Đổi mới sáng tạo sản phẩm và quy trình trong ngành khách sạn tại việt nam tt tiếng anh

  CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales Innovation – as an expression of human creativity and lateral thingking – is not the result of economic development, but rather the source of sustainable economic and social progress (Collins and Fahy, 2011) Baden-Fuller and Stopford (1994) even indicate innovation as the path to sustain competitive advantage and to rejuvenate mature business One of the economic sectors to which innovation brough a particularly significant contribution is tourism In fact, over the course of history, tourism demonstrated immense innovativeness (Hjalager, 2010) One sector of toursism value chain, which is particularly open to innovations, is the hotel industry (Gabriela, 2013) In an era of globalization, technological evolution and stagnating tourism demand, competiion in the hotel industry has become fierce (Tseng cộng sự, 2008) Although innovation is one of the main determinants of compettion sector The tourism industry depend on innovation for achieving lower costs and higher quality outputs (Ottenbacher Gnoth, 2005; Chadee Mattsson, 1996), such as improved services and products, environmental issues, informantion and communication technologies (ICT) interaction Although the research on innovation in the tourism industry in general and the hotel in particular has had a great effort in the past time, due to tourism is a young research area in which only in early 70-ies of last century, hotel products are services, meanwhite, research on innovation in services is also relatively young Hotels are the basic tourism receptive units and one of the most important segments of the tourism offer, until now the study of hotel innovation still has three limitations following: First, research on innovation is not systematic, limitations on empirical research Hotel innovation is primarily studied in cases, the number of empirical studies is very small to have a significant impact on management practices and is not extensive compared to research on innovation in other sectors (Hall Williams, 2008; Hall, 2009; Hjalager, 2010; Gabriela, 2013) Much of the research content has yet to reach consensus (Gabriela, 2013) Second, there is a lack of research on product and process innovation Third, the hotel sector has been associated with negative effects on the environment through the consumption of natural resources, the generation of greenhouse gases, and waste production (Alzboun, Khawaldah, Backman, & Moore, 2016) In the face of social and stakeholder pressures, hotel managers are difficult to find solutions that could meet a growing market segment who want to pay for the green hotel while they try to control operating costs of their hotels (Rodríguez-Anton cộng sự, 2012) So innovation to protect the environment and sustainable development is the trend of the current hotel but very few studies mention this content Next, in Vietnam, environmental protection activities are increasingly focused, awareness of consumers is increasing and green consumption trend is spreading in the   community Vietnam’s tourism and hotel industry has had strong changes to global integration To integrate with the development trend of world tourism and to meet the needs and consumption trends of tourists, hotels need to be transformed more strongly by having to innovate According to my knowledge, there has been no research on this content in this industry in Vietnam Stemming from the above reasons, the author chooses the topic "product and process innovation in Vietnam’s hotel industry", on the one hand, adding to the research gap on service innovation and tourism field, on the other hand, contributing to practicalbility in the local and regional context 1.2 Research objective and questions The objective of this research is to build an integrative model linking knowledge green procduct and green process innovation determinants, green product and process innovation and performance of Vietnam hotels and test that model in Vietnam Special research questions are: What is the current status of green product and green process in Vietnam’s hotels? What factors determine a green product and green process innovation in hotels? the degree of impact of each factor? How does a green product and green process innovation affect its performance? Is the green product and green process innovation different in differnct types of Vietnam hotels? What measures can Vietnam’s hotels take to improve their green product and green process innovation? 1.3 Research subject and scope Research subject Research Content + Research only product and process innovation (2 of the types of innovation) defined by OECD (2005) + Only interested in green innovation (to protect the environment and sustainable development in the supply of hotel products) Research scope and space to star hotels are not in the chain in Vietnam Duaration time of the study Data is collected for the period 2016 - 2018 and recommendations for the next years 1.4 Definition of key term Innovation, product innovation, process innovation, hotel 1.5 Research methodology This research uses both quantitative and qualitative mthods in order to get both the coverage and deep understanding of green procduct and green process innovation in Vietnam hotels Combining both of these methods can help to narrow the methodological   research gap The research proceeded through five steps: (1) review