The Kano model in tourism research: A critical note

Abstract

This note seeks to address a severe misconception regarding the Kano model which is present in parts of the contemporary tourism literature. Recently, the problem has been most pronounced in tourism studies that aim to integrate the Kano model with importance- performance analysis (IPA), which is a popular prioritization tool originally introduced by Martilla and James (1977). In studies of this kind, the Kano model is paired with IPA in order to achieve ‘methodological advancements’ of the IPA technique that will increase overall reliability of its managerial implications. The general idea of combining the Kano and IPA philosophies into a single approach has undoubtedly substantial managerial value. The problem with many of these studies is, however, that they seek to identify the Kano quality elements by focusing on the relationship between attribute-level performance and overall assessments of a product/service/destination, typically set within a case-based study format (e.g. Deng, 2007 ; Chen, 2014 ; Lai & Hitchcock, 2016). However, taking such an approach is unlikely to yield data which are sufficiently rich in information for Kano model assessments.