D.p. Sudhagar

Biography

Dr. Sudhagar, Associate Professor, Department of Hotel Management, has completed Ph.D in Marketing at Anna University Chennai. He was the first Scholar from the Hospitality Management registered at the Department of Management Studies, Anna University, Chennai and was also the first person who received a Doctoral degree in the Hospitality Specialization for his research on “Revisit Intention of Restaurant Customers” under the guidance of Dr.G. Rajendran, Professor & Head, Department of Management Studies, Anna University, Chennai. He had extended the Theory of Planned Behavior model, a popular model developed by Icek Ajzen to predict the behavioral intentions of the people. He had extended the model by including the critical constructs which caused the revisit intention of the restaurant customers to understand the restaurant customers revisit intention. He holds an M.B.A in Marketing Management, and M.Sc. in Hotel & Catering Management. His achievements in the academic performance include “Gold Medal” in M.Sc and “5th Rank” in the B.Sc degree. He has completed International Short term Programme on “Entrepreneurship and Innovations in Food Sciences and Food Technology” conducted at Department of Management Studies, Anna University. He has also participated in Faculty Development Training Programme on Marketing Management at College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai. He had worked with Global Leaders in the Hospitality Industry “TAJ Hotel, Resorts & Palaces” in the general management operations. His tenure at TAJ includes handling the sales & marketing operations, core-department operations and the training & development of the operational level team members of the hotel. His achievement in the hotel operations includes increased footfalls of the guest visiting the hotel, higher revenue and finest service quality standards. He also served as a Role Model for the team members to deliver exceptional performance in the work place. He was associated with ITC Hotel Park Sheraton & Towers, Chennai to enlighten his knowledge and skills of the hotel operations during the graduation degree period. He was the Departmental Trainer in the hotel. He has conducted several trainings to the team members in the department on attitude enhancement, personality development, personal hygiene & grooming, time management, event management, service quality, service recovery and complaint handling procedures, safety at work, guest engagement & delight, learning & fun at work place and innovation and creativity. He was also responsible for “Buddy Programme” to orient the new team members who joined the department. His teaching responsibility at Anna University, Chennai includes handling marketing and tourism classes for the M.B.A students of first year and second year during the Ph.D. period. Dr.Sudhagar has attended national level seminars and conferences; his research papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Research Interest

His interested research areas include food safety, eco-sensitivity of the hotels, locavore food, customer behavior models, fast food and nutrition & health.