literature, (2) research context examination, (3) qualitative research, (4) empirical survey, (5) results and implications 1.6 New contributions of the study Theoritical contributions First, the thesis has systematized the knowledge of innovation in general and green innovation in particular in the tourism and hotel industry, provides insight into the green innovation process in hotels in Vietnam Second, in the service industry, product and process innovation has many different perspectives, on the one hand they integrate with each other, on the other hand they are completely independent like in the manufacturing industry The thesis describes the differences between these two types of innovation, reinforcing the proof of the independence of each type in the hotel industry in particular and services in general Third, building and testing a new integrative model linking knowledge green procduct and green process innovation determinants, green product and process innovation and performance of Vietnam hotels which takes into account the moderate effects of contextual factors in the hotel sector Qualitative research with managers has confirmed the suitability of the theoretical model to Vietnamese context Fourth, through collecting primary data, the topic creates a new data system of green innovation in the hotel industry The results of this research contribute to a general understanding of innovation and the factors that influence hotel innovation - a type of specific service business in transition economies Practical contributions Provide a current picture of the hotel industry in Vietnam and innovation on the tourism and hospitality sectors; provide information on green consumption trends in the tourism industry and the status of green product and green processes innovation in Vietnam's hospitality industry; provide a new data set; compare the difference in green product and green process innovation among hotel types, categories and ownerships; offer solutions to help hotels in Vietnam conduct suitable creative ideas to improve business efficiency and policy recommendations to create an environment for promoting creativity in hotels in particular, in businesses in general 1.7 Structure of the thesis The thesis comprises of seven chapters, including this Introduction chapter Chapter reviews literature on innovation, which serves as the theoractical foundation for the studying of innovation in tourism and hotel; theoretical perspective in innovation research; reviews specific literature on innovation in tourism and hotel to build a conceptual Chapter findings research gap and builts a conceptual model and produce a number of hypotheses Chapter provides back ground information on Vietnam hotel industry Chapter describes the research methodology Chapter presents research result Chapter compares the result of the study with the literature, discusses their implications   CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 2.1 Overview research on innovation 2.1.1 Definition of innovation Research on innovation began in the middle of the twentieth century, so far, many concepts have been proposed, such as Schumpeter (1934) ,Thompson Crow (1965), Zaltman cộng (1973), Kimberly (1981), Drucker (1985), Ven cộng (1986), Damanpour (1996), Ủy ban Châu Âu (1995), Rogers (2003) 2.1.1.1 Dimentions of innovation concept Ram et al (2010) pointed five broad dimensions in which the concept of innovation is defined and discussed Each dimension is discussed as following: (1) Innovation as something new, (2) Innovation as a conduit of change, (3) Innovation as a process, (4) Innovation as a value driver, (5) Innovation as invention 2.1.1.2 The “essences” of innovation Bareghenh et al (2009) indicated essences that are "embedded" in these definitions, including: (1) nature of innmovation, (2) types of innovation, (3) stage of innovation, (4) social context of innovation, (5) means of innovation and (6) aim of innovation 2.1.1.3 Definition of innovation according to OECD standard “An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method inbusiness practices, workplace organisation or external relations” (OECD, 2005, p.46) 2.1.1.4 The "new" essence in innovation according to OECD standards The main point of innovation is to something new The novelty of Innovation based on the OECD standard is expressed in one of the following three aspects: (1) new to firm, (2) new to market and (3) new to the world Two concepts related to the level of innovation include: “radical innovation" and “incremental innovation” Radical and incremental innovation show novelty at two different poles, one is high and other is low The innovations is between these two gaps are called really new innovation by García and Calantone (2002) These are moderate innovations 2.1.2 Types of innovation There are many differen ways to classify innovations OECD (2005) relies on firm’s activities to divide innovation into four categories: product inovation, process innovation, marketing innovation and organisational innovation “A product innovation isthe introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved with respect to its characteristics or intended uses This includes significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, incorporated software, user friendliness or other functional characteristics.” (OECD, tr 48) “A process innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software” (OECD, 2005, tr 49)   2.2 Industry innovation system 