Core Competence and Business Sustainability in Hospitality Industry in Taraba State.

Abstract:

This paper investigated the connection between core competence, that is, operational knowledge and team leadership, and business sustainability as indicated by customer satisfaction and revenue growth, in the hospitality industry of Wukari Metropolis, Taraba state, Nigeria. The study was inspired by the long-standing problems of hospitality companies, including workforce inefficiencies, poor leadership practices, and service innovation, which lower customer retention and financial performance. The research design adopted was a quantitative one, and the data were gathered using structured questionnaires conducted with 130 employees and customers of ten sampled hospitality companies. A valid sample size was calculated using the Taro Yamane formula, and a stratified random sampling method was relied upon to ensure that respondents were represented fairly. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied, and Pearson correlation analysis was performed with SPSS version 27. The results showed that operational knowledge is significantly and positively related to customer satisfaction (r = 0.771, p < 0.05) while team leadership moderately related to revenue growth (r = 0.645, p < 0.05). Such findings show that better operational knowledge leads to improved service delivery, efficiency, and customer experiences, resulting in high customer satisfaction and revenue. Equally, team leadership was reduced to be essential in encouraging teamwork and effectiveness, but operational knowledge was identified as the better predictor of sustainability results. The paper concludes that the ongoing training of the staff, optimization of the processes, and knowledge-sharing practices are essential to enhancing the operational competence and leadership performance.