A dynamic perspective of meeting planners' satisfaction: Toward conceptualization of critical relevancy

Abstract

The authors examine a dynamic aspect of meeting planners' satisfaction process by using a large corporate dataset. As conceptual background, the study focuses on applicability of order effects such as, behavioral primacy and recency, and proposes an alternative theory, conceptualized as critical relevancy, to explain meeting planners' satisfaction dynamics. The study also unveils how the direct and indirect effects of a hotel's meeting service performance are structured and analyzed in a dynamic framework. Findings suggest that, of the four phases (i.e., the sales, pre-event, event, and post-event) of dynamic meeting service performance, the event-phase performance was found to be most critically relevant to meeting planners' overall satisfaction. The study provides a number of implications for the hotel industry striving to host meetings and events. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.