Determinants of hotel performance: research styles

What do the performances of a hotel business depend on? This fascinating question is the focus of the present article. Starting from the analysis of 67 studies it emerged that the answers lie above all in the businesses themselves (74.6%). Strategy is often used as an independent variable, together with production processes and marketing levers. The analyses are prevalent carried out above all at country level. 92.5% of the papers use evidence drawn from European, North and Central American and Asian countries; six nations were taken as the basis for 73.1% of the papers examined. The present paper shows the strong link existing between the type of evidence used, research design (sample, kind of data, number of years), the choice of dependent and independent variables, thereby identifying three different research styles: European, American and Asiatic

RevPAR determinants of individual hotels: evidences from Milan

Purpose – This paper aims to identify revenue per available room (RevPAR) determinants of individual firms located in a destination. Independent variables are to be sought along “what” and “where” dimensions. Design/methodology/approach – The sample is composed of 72 individual firms, operating in the 3-5 star range and data have been collected from financial statements and questionnaires. Findings – The empirical findings identify four main significant determinants linked to the “what” positioning – number of rooms, number of employees, number of years since the last refurbishment, market orientation – and confirm the relevance of location (“where”), and especially of centrality within the destination. Research limitations/implications – At a theoretical level, the findings suggest the importance of linking the identification of determinants with the local context (destination) and positioning inside the city (location). At an empirical level, the study suggests some interesting implications both for existing hotels and for start-ups. For existing firms, empirical findings show the relevance of a strong advantage (disadvantage) in location (where) that might compensate for a disadvantage (advantage) in the strategic positioning (what). Concerning start-ups, the findings confirm the old rules of the hotel game, significantly summarized in the three success factors of a hotel unit: location, location, and location. Originality/value – The present paper suggests the usefulness of taking into greater account the link between destination and local firms as an important determinant of performance, and explores the key success factors for individual (not affiliated) firms

Development of a Tourism Destination: Exploring the Role of Destination Capabilities

This article aims to identify the key elements underlying a destination capability (DC) and to examine what the genesis of these factors is and how they interact to foster the destination development. The article explores a specific development process—the creation of a new product in an alpine destination (Livigno, Italy)—making use of a theoretical framework structured around four major dimensions: DCs, coordination at the destination level, inter-destination bridge ties, and destination development. The results help clarify the genesis of a DC in the context of new product development. First, the dynamics underlying the creation of a DC show that coordination at the destination level constitutes the heart of the process, whereas the integration of scattered resources in the new product plays a more limited role. Second, from a dynamic perspective, the analysis has identified three patterns (scouting, implementation, and involvement)

Hotel performance: Rigor and relevant research topics

Academic research (rigor) in alignment with practitioners’ challenges (relevancy) has been advocated as a way of overcoming the ivory tower syndrome. Performance measurement is at the heart of strategic management processes, as it provides a mechanism of demonstrating outcomes. Given the importance of this topic for both theory and practice, this article explores the contribution of academic outputs in terms of academic research outputs (rigor) and current practitioners’ needs (relevancy). Using network analysis and cross-citation bibliometric approaches, a sample of 1,155 articles is examined and fourteen clusters are identified. The emergent topics and subtopics from the academic literature are compared to ten insights proposed by Ernst Young to the hotel sector. The findings suggest a good fit between the two approaches together with some gaps. Based from empirical results, nine propositions are articulated

Cross-citation and authorship analysis of hotel performance studies

This study develops a literature review of hotel performance studies, and provides insights by adopting a cross-citation network approach. Two research questions are defined. First question focuses on the most cross-cited papers and journals, and identifies salient trends. Second question considers who are the most popular cross-cited and citing authors. This work is rooted in bibliometric studies, and adopts a relational approach. Based on cross-citations, a network is built by using 734 papers published during the period 1996–2015, as nodes and the cross-citations between them as links. Exploratory analysis reveals spectacular growth of outputs, with the last time period (2011–2015) including 56% of outputs. The most cross-cited papers possess the characteristics of: being older; representing 1% of sample but accounting for 14% of cross-citations. The 734 papers are published in 164 journals, but they show a clear core-periphery structure with International Journal of Hospitality Management ranked first

