Flash sales: An inventory distribution and marketing channel. Does it work?

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. The first fold is to provide hotel managers with an understanding of the potential benefits and drawbacks associated with using flash sales websites as room inventory distribution channels. The second fold is to provide platform research from which other scholars may build from to enhance the available literature on flash sales. Currently, there is a lack of empirical studies that could offer guidelines to hotel managers for how and when to use flash sales as a room inventory distribution channel. The dissertation includes three research studies that were developed to investigate the phenomenon of hotel flash sales from three different perspectives: (1) industry; (2) consumer; and, (3) future research directions.;In the first study, a flash sales evaluation framework was developed based on 46 interviews with hotel managers from different segments of the industry using grounded theory method. The findings from this study revealed that flash sales websites are mainly used by managers as a distribution channel to cover the "need" period. Key advantages/disadvantages of using such a distribution channel fell in the categories of inventory management, revenue management, brand marketing, customer relationships, and operational challenges.;The second study compared a consumer profile of flash sales and other hotel leisure customers, using a cross-sectional online survey of 358 individuals. The results of the study revealed that flash sales customers do not differ from other leisure customers with regard to their price consciousness, intentions to revisit, and intentions to recommend the hotel to others. However, flash sales customers demonstrated higher levels of market mavenism, quality consciousness, and variety-seeking when compared to other leisure travelers.;The third study of this dissertation outlined research directions for further development of the hotel flash sales research stream. The study is based on the findings from the first two studies and the review of literature available in consumer behavior and promotions areas. The suggested research directions include: exploring whether flash sales websites generate incremental demand by attracting new customers, determining whether flash sales customers are value conscious or promotion prone, and extending the profile of flash sales customers.