Measurement of Customer's Tacit Knowledge in Small Rural Lodgings

This article seeks to contribute a first approach to the operational implementation of the facets of tacit knowledge (TK) for small rural lodgings and its impact on customers' loyalty behavior. Based on a questionnaire survey of clients of small rural lodgings, this study operationalizes TK within a wither model applying the variables of trust, affective commitment, quality of treatment and service, satisfaction, and loyalty. The data included 598 questionnaires which were processed through recourse to the structural equation models. The results enable the conclusion that the three TK dimensions (cognitive, technical, and social) appropriately measure TK. The variables that demonstrate the capacity for employees to act beyond the scope of that requested of them and pre-emptively understanding situations are the best to explain the cognitive dimension. The variables evidencing employee know-how present the best results for the technical dimension. The variables demonstrating interactions beyond the necessary tasks and client orientation are the ones that better measure the social dimension. The scale deployed in this article, representing a first attempt to render TK operationally from the perspective of customer evaluation, has certain limitations. Some of the questionnaire variables were simply eliminated, and this may reflect how the scale requires refinement to be applicable to broader-reaching evaluation processes. This article presents a first operational application of TK to a business environment and that enables evaluation by third parties as to its relevance and importance in fostering loyalty.