Thesis
Hospitality knowledge production in business school : a case of Scotland
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2024
- Thesis identifier
- T17167
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201886775
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Hospitality higher education (HHE) in the United Kingdom (UK) has evolved significantly, particularly with the relocation of HHE in Business School (BS) since the early 2000s. This relocation has led to hospitality management education (HME) becoming a dominant approach to teach HHE programs in BS. The shift raises important questions about the ongoing relevance and continuity of hospitality knowledge production as a vocational and specialised education within the changing landscape of higher education (HE). Specifically, it prompts inquiries about how hospitality knowledge is produced to adapt to the new context as BS. This thesis conducts exploratory research on HHE at undergraduate level in Scotland, aiming to understand hospitality knowledge production within this revised framework. This thesis applies a novel disciplinary perspective to investigate the production of hospitality knowledge across intellectual, social, and organizational dimensions. The concept of discipline has been extensively utilised in tourism research, which is exemplified by “Interdiscipline model” by Jafari and Richie (1981), “the Indiscipline of Tourism” (Tribe, 1997, 2000, 2004), and “Tourism knowledge system” (Tribe and Liburd, 2016). Its application to hospitality research, however, remains relatively unexplored. In hospitality education, discussions have predominantly centered on curriculum development, often debating the merits of vocational versus liberal education for HHE. This study discusses hospitality knowledge production beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries by incorporating the notion of post-disciplinarity. To further investigate institutionalised knowledge production, actor-network theory (ANT) is employed to analyse the social construction of hospitality knowledge at the levels of schools, departments, and academic communities. Using qualitative research and a case study approach, the thesis explores the lived experiences and perspectives of academic professionals engaged in teaching and researching HHE across four chosen universities in Scotland. The findings indicates that mode 1 knowledge production remains predominant in generating interdisciplinary knowledge for hospitality subject which is seen as a sub-management subject in BS. Whereas, mode 2 knowledge production focuses on problem-based knowledge through integration with external demands (industry and student) for knowledge applied at work. At department level, hospitality academic community constitutes a minority within a predominantly business-focused environment. Despite having significant autonomy in curriculum design and teaching pedagogies, they adapt educational content and pedagogical approaches to align with the specific needs and dynamics of the hospitality subject in BS. At BS level, there is an institutional legacy deciding what knowledge is legitimate for teaching, which is shaped largely by a management gaze, credit and quality control. In this context, hospitality academics adopts postdiscipline to have greater openness and address complexity in producing hospitality knowledge that meets the demands of industry and students for applied knowledge.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Baum, Tom
- Anderson, Pauline
- Resource Type
- Note
- The thesis has previously been held under moratorium between 9th December 2024 and 3rd June 2026.
- DOI
Relations
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