2.3 Literature review on tourism innovation 2.3.1 The importance of innovation in tourism Among the various sub-sectors of the global economy, tourism is one of the most competitive service industries and the extraordinary growth of tourism in the past few decades has always been accompanied by fierce competition (Backman cộng sự, 2017; Cirstea, 2014; Vodeb, 2012) Therefore, innovation is the optimal coping mechanism for fierce competition as well as satisfying the ever-changing needs of tourists to achieve sustainable growth for businesses in the tourism field (OECD, 2008; Simonceska, 2012) The importance of innovation in tourism is multidimensional A new innovative tourism product that brings high added value Increasing the ability to innovate, tourism suppliers can become monopolizing Tourism destinations are forced to plan and implement an innovative approach to attract potential customers (Santos, 2014) In this way, a destination begins to provide travel experiences that were previously unavailable This helps suppliers gain a comparative advantage over competitors 2.3.2 The researches on innovation in tourism to date Literature review on tourism innovation, scholars focus on three major issues: (1) research contributing to the development of theory of innovation in tourism, (2) research innovation at the regional and destination level, (3) research innovation at the enterprise level 2.3.3 Classification of innovation in tourism Hjalager (2010) identified five main categories of innovation: (1) Product or service inovations are changes which are perceptible to tourists and which are generated either by destination managers or by enterprises operating in the field of tourism (2) Process innovation is generally implemented in the back office of service to improve productivity and business efficiency (3) Managerial innovation refers to new ways of organizing and directing internal and external resources (4) Marketing innovation includes new ways of marketing This innovation play vital role in the relationship between service providers and customers, as they determine the organization’s market orientation and notoriety…(5) Institutional or management innovation refers to the structure or legal framework through which tourist services are provided and consumed Such alliances, social tourism organizations, networks of accommodation providers… 2.4 Literature review on hotel innovation 2.4.1 Features of hotel innovation According to Allegro and de Graaf (2008), in the hotel industry, the most innovative ideas come from those, who have an outsider’s perspective looking at the operation and they not restricted by existing practices Konovalova and Jatuliavicienne (2015) show that hotel innovation is more affected by external environmental movements than from internal impacts Therefore, the development of   innovation needs through interaction with actors that may not be directly related to tourism industry (Hjalager, 2002) Product of hotel is service Every attribute of hotel product is considered in innovative activities The intangible and tangible components of products are services that are highly correlated in the hospitality industry This means that both properties depend on each other when integrated into the service delivery process and influence the process that hotels provide services to guests 2.4.2 Product innovation in hotel Product innovation refers to two aspects of introducing new products and improving existing products (Chang et al, 2012; Polder et al, 2010) Product innovation can include design changes that lead to important changes in the use or features of a product (OECD, 2005) These hotels were started to provide a low-price service without compromising essential and basic hotel standards such as accessibility, cleanliness, and comfortable beds (Hall & Williams, 2008) Later, as illustrated by Reiwoldt (2006), a diversification of the mainly small-scale accommodation sector has occurred through design and niche hotels as a way to create a sensuous atmosphere, illusions and aesthetics which are important ingredients in the product on a footing with functional attributes Some studies in the hotel sector refer to single qualities of the hotel services as innovative, for example gastronomy, animation, infrastructure, or wellness facilities (Jacob et al, 2003; Pikkemaat, 2008), customised comfort (Enz & Siguaw, 2003) or environmental measures (Le et al, 2006) 2.4.3 Process innovation in hotel This type of innovation refers to the application of new or greatly improved methods in the manufacture, supply of products and services; applying new or greatly improved approaches to logistics, distribution or delivery of materials and products; introducing new or greatly improved supplementary activities (e.g maintenance systems, procurement, accounting) Process innovation can be the foundation to improve services to attract new customers, increase loyalty of customers and help increase the value of products Restaurant kitchens offer many examples of intensive process innovations The application of food service technologies embraces faster and better preparation methods, energy and labour savings, waste reduction, better sanitation, faster service and higher flexibility (Rogers, 2007) 2.4.4 The relationship between product and process innovation in the hotels The relationship between product and process innovation within a company is seen in the specialist literature from two opposing views (Damanpour, 