Asking AI to produce a preliminary MBA dissertation proposal: hospitality and luxury sectors & service excellence

Asking AI to produce a preliminary MBA dissertation proposal: hospitality and luxury sectors & service excellence (information from perplexity.ai)

My question 1: "Please suggest an MBA research theme, via the lens of pragmatism, based on the following key words: hospitality service excellence, luxury retail boutique Management in Hong Kong, service benchmarking, brand management."

The reply: "A suitable overarching MBA research theme could be: “Pragmatist service excellence: benchmarking and brand management in luxury hospitality and retail boutiques in Hong Kong.” This can frame an integrated study of how managers experiment with and refine service practices to create brand-consistent, high-value experiences.

Possible core research question

• How do luxury hotels and luxury retail boutiques in Hong Kong pragmatically design, test, and benchmark service practices to achieve service excellence while reinforcing brand positioning?

This allows you to:

• Compare hospitality vs luxury retail boutique contexts in Hong Kong.

• Focus on lived managerial decision-making, experimentation, and outcomes (very compatible with pragmatism).

• Link service excellence, benchmarking, and brand management under one coherent lens.

Pragmatism as philosophical lens

You can explicitly position pragmatism as focusing on:

• Consequences of service practices (e.g., guest satisfaction, repeat visits, brand loyalty).

• Problem-solving cycles (identify service gaps → design interventions → evaluate outcomes → refine).

• Pluralistic methods, combining qualitative insights (manager/staff/customer perspectives) with quantitative benchmarks (NPS, mystery shopping scores, online review ratings, sales per square foot).

This aligns with work on luxury hotel experience and brand equity showing how service performance, advertising, and word-of-mouth shape brand image and loyalty in Hong Kong’s luxury hospitality context.

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Concrete sub-themes you could develop

You could structure the project around 2–3 sub-themes:

1. Service benchmarking in a pragmatist cycle

   • How managers choose benchmarks (local, regional, global) for service excellence.

   • How benchmarks are adapted, tested, and iteratively refined in Hong Kong’s luxury context.

   • How front-line feedback and customer data are used as “what works” evidence.

2. Brand-consistent service scripts and improvisation

   • How brand values of luxury hotels and boutiques translate into concrete service behaviours on the shop floor.

   • How staff are trained to balance scripted luxury service with pragmatic improvisation to handle unique customer situations.

   • Tension between global brand standards and local Hong Kong service norms.

3. Experience, brand equity, and managerial experimentation

   • How specific service design choices (e.g., personalised greetings, VIP handling, after-sales rituals) influence perceived experience and brand equity.

   • How managers experiment with new service elements (e.g., digital concierge, private appointments) and decide whether to institutionalise them.

   • Lessons on “what works” in Hong Kong for luxury segments such as business travellers or high-spending retail clients, building on prior work on luxury hotel customer experience and brand equity.
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Example working title options

You could refine to one of these, depending on emphasis:

• “From benchmarks to brand equity: A pragmatist study of service excellence in luxury hotels and retail boutiques in Hong Kong.”

• “What works in luxury service? Pragmatist experimentation, benchmarking and brand management in Hong Kong hospitality and retail boutiques.”

• “Designing luxury experiences: A pragmatist inquiry into service excellence and brand-consistent management in Hong Kong’s hospitality and retail sectors.”

My question 2: "Based on the research theme of "Pragmatist service excellence: benchmarking and brand management in luxury hospitality and retail boutiques in Hong Kong", please offer a dissertation proposal with: project title, 3 research objectives, 3 research questions, 2 primary research methods, 1 secondary research method, 3 research issues (e.g. research gaps) and 2 Hong Kong public-media reported issues; also suggest 3 relevant academic theories to use (please provide references in Harvard reference format. Finally, suggest what academic, practical and original values can be gained from this study."

The reply: "Project Title

Pragmatist Service Excellence: Benchmarking and Brand Management in Hong Kong's Luxury Hospitality and Retail Boutiques

Research Objectives

1. To explore how managers in Hong Kong's luxury hospitality and retail boutiques pragmatically develop and refine service benchmarks to drive excellence.
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2. To investigate the role of pragmatic experimentation in aligning service practices with brand management strategies for enhanced customer loyalty.

3. To identify actionable insights from pragmatist approaches that bridge gaps between service delivery and brand equity in these sectors.
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Research Questions

1. How do luxury hospitality and retail boutique managers in Hong Kong select, adapt, and benchmark service practices through pragmatic inquiry?

2. In what ways do pragmatist principles guide the integration of service excellence with brand management to foster consistent customer experiences?

3. What outcomes emerge from iterative service-brand experimentation, and how do they address performance gaps in Hong Kong's luxury market ?
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Research Methods

Primary Methods

• Qualitative semi-structured interviews with 15–20 managers and staff from 5–8 luxury hotels (e.g., Peninsula Hong Kong) and retail boutiques (e.g., Pacific Place flagships) to capture lived pragmatic decision-making.
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• Quantitative surveys of 200+ customers using adapted SERVQUAL scales to measure perceived service excellence, benchmarking gaps, and brand associations.
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Secondary Method

• Thematic analysis of industry reports, academic theses, and case studies on Hong Kong luxury service (e.g., PolyU theses on hotel service gaps) to contextualise pragmatic applications.
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Research Issues (Gaps)

1. Limited integration of customer experience dimensions (e.g., sensory stimulation) into luxury hotel brand equity models for Hong Kong business travellers, overlooking pragmatic managerial adaptations.
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2. Insufficient exploration of service quality gaps between expectations and perceptions in Hong Kong hotels, with dated SERVQUAL applications failing to capture evolving luxury retail benchmarks.
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3. Lack of pragmatist-framed studies on how luxury brands pragmatically balance global standards with local Hong Kong service improvisation amid tourism shifts.
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Hong Kong Public-Media Reported Issues

1. Declining luxury retail sales due to mainland tourists prioritising cultural tourism over shopping, leading to vacant high-end boutiques and reduced service benchmarking opportunities.
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2. Construction disruptions and underwhelming in-store experiences (e.g., at LANDMARK) eroding shopper confidence in luxury retail service excellence.
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Relevant Academic Theories

1. Pragmatism (Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan), framing service as experimental inquiry testing 'what works' in practice.

2. SERVQUAL Model (Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1988) 'SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality', Journal of Retailing, 64(1), pp. 12–40), for benchmarking service gaps.
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3. Customer-Based Brand Equity (Aaker, D.A. (1991) Managing Brand Equity. New York: Free Press), linking service experiences to brand loyalty.
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Values Gained

Academic Value

Advances management theory by applying pragmatism to hospitality/retail, filling gaps in experiential brand equity and multi-sector benchmarking.

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Practical Value

Offers Hong Kong managers tools for iterative service-brand strategies amid sales slumps and tourism changes.

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Original Value

Provides novel pragmatist lens on dual hospitality-retail contexts, with Hong Kong-specific insights from mixed methods."

A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.