Conclusions
This paper examines the relationships between leakage and employee/customer satisfaction and the growth and competitive position of hotel firms.
Our main contribution lies in demonstrating that an entrepreneurial environment, measured as a low level of leakage, directly and positively affects improvements in employee and customer satisfaction, thereby enhancing company competitiveness.
We analyzed the relationship between customer leakage and employee satisfaction in the tourism industry, using some elements of the theoretical framework developed by Chi and Gursoy (2009) and Supradist (2004).
In the study by Supradist, leakage is only analyzed in a qualitative way.
We also conducted a quantitative analysis, calculating the leakage produced by customers and the leakage caused by suppliers.
In the second of our model, we used part of the Chi and Gursoy (2009) model, adding more variables, such as growth and competitive position, and foreign customers.
The results of this paper are of interest to tourism firms because they may serve as a means of assessing their economic situation.
For example, it might be helpful for a hotel company to know what their level of leakage is and how this can affect the level of satisfaction among their customers and employees.
Furthermore, the study may be of interest to the region under study as it provides an approach to the entrepreneur’s environment from a viewpoint measured through leakage.
The main limitations of this article are that the calculations are only carried out in a particular region.
In addition, we encountered difficulties due to the reticence of many respondents to reply to questions related to financial issues, which would have enriched our model.
Despite these limitations, the study provides interesting findings, which suggest that there is a relationship between growth and competitive position and employee satisfaction.
An interesting relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction has also been found.
We calculated the leakage of each hotel and the relationship with customer and employee satisfaction, classifying two kinds of leakage: supplier leakage and customer leakage and found a relationship between leakage and employee/customer satisfaction (as shown in Table 2).
Future research could examine the leakage phenomenon in other sectors, such as transport, holiday planning, and restaurants, in line with the tourism value chain described by Gollub et al. (2004). We could also extend this study to other regions in order to generalize the model.