2010): the distinctive view, which considers that both kinds of innovation are independent, and the integrative view, which assumes the existence of complementarities between the two kinds of innovation Guisado-González et al (2014) pointed that that each of the two types of innovation is independent   2.4.5 Green product and process innovation in hotel Terminology for product and process innovation towards ‘green’ element (abbreviate as green product and process innovation) refer to product and process innovations help reduce negative environmental impacts through the consumption of natural resources, creating greenhouse gases and producing waste These type of innovation create various environmental initiatives that reduce energy consumption, water and waste output in order to make a positive contribution to protect the hotel environment 2.4.6 Innovative trends in the hotel industry According to the literature review, in the development stages of the hospitality industry, hotel innovation often focuses on the following aspects: (1) application of information technology to innovate hotel’s products, processes, and marketing, (2) organizational innovation and emergence of business models, new types of hot, (3) other innovations such as customizing service for guests, designing themed products, adapting to environmental protection activities… 2.4.7 Empirical studies on hotel innovation to date First, several studies identify important procedures for hotel innovation development such as the work of Ottenbacher and Harrington (2007) Second, researches focus on developing one or several types of hotel innovation such as the works of OrflaSintes and Mattsson (2009), Ottenbacher (2007) Third, testing factors that can create hotel innovation, for example Hjalager (2002), Ottenbacher and Gnoth (2005), Ottenbacher (2007) The impact of innovation on organizational performance is also studied individually or integrated into the above research lines Previous typical studies are summarized in table 3.1 to 3.3 The topic of this thesis will focus on the third research line CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUAPL MODEL AND HYPOTHESES 3.1 Research gap, 3.2 Theoretical perspective and 3.3 Research proposal From the analysis of the features and the innovation process that takes place in the hotel and literature review on tourism innovation, it appears that network, cooperation with external organizations play a important role and occupy a special position than businesses in other industries Research on green product and process innovation in the hospitality industry is very essential Green innovation is currently one of the outstanding directions of the industry but very few scholars are interested in this field of research However, this research area is still very few scholars interested in Studies have often not considered innovation in a specific theoretical perspective The search for a background theory to investigate the content of this thesis is essential to both increase reliability and add the research gap above Therefore, based on the two theories that are network and absorption capacity, I propose a research on the impact of these two factors on green product and process innovation and test the impact of green product and process innovation on hotel performance   3.4 Hypotheses 3.4.1 Network and innovation 3.4.1.1 Concept and essential components in network 3.4.1.2 Network theory 3.4.1.3 Network and parties involved The parties involve in the entreprise network From the stakeholder perspective, the various parties involved in a (social) network are considered as those affecting or being affected by the actions of the business as a whole (Philips et al., 2003) The variety of parties which can be involved in interactive relations with a firm within a network can be relatively large: buyers, suppliers, competitors, government offices, industry associations, religious affiliations, universities, and consultants (e.g., Smeltzer et al., 1988; Fann and Smeltzer, 1989; Tidd and Trewhella, 1997) Table 3.2 Parties involved in a hotel’s network Buyers Suppliers Competitors Consultants The focal firm (Hotel) State management agencies Government institutions Business Associations University/ research institution Source: Refined references of Indarti & Postma (2013) 3.4.1.4 Netwwork and green product innovation, green process innovation Tie diverstity Previous studies (e.g Becker and Dietz, 2004; Nieto and Santamaria, 2007) point out that interaction with diverse partners may provide various advantages Diverse sources of knowledge allow the firm to create new combination of technologies and knowledge, which in turn it provides opportunities for the firm to select among various possible paths (Metcalfe, 1994) Partners may also contribute different resources and capabilities instrumental to improve the firm’s innovation capabilities (Becker and Dietz, 2004) Moreover, varied network partners, may attract more heterogeneous knowledge, experimentation, search, variation, and risk-taking, which contributes to explorative innovation (March, 1991; Nieto and Santamaria, 2007) and to sustain innovation (Laursen and Salter, 2006) More specifically, collaboration with varied partners improves the chance of achieving product innovation (Becker and Dietz, 2004; Nieto and Santamaria, 2007) Against this backdrop, therefore I propose:   H1a: The tie diversity is positively associated with green product innovation H1b: The