Discuss the Servqual and Gap Analysis concepts and demonstrate how it Essay

Discuss the Servqual and Gap Analysis concepts and demonstrate how it can be applied in hospitality operations - Essay Example It is based on the pre-purchase expectations of an individual and the quality perceptions after purchase. The customer satisfaction differs with quality of service through psychological factors which play a vital role in an individual’s personal experience. Customer satisfaction is premised on the outcome or the process undertaken and thus defining customer satisfaction as the attributes of an end-state originating from consumption of experience base on perception, evaluation and psychological factors. The hospitality industry focuses on customer satisfaction as the main concern for producing service to its customers. Potential customers are lured to the hospitality sector for a number of reasons not limited to satisfaction, enjoyment, sense of achievement and self- esteem benefits that can be sought from this industry. Robinson (2009, p.21) discusses the benefits of leisure that provide customers with intellectual challenge, involvement and enjoyment, intellectual stimulation due to education, relief of stress through social benefits, relaxation and other aesthetic benefits. This factors link customer needs and satisfaction and motivation which is variable from individual to individual and thus obligating the customer oriented marketing to consider customer needs and be flexible to changes in internal processes to suit them. Satisfaction brings new customers through a positive word of mouth recommendations from existing customers. Secondly, it results into a stable source of income through maintaining customer loyalty through repetitive quality service delivery in the industry. Lack or inadequate customer satisfaction leads to additional expenses through handling customer complaints with an end result of wasting productive hours and ruining the reputation of a firm. There are a number of factors that affect customer satisfaction. However, the aspects of this paper aims at pre-purchase expectations that affect the overall

Is the fiscal stimulus worked during the Japanese Stagnation in early Research Paper

Is the fiscal stimulus worked during the Japanese Stagnation in early 1990 crisis - Research Paper Example Indeed, the government introduced several fiscal stimuli, they were, however, not effective enough to bring back the growth that the Japanese economy had earlier witnessed. Opinions on the effectiveness of the fiscal stimulus abound in literature written by economists with some arguing that the fiscal stimulus was not successful and actually degraded the economic growth due to the crowding out effect; while others arguing that the fiscal stimulus prevented worsening of the economy and should therefore be considered â€Å"successful†. In my opinion, however, the fiscal stimulus did not work and the reason for this, in part, is due to the fact that most fiscal stimulus when actually implemented/applied by the Japanese government was seldom close to what the government actually promised to implement/apply. Therefore, the fiscal stimulus failed to work because whatever stimulus was actually applied was never enough. Following the September 1985 Plaza Accord, the Japanese Yen start ed to appreciate which led to Japan’s export sector getting badly hit. To counter this appreciation of the Yen, the Bank of Japan drastically eased its monetary policy reducing the interest rate from 5% in January 1986 to 2.5% in February 1987. Soon, the real estate and financial markets began to expand rapidly as a result of this monetary easing, creating a huge financial asset bubble. In response to this, the government increased its interest rate to 6% in 1989-90. The sudden tightening of the money supply led the markets to collapse and thus began the onset of a long period of stagnant economic growth in Japan. The real GDP increased from 428,826 billion Yen in 1990 was to a mere 469,480 billion Yen by the end of 2000 (Powell). Statistical evidence of poor performance of fiscal stimulus The discussion about fiscal stimulus and the Japanese 1990s crisis finds root in the Keynesian economic principles. Keynesian economists preach that during a cyclical trough, discretionary fiscal policies can help the economy emerge from the trough. That is, when the economy goes down due to cyclical factors, the government by introducing fiscal expansionary policy (applying fiscal stimulus) can help the economy maintain emerge from the downturn faster. The Japanese economy in the 1980s saw rapid expansion and large building up of asset bubbles. Accordingly and cyclically, when the bubbles burst, the economy started to cool down. However, this time the trough was not due to a business cyclical downturn; the economy had lost steam due to asset bubble burst. Keynesians argue that by applying large fiscal stimulus under such situations, the government can reinvigorate growth. The Japanese government did apply several fiscal stimulus programs but was unsuccessful in spurring growth or controlling other macroeconomic indicators either. Figure 1 below puts into perspective the state of the Japanese economy during the crisis. It shows the real GDP growth rates for Japan and for the US from 1985 to 2002. Figure 1: Comparison of Real GDP growth in Japan and US from 1985 to 2002 From Figure 1, we see that Japan enjoyed high economic growth from 1985 to 1991 where after the economy was more or less stagnant until 2002 except in 1996 (2.6%) and in 2000 (2.9%) where the economic growth was >2% but still well below that of