Hospitality as an Approach for Stakeholders in Retail

Abstract

Purpose- This is an exploratory paper that proposes to expand research on hospitality and introduce a new way of understanding the relationships between stakeholders in retail through a hospitality approach when the interaction is positive, or a hostile approach when the relationship is not positive. This is a work-in-process study.

Design/Methodology/Approach- An extensive systematic literature review was developed using the terms “Hospitality” and “Retail”. The research was done in the Ebsco database. The authors gathered and summarised relevant theory and empirical research findings that allowed for further theoretical insights to be drawn.

Findings- Overall, the possibility of a new approach for stakeholders in retail, and how this relationship can be improved by using the hospitality concepts to show the perspectives of how a not-good relationship can terminate in hostility. As an industry, hospitality and service retail are similar because they have characteristics of intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability, which can vary according to the type of service offered.

Originality of the research- This study considers different dimensions not usually applied to a retail context, as clearly there is little research about it. The application of these concepts and hospitality to a new field of study allows for an important discussion of retail, and this research exemplifies how the different relationships can happen with the different stakeholders.