an increased interest in research on the topic of testing the quality of hotel websites, so recently the number of scientific papers on the topic has increased. For example, the International Journal of Hospitality and Management in 2019 has so far published twice as many articles related to the quality of hotel websites than in the last three years combined and a similar trend is followed by other renowned journals and scientific databases. The title of the proposed topic of the doctoral dissertation is "The connection between organizational aspects of business, the quality of hotel websites, and distribution channels in the hotel industry." In order to enable a comprehensive overview of the field in the dissertation and to generate new knowledge, the following scientific goals have been set to present a comprehensive and comprehensive critical review of the scientific literature on the topic of distribution channels in the hotel and tourism, and innovative culture in tourism. To propose a model for researching the relationship between the quality of hotel websites and the choice of distribution channel in the hotel industry, to form a framework for evaluating the quality of the hotel website, which will integrate the methods and models used so far to evaluate the website and adapt them for research purposes. To evaluate the quality of the hotel website in Croatia according to the proposed model, and empirically examine the impact of the quality of hotel websites on the choice of distribution channels by visitors. To examine the ratio of sales by distribution channels in hotels in Croatia with a survey questionnaire, and to empirically examine the connection between distribution channels and business performance. Furthermore, the application objectives of the work are the following: To highlight the hotel as an example of best practice with regard to the successful use of its own website as a distribution channel and make a case study analysis. Define best practice recommendations and introduce hotel management to the results of the research and present them with best practice cases so that they can draw useful advice and improve business strategies. Population and sample were defined for research purposes. The research population consists of facilities categorized for hotel accommodation in the Republic of Croatia, where the list of categorized tourist facilities in the Republic of Croatia will be used as the sampling frame. There are 773 hotel accommodations in Croatia. For the purpose of testing hypotheses, two surveys were conducted on the hotel population in the Republic of Croatia: Primary survey of hotel managers with the aim of collecting data on the following variables: market orientation, intrafunctional orientation, innovative culture, sales structures with regard to distribution channels and hotel performance, using survey research, and primary research of the quality of the hotel website, using content analysis. Findings and future recommendations: The knowledge gained from the preparation of this doctoral dissertation can be used for both scientific and applied purposes. The research model itself can be applied in any industry that involves more indirect, and also the website evaluation framework can be used for various industries. The results of the research showed that innovative organizational aspects affect the quality of websites so that a more innovative environment will positively affect the acceptance and development of technologies in the hotel organization. Furthermore, it was concluded that different aspects of website quality affect the share of direct bookings differently. For example, websites that have many different categories and topics will not result in a higher share of direct bookings, which could be explained by the fact that visitors do not prefer websites with densely hosted content, but are "cleaner" and clearer. However, websites that have rich descriptions and more words will have a higher share of direct bookings. Visitors prefer sites that will convey to them a rich description of the atmosphere and philosophy that the hotel represents. Finally, social media activity will also result in more direct bookings. Social networks have become the main source of information in many industries, and hotel websites also offer the option of reservations, so that they are becoming an increasingly relevant source of direct reservations. The results of the research open a number of potential topics for future research, the results can be tested on other samples, such as European or global hotels, other categories of website evaluation such as aesthetics can be included and the quality of pages can be tested through potential customers