International Hospitality and Service Management (Master) course summary

You will enhance your knowledge and understanding of hospitableness, service quality, customer satisfaction and other principles relevant to the hospitality industry and the broader service industry. Added to that, this first part of the program prepares you how to write your thesis by exploring how to define a contemporary hospitality/service management research topic. In addition, you will work on a challenge in our unique educational system Design Based Education, called Creating Service Experience. 

Operationalising the framework – the present 

• Service Performance Improvement 

• Sustainable Value Creation in the Hospitality Industry 

• Research 2: Research Proposal 

This second part of the semester aims to provide a broad introduction to the topic of performance, operations analysis and performance measurement. The leading theme is the analysis of operations. In their operations, service businesses create value for their customers. 

It emphasises the important aspects of sustainable development, the intrinsic contribution of corporate social responsibility, the key role of ethics and the imperative use of stakeholder analysis in the management of hospitality organisations in the transition towards sustainability. Lastly, you will learn how to write a well-balanced and detailed research proposal. 

You can choose between five exciting electives (subject to change and scheduling): 

1. Entrepreneurship & Innovation 

This elective focuses on entrepreneurship, innovative concepts and business perspectives. This module is an accelerated research-based programme. It is designed to provide you with the opportunity to gain the skills, framework, and learning experiences necessary to create business opportunities in service-orientated organisations, or new companies. You do this by developing entrepreneurial and innovative solutions. 

2. Critical Events Perspectives

In this elective, you will learn what it takes to manage an event’s organisation. You will also learn how to create competitive advantages that lead to success. 

3. AIHR Projects 

This module focuses on a research project related to the research programmes at AIHR, the research unit of Hotel Management School Leeuwarden. 

4. Elective Design Based Education projects 

In this elective, you work on a project for a service organisation, conducting research that will contribute to solving an issue currently faced by the client company. 

5. Sustainability - Food & Culinary Traditions 

The elective and its core theme are connected to a current project led by Dr. Lucia Tomassini and Prof. Elena Cavagnaro. It looks at the role of family recipes in fostering plant-based food consumption and social inclusiveness. It aims to collect and organize plant-based family recipes from Dutch residents with different cultural backgrounds. 

6. Female Leadership 

The elective offers a blend of theoretical knowledge, practical skills development, and real-world insights from the industry, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of future-proof leadership in the hospitality sector. Topics include diversity, equity and inclusion, leadership styles, organizational culture, emotional intelligence, and intercultural perspectives.