tie diversity is positively associated with green process innovation Tie intensity As indicated, repeated, enduring and structured relationships are the main rationale behind the capability of networks to spread and diffuse knowledge among their members (Inkpen and Tsang, 2005) Social interactions are reflected in the intensity in terms of number of times actors share time in any kind of event, so, more interactions between actors could mean more access to knowledge of others, possibly resulting in more sharing of this knowledge (see e.g Molina-Morales and Martinez-Fernandez, 2010; Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998; Yue-Ming, 2005) When ties become more intense, the quality of the knowledge exchange is likely to increase, especially so-called strong ties (see Granovetter, 1973), allow for more knowledge exchange and more exploration (learning), and therefore the hypotheses are proposed H2a: Intense ties are positively associated with green product innovation H2b: Intense ties are positively associated with green process innovation Multiplexity Tie diversity and tie intensity not suffice to capture the quality on interaction with diverse partners Tie diversity indicates the number of partners in the network, while tie intensity denotes the frequency of interactions To complement them, Indarti & Postma (2013) introduce the notion of multiplexity to indicate the amount and the variety–i.e the depth–of knowledge transferred during the interactions Multiplex means that a single line or channel can carry various messages simultaneously It refers to the complexity of the relationships, the variety of the exchanges embedded in the relationship or the number of diverse types of ties (Tuli et al., 2010) Indarti & Postma (2013) argue that this issue concerns the number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship refers ranging from design to production to markets More multiplex relationships between firms in a network concern richer knowledge domains (Hoang and Antonic, 2003) Collaboration with different partners affects the amount and variety of knowledge to be shared which enhance the firm’s innovation (Becker and Dietz, 2004) I contend that the more diverse the knowledge that is exchanged in the relationships, the more probable will be that this knowledge positively affects a firm’s innovation, thus I propose the following: H3a: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is posititively associated with green product innovation H3b: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is posititively associated with green process innovation 10   3.4.2 Absorptive capacity and green product, process innovation 3.4.2.1 Absorptive capacity Absorptive capacity is ‘the ability to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it and apply it to commercial ends’ (Cohen Levinthal, 1990, p.128) Organizational absorptive capacity is a multi-component contruct Thomas and Wood (2014) point out that tourism businesses in particular rely on external knowledge for innovation and argue that the two-factor model is "the ability to find and acquire knowledge - ACQUISITION" and “the ability to use knowledge - USE" is more appropriate than the four-factor model proposed by Zahra and George's (2002) The thesis uses the model of Thomas Wood Figure 3.3 A model of absorptive capacity in tourism Activiation triggers External sources of knowledge Personalised sources of knowledge Experience Absorptive capacity Acquisition Social activiation mechanism Competitive advantage Use Strategic flexibility Innovation Perfomance Regimes of appropria Source: Thomas Wood (2014) 3.4.2.2 Absorptive capacity and green product, green process innovation Cohen and Levinthal (1989, 1990) have identified absorptive capacity as a solid capacity to bring value from receiving external knowledge, assimilate it and apply it to commercial purposes With the greater availability of external sources of knowledge in modern economies, the absorptive capacity is very important and necessary because it influences on the ability to achieve goals, acquire and deploy external knowledge It is necessary to promote the internal innovation process to bring a competitive advantage (Fosfuri and Tribó, 2008) As Lichtenthaler and Lichtenthaler (2009) have argued, absorptive capacity may be one of several capability-based capacities that influence innovation When conceptualised appropriately,   11 there is a strong a priori case for supposing that absorptive capacity is a valuable means of examining an aspect of innovation within enterprises in tourism H4a: The ability to find and acquire knowledge is positively associated with green product innovation H4b: The ability to find and acquire knowledge is positively associated with green process innovation H5a: The ability to use knowledge is positively associated with green product innovation H5b: The ability to use knowledge is positively associated with green process innovation 3.4.3 Green product, green process innovation and hotel’s perfomance Innovations are crucial conditions for improving performance and raising organizational value (Llore´ns Montes et al., 2005; Bowen et al., 2010) Organizations achieve excellence in operational performance dimensions such as cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility as a result of focusing their resources and efforts on product and process improvements and innovations (Tan et al., 2007) Kafetzopoulos and Psomas (2015) found