Total Quality Management, Market Orientation, and Performance: Empirical Insights from the Moroccan Hospitality Industry

The intensity of competition in the hospitality industry has long since highlighted the importance of addressing the intellectual aspect through management practices that focus on the environment, which have become essential in responding to changing market demands. Market Orientation (MO) is widely recognized as a critical growth strategy. It enables organizations to use real-time market intelligence to capitalize on business opportunities and make strategic and operational decisions that align with changing market dynamics. This study takes MO as the research object and investigates the factors influencing its implementation focusing on Total Quality Management (TQM) practices. The research also examines the impact of MO on hotel performance (HP) and assesses how interfunctional coordination (IC) moderates the MO/HP relationship. The study formulates a comprehensive theoretical model, presenting 3 hypotheses. Subsequently, the questionnaire was distributed to hotels based in Morocco, and a total of 93 usable responses were collected. PLS-SEM via Smart PLS 4.0 is used to test the model. Results showed that TQM practices are internal drivers of MO and that MO fosters HP. Moreover, IC moderates the MO/HP relationship, reducing the direct effect. This research offers an empirical contribution by examining how hotels embrace two managerial approaches to enhance performance. Furthermore, it provides a deeper explanation of the current challenges within the Moroccan hospitality industry that justify the focus of the study.