Outsourcing and its impact on operational objectives and performance: A study of hotels in the Canary Islands

Abstract

The outsourcing of services enables a company's resources and capabilities to be improved by achieving better quality services and a better performance. This article deals with hotel sector managers' perceptions of the influence of outsourcing on operations strategy, and particularly on the objectives of cost reduction related operations, improved quality, flexibility and better service. Because of the strategic character of outsourcing in recent years, we have studied its impact on the hotel's organisational performance. The study shows that managers consider that outsourcing has great potential to exert an influence, not only on cost reduction, but also on other objectives of operations strategy making outsourcing more strategic in nature. It is also seen that outsourcing significantly influences hotel performance, which empirically corroborates aspects that had only been previously analysed theoretically. Therefore, outsourcing would only make sense when it exerts a positive influence on the different operations objectives and on hotel performance. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.