that the level of innovativeness was positively related to productivity and performance Saunila et al (2014) demonstrated that organizations which are more successful in innovations had higher operational and financial performance than others According to some scholars, hotels should be innovative in the field of environmental practice (Best and Thapa, 2013; Le et al 2006; Smerecnik and Andersen, 2011) Applying green practices is very beneficial for hotels and the tourism industry (Chou, 2014) Therefore, I propose the hypothesis H6: H6a: Green product innovation is posititively associated with hotel’s performance H6b: Green process innovation is positively associated with hotel’s performance 3.4.4 Green product, green process innovation, its antecedents, and hotel’s performance Empirical proof of this can be found, for example, in De Jong and Den Hartog’s study (2010) where they emphasize that the use of the skills and behaviors of employees does not directly favor business performance if that relationship is not mediated by innovation output In other words, there will be an increase in business results only if the employees’ ideas and creativity in the workplace are transformed into concrete innovative products and services (Marques and Ferreira, 2009) Thus, this thesis proposes testing the median level of product innovation and green processes in the relationship between knowledge absorption capacity, relationship network with hotel performance whether it is fully or partially mediated H7a: Green product innovation mediates the relationship between green product innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance H7b: Green process innovation mediates the relationship between green product innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance 12   3.5 Conceptual model Network Tie intensity Green product innovation Tie diversity Multiplexity Absorptive capacity Ability to find and acquisition knowledge Ability to use knowledge Green process innovation Perfomance Marketing results Economic results Financial results Control variables Room Years of operation Employee Category Type of hotel Ownership CHAPTER 4: THE RESEARCH CONTEXT CHAPTER 5: REESEARCH METHODOLOGY 5.1 Qualitative research The author interviewed and discussed with 15 managers including directors, deputy directors, business managers and professional managers of hotels to find out the meaning and necessity of the green innovation in hotel; find out the factors affecting green product innovation and green process in the hotels; explore outstanding factors in a practical context Combine with the preliminary survey to screen and adjust the scales, giving an official research model 5.2 Empirical survey 5.2.1 Survey objectives, 5.2.2 Research sequence, 5.2.3 Data collection and sample The survey population was defined as all three to five-star hotels rated by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Data were collected from February to June 2019 Each hotel surveyed three subjects: management, head of business department, head of profession department Two channels of survey implementation were selected First channel, 19 tourism departments of 19 provinces and cities supported to send 987 letters with paper questionnaires to each survey object of their hotels The second   13 channel, the Vietnam Tourism Association, the Quang Ninh Tourism Association, the Danang Hotel Association, the Hotel CEO Club and two travel companies support email surveys to hotels of 37 provinces remaining 5.2.4 Variables and measures Except product innovation, process innovation variable, all other latent variables were measured by multiple items using a Likert- type (1= strongly disagree to = strong agree) format Multiple items measures were used because they could increase the measures’ reliability (Neuran, 2000) The Likert-type scaling was used because of its power and simplicity (Alreck and Settle, 1995) The measure of Hotel Perfomance over the last three years was taken from Snoj cộng (2007) It includes three statements address the hotel’s achievement of target marketing results, economic results, financial results with 10 items: (1) customers’s degree of satisfaction, (2) percentage of customers who use hotel more than once, (3) service quality, (4) image of the hotel in the market, (5) development of scales, (6) development of market share, (7) development occupation rate, (8) gross profit, (9) return on investment, (10) return on equity The measure of green product innovation and green process innovation were adapted from Salmones cộng (2005); Smerecnik Andersen (2011), Jeou-Shyan cộng sự, (2017), Maria del Rosario cộng (2017) The measures include items assessing to them by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers Green product innovation comprises items in the following areas: (1) there are more and more reusable components, (2) there are products, materials or packages which not contain hazardous substances that can reduce the environmental impact, (3) inclusion of organic products, (4) use resources effectively, (5) modification of spaces ensuring the preservation of the natural environment Green process innovation’s consisted of seven items: (1) adopt new or improved methods to be recycled in the process of providing products and services, (2) invest in new purchases equipment, purchases with energy-saving/water-saving marks or green-label items, (3) collects hazardous waste by categories, (4) adopt new or improved methods