Importance Performance Competitor Analysis (IPCA): A study of hospitality companies

•IPA is criticised because of its relative structure and ignorance of competitors.•The author proposes Importance Performance Competitor analysis (IPCA).•Absolute structure and consideration of the competitors are the advantages of IPCA.•IPCA is simple like IPA.•IPCA does not require advanced level statistical knowledge.

Although Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) is a popularly used method in many research areas, academics mainly criticise it because of its relative structure and lack of consideration of competitors. In the present study, the author proposes an extended version of IPA, which is called Importance Performance Competitor Analysis (IPCA), to address these shortcomings. The proposed method considers the GAP score, which is obtained by the comparison of an attribute’s importance and the focal company’s performance in the same attribute. Moreover, it uses focal and competing companies’ performance differences score. IPCA offers different strategies for each attribute depending on the quadrant that it is positioned in. Absolute structure and consideration of competitors are the advantages of IPCA. Another characteristic of the IPCA is its simplicity, like IPA, there is no necessity to have advanced level statistical knowledge.