Transformative hospitality services: A conceptualization and development of organizational dimensions

The hospitality industry increasingly adopted well-being practices. However, academic literature has neglected to understand how hospitality organizations design services to improve well-being for customers, employees, communities, and societal and environmental well-being. This paper develops a novel concept, Transformative Hospitality Services (THS), which emanates from an ecosystem view and considers hospitality services as holding the possibility to transform the well-being of various constituents. Building on insights from in-depth interviews with industry experts, this paper identifies organizational dimensions that foster hospitality organizations’ transformative services offerings. Data also reveal facilitators and barriers for hospitality organizations to consider when developing THS offerings. A four-stage journey map is proposed to assess hospitality organizations’ journey towards becoming more transformative. As a result, this research presents contributions to transformative service research by advancing the concept of THS. Additionally, this research offers practical guidance for hospitality organizations through the development of the THS dimensions and journey map.