to uses environmentally friendly building materials, (5) adopt new or improved methods devices for water reutilization, (6) Use of more eco-friendly cleaning supplies, (7) use of conditioning of areas using natural and/or local materials The measure of tie intensity adopted from Zeng công (2010) Tie intensity indicates the intensity of interaction between the focal firm and the external parties Tie diversity represents the number of various external parties involved in the interaction with the focal firm: (1) institution customers, (2) individual customers, (3) suppliers, (4) competitors, (5) government institutions, (6) tourism associations, (7) tourism forums, (8) university research institutions A firm that has interaction with more various external parties has higher tie diversity The respondents were asked to mention which external parties they interact with 14   Multiplexity represents the depth of knowledge domains absorbed by the focal firms from various external parties The mearuse was taken from Indarti postma (2013) The deeper and more various knowledge domains absorbed from the external partners, the higher the degree of multiplexity The respondents were asked to indicate the specific knowledge content obtained from external sources are indicated above and also indicate the depth of the knowledge The measure of absorptive capacity in hotel industry was taken from Thomas and wood (2014) The researchers develope the scale from research works of Camisón and Forés (2010), Delmas and cộng (2011), Flatten and cộng (2011), Barrionuevo et al (201) incluing 15 items (table 6.1) The common control variables in the hotel innovation study found through the literature review include variables: (1) years of operation, (2) category, (3) number of employees , (4) number of rooms, (5) type of hotel, (6) ownership 5.2.5 Data procesing First, relibiliy analysis and factor analysis were used to evaluate the measures’s reliability and validity (Aaker et al, 1998) Then, bivariate correlations were performed to explore bivariate relationaships among variables Second, multiple regressions were used to estimate the relationships between the independent variables and green product/process innovation, between green product/process innovation and performance, and the mediating relationship of green product/process innovation This technique could be used to analyze, the relationship between a single dependent variable and several independent variables (Hair et al, 1998) To test the mediating impact of innovation, the method of Baron and Kenny (1989) was recommended CHAPTER 6: RESEARCH RESULTS 6.1 Qualitative research results The research qualitative results show a picture of the status of green product innovation and green processes innovation in Vietnamese hotels According to the hotel managerial staffs' assessment of the impact of these factors on the activities, the most mentioned and influential elements for hotels to conduct innovation as well as be able to implement this type of innovation are the customers (institution and individual), suppliers, competiors, horizontal and vertical sectoral authorities, unofficial social organizations in the industry where hotel businesses find ideas for innovation, methods implemented through interaction relationships between hotel with external organizations To put new ideas into practice at the hotel, internal factors are also very important such as capacity, staff qualifications, culture of sharing and cooperation, dynamism and willingness to change have also shared by the interviewers These two factors of relationship with external organizations and this internal capacity are also consistent with previous studies: Rice (2009), Teece and cộng (1997), Zander and Kogut (1995), Zott   15 (2003), Meeus and cộng 2001), Vinding (2006), Chesbrough and cộng (2006), Rice (2009), Morone and Taylor (2012) The qualitative research results for the 15 hotel managerial staffs show that the theoretical model is basically consistent with the industry's research context However, the measure of network has a item which predicts is not valid in model analysis and verification It is a measure of "the number of related external organizations" According to the research theory in chapter 3, there are types of external organizations specific to the industry in which a hotel may have a relationship Result of in-depth interviews did not discover a new organization type compared to the literature but pointed out a common feature that the hotels were related to all of the types of organizations mentioned above 6.2 Prelimitary survey result The questionaires were sent to 55 people (director, vice director, head of business department, head of profession deparrtement) of 22 three to five-star hotels The return questionnaire indicated that infomants had no difficulties in understanding the questions and Coronbach alpha analysis results show that all of the scales meet reliability requirements with values greater than 0.70 (Nunnally Bernstein, 1994) The researcher's 'suspect' element was also clarified The results of 55 survey questionnaires show that all hotels have relationships with the types of external organizations included in the research model Therefore the item of "the number of external parties" is removed from the scale of network Along with the removal of this measure, the initial hypotheses H1a, H1b are also excluded from the content of testing The official research model and the proposed