Formulation and Evaluation of MICE-Business Performance Drivers

This paper presents a theory review and an empirical study of the nature and specifics of customer-oriented approach as one of the key drivers of business and MICE industry. It starts with a review of the literature available on theoretical concepts related to the issue under examination: market- and client-oriented approach, conceptual approaches to interpretation and evaluation of customer orientation, service dominant logic, emerging markets, innovative development, big data usage and analysis; next, an empirical study is used to identify characteristic traits, elements, awareness and understanding of the customer orientation concept by the Russian MICE industry employees: - market orientation and selected marketing strategy, a company’s marketing competencies level; - impact of market and environment drivers on the company’s marketing orientation and employee actions; - environment/market development/market orientation level of a company. Further studies imply expansion of the range of respondents by including several B2B agencies for local or regional comparison and obtaining more reliable results, and adding more factors describing the status of the company’s external and internal environment. The thesis work uses best practices and develops the ideas by Russian and foreign authors regarding the concept of customer-oriented approach and its evaluation. The literature review is further used to identify the performance drivers and build a semi-structured interview guide for representatives of 15 companies in the MICE industry; they are asked to assess the importance of these drivers and prioritize their impact on the company operations, methods to assess performance, identify company activities aimed at building long-term relationships with the customers and its understanding of customer service.