Hotel Performance and Research Streams: A Network Cluster Analysis

Purpose: This article provides a review of hotel performance within the hospitality and tourism research domain. We use network analysis to examine two research questions. The first relates to ascertaining general trends within the hotel performance literature, and the second focuses on identifying the salient streams and sub-topics. Methodology: Articles were selected according to three criteria: keywords, journals, and year of publication. The analysis embraces 20 years (1996-2015). These choices assure a wide coverage of the literature. Using these three criteria, the sample includes 1,155 papers. For the analysis, we created a network of papers designated as nodes, and the citations among the papers as links. A network approach recognizes the internal structure of the network by identifying groups of nodes (papers) that are more densely connected between themselves than to other nodes within the network (modules, clusters or communities). Findings: We found 761 papers that were “connected” studies within the network. By contrast, 34% of sample (394 papers) consists of “unconnected” studies. Excluding outliers, the net sample was 734 articles. We identify 14 clusters, which we break down into several sub-topics. We conclude by providing some conclusions regarding trends and future research directions. With regards to salient topics, cross-citation and network analysis provide a detailed picture of where the literature comes from and where it currently stands. Conclusions are articulated at the theoretical and empirical levels. Originality: Compared to previous hotel performance reviews, the approach followed by this study enables the discovery of an analytical research map, which is able to identify both clusters and sub-topics populating each segment. Researchers are able to position their work and identify issues that are in growth and decline

Processi di meta-management e appartamenti turistici: il caso Livigno

Il presente contributo si propone due principali obiettivi conoscitivi. Una prima finalità è quella di delineare il ruolo che una Destination Management Organization (d’ora in poi DMO) può rivestire nel supportare una gestione ad alta rotazione di appartamenti turistici. Questa prima research question si pone dunque all’interno di una prospettiva di destination management e intende identificare, utilizzando un approccio longitudinale, quali azioni può concretamente mettere in campo una DMO. Un secondo obiettivo è quello di comprendere quali effetti può produrre una valorizzazione del patrimonio immobiliare extra alberghiero nelle performance di lungo termine di una destinazione turistica alpina, con particolare riferimento al rapporto con il comparto funiviario e, più in generale, al tema della stagionalità. La domanda di ricerca che anima questa sezione può essere sintetizzata da quesiti del seguente tenore: l’implementazione di una gestione ad alto turnover delle abitazioni turistiche produce effetti rilevanti sul grado di sviluppo del comparto funiviario e sulle sue performance? Un’efficace gestione cambia i tratti morfologici delle stagionalità e dei segmenti attratti? La trattazione ha un taglio prevalentemente empirico e ruota attorno al caso di Livigno. Il lavoro presenta la seguente struttura: ripresa di alcuni temi rilevanti del destination management e ruolo della DMO (§1.2), presentazione del caso di ricerca (§1.3) e metodologia di indagine (§1.4), analisi dell’esperienza messa in campo da Livigno nella gestione delle seconde case (§1.5), effetti prodotti sulle performance di lungo termine della destinazione (§1.6), conclusioni (§1.7)

Strategie di crescita nel settore delle agenzie di viaggio: sostenibilità finanziaria

Il presente scritto si propone di analizzare i risvolti finanziari delle strategie di crescita nel settore delle agenzie di viaggio (d’ora in poi AdV), focalizzando l’attenzione soprattutto sui flussi di cassa generati dalla gestione tipica. Tale riflessione trae origine dalle dinamiche competitive in atto tendenti, pur con diversi accenti, ad acuire il rilievo che le dimensioni aziendali rivestono nella costruzione dinamica di un vantaggio competitivo difendibile. Il tema della “sostenibilità finanziaria” della crescita rappresenta il filo conduttore del presente scritto e trova esplicita formulazione nelle seguenti ipotesi: HP 1 – La gestione dei flussi finanziari nelle AdV specializzate nel segmento business travel rappresenta una variabile particolarmente critica; i processi di crescita privilegiano le attività caratterizzate da positivi flussi di cassa della gestione tipica. HP 2 – Le AdV miste (cioè specializzate nel segmento sia business travel sia leisure), facendo leva su un ampio ambito competitivo, riescono a sviluppare elevate interrelazioni con il proprio core business nei processi di crescita; inoltre, la duplice specializzazione permette di compensare, mediante opportune politiche finanziarie, complementari dinamiche nei flussi di cassa. HP 3 – Per le AdV specializzate nel segmento leisure l’implementazione di strategie di crescita non richiede particolari attenzioni finanziarie, tuttavia i processi di diversificazione necessitano di elevate dimensioni ottime minime per allontanarsi dal core business. L’articolo è idealmente diviso in tre parti: si evidenzia dapprima il rilievo delle strategie competitive improntate alla crescita e si identificano le principali opzioni strategie per accrescere le dimensioni aziendali; si procede, quindi, alla definizione di un modello finanziario capace di compendiare le principali variabili che dinamicamente definiscono l’equilibrio tra flussi in entrata e in uscita; infine, si analizzano nel concreto le principali strategie orientate alla crescita. La trattazione trova un costante riflesso in un caso di eccellenza imprenditoriale rappresentato dall’AdV Cisalpina Tours S.p.A

Gli articoli da taglio del distretto di Premana

La produzione mondiale degli articoli da taglio appare legata al dinamismo di un ristretto numero di paesi, all'interno dei quali si rileva spesso la presenza di localismi produttivi che presentano le caratteristiche tipiche dei distretti industriali