hypotheses are as follows: H1a: Intense ties are positively associated with green product innovation H1b: Intense ties are positively associated with green process innovation H2a: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is posititively associated with green product innovation H2a: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is posititively associated with green process innovation H3a: The ability to find and acquire knowledge is positively associated with green product innovation H3b: The ability to use knowledge is positively associated with green process innovation H5a: Green product innovation is positively relationship with the hotel’s performance H5b: Green process innovation is positively relationship with the hotel’s performance H6a: Green product innovation mediates the relationship between green product innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance H6b: Green process innovation mediates the relationship between green product innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance 16   Figure 6.1 Official research model Network Tie intensity Multiplexity Absorptive capacity The ability to find and acquire knowledge The ability to use knowledge Green product innovation Green processs innovation Perfomance Marketing results Ecomomic results Financial results Control variable Room Years of operation Employee Category Type of hotel Ownership 6.3 Quantitative research result 6.3.1 Data collection and sample Result of survey obtained 609 questionaires from 268 hotels including 172 online questionaires and 438 paper questionaires There are 27 paper questionnaires which had "missing data" and 151 had no guarantee of reliability during data collection After eliminating the unsatisfactory questionaires, the data included in the analysis included 432 questionaires of 206 hotels, accounting for 22% of the total number of hotels nationwide; accounting for 31% of total non-chain hotels 6.2.2 Analysis of multiple-item measurement Coronbach Alpha analysis results show that all the scales meet reliability requirements with values greater than 0.7 (Nunnally Bernstein, 1994) The first factor analysis results extracted factors Absorptive capacity has the lowest loading factor (.416) in item A1 and the load is inconsistent into two factors Item A4 has a high loading factor (.713) that loads individually into a factor If item A4 is omitted, item A1’s loading factor is very low If both items are excluded, the Coronbach Alpha increases from 0.94 to 0.952, the KMO index also increases from 0.883 to 0.887 Evaluation of "face validity", these two items can also be removed from the model without affecting the content of the variable A new measure of absorptive capacity after removing these two items is included in the second EFA analysis The result shows that there are components extracted with the total variance extracted of 72.763 at eigen-value of 1.01 Moreover, all variables have a high loading weight (> = 0.556) on the concept they measure and low on the concept they not measure Multiplexity variable is extracted by two factors that were renamed level of relationship with customers and businesses in the industry including items N1, N2 N3, N4 and level of relationship with state 17   management agencies and supporting organizations including items N5, N6, N7, N8 The absorption capacity variable is extracted by a factor that was renamed ability to find and use knowledge including 13 item A2, A3, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, A10, A11, A12, A13, A14, A15 The performance variable is extracted by two factors, namely, the market result including items from P1 to P4 and the financial and operational results consist of items from P5 to P8 These groups of newly formed factors were put into the Coronbach Alpha test once again, the results achieved reliability > 0.07 Therefore, the scales of these six research concepts ensure reliability, convergence and discriminant validity 6.3.3 Normality diagnosis, descriptive analysis and correlations To check the samle distribution of a variable, I observed (1) the skewness staticstic, which measured the symmetry of the sample distribution, (2) the kurtosis statistic, which measured the sample distribution’s peakedness, and (3) the histogram with normal curves West et al (1996) suggested that the absolute value of kurtosis > or skewness > was acceptable Kim (2013) also confirmed West's point of view and added the factors that are suitable for samples larger than 300 In comparison with the data analysis results, the variables in the research model ensure normal distribution Examining the correlation coefficients among the variables in the model shows that there is a strong correlation between these variables 6.3.4 Hypothesis testing 6.3.4.1 Innovation model (a) Green product innovation model Bảng 6.5 Multiple regression results for green product innovation Variables Control variables Years of operation Categorya Employee Room Type of hotela Ownershipa Main variables Level of relationship with customers and businesses in the industry Level of relationship with state management agencies and supporting organizations Multiplexity Ability to find and use knowlege Model  110 136 025 017 -.181** -.105 18   Model  113+ 159+ -.019 029 -.107 -.104 Model  105 115 061 -.035 -.185** -.151* -.065 Model  109+ 142+ 016 -.005 -.133+ -.133+ -.065 131 081 260** *** 301 185* 189* Model Model   Adjussted R Square 043 125 F 2.525* 4.257*** N= 209; P+