MAJCAFE

Cynthia Robert Dawayan, Stephen Laison Sondoh Jr, Sorayah Nasip
Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia
Sabah

Geoffrey Harvey Tanakinjal
Labuan Faculty of International Finance, UMS Labuan International
Campus

Bonaventure Boniface
Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning, Universiti Malaysia Sabah

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Abstract

Homestay industry in Malaysia started in the 1980’s and has encouraged the development of innovative local products. Nonetheless, registered homestay operators are dwindling due to insufficient income which may be tied to homestay performance depending on the marketing capabilities and homestay resources (collaboration, product knowledge and supporting resources). Resource Based View (RBV) approach was used to accomplish three objectives, first, to investigate the direct influence of supporting resources, product knowledge and collaboration towards marketing capability. Second, to determine how marketing capability may influence performance in the homestay industry. Third, to test the mediating effect of marketing capability between supporting resources, product knowledge and collaboration towards performance. Data for this study were collected from current homestay operators in Sabah, Malaysia registered under the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia (MOTAC). A total of 220 self-administered questionnaires were distributed and 180 questionnaires were returned with only 144 were usable. Data was analysed using PLS-SEM technique. Based on the results, marketing capabilities has a significant influence towards homestay performance. Collaboration and supporting resources were found to have a significant influence towards marketing capability while product knowledge was not significant. Mediation analysis illustrates that marketing capability significantly mediates the relationship between collaboration and performance and the relationship between supporting resources and performance but not significant for product knowledge and performance. These findings indicated the homestay operators should focused on their marketing capabilities to boost performance. However, the insignificance of product knowledge highlighted in this study needs more attention in future research.

Keywords: Homestay, Performance, Marketing capabilities, Collaboration, Product knowledge, Supporting resources