Organizational change in the hospitality industry: The change drivers in a longitudinal analysis

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to develop an understanding of the trajectories and drivers of organizational change in small and medium hospitality enterprises from the 1920s to the 2010s, focusing on an Italian seaside destination that experienced an enduring success: Rimini. By conducting oral history fieldwork and integrating this with documentary evidence, we reconstructed the organizational models adopted by 42 entrepreneurs, which can be captured by 4 prevailing organizational ideal types: Managerial, Informal, Customized, and Bureaucratic. The findings explain the historical evolution of organizational models in SMEs by focusing on the different role played in each period by specific change drivers, such as generational shift, customer behaviour and competition, between tourist destinations. In addition, they allow an understanding of the process through which the resilience of old organizational models creates a context of functional redundancy, which strengthens the competitiveness of the tourist destination.

The Relationship among Family Business, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance: An Empirical Assessment in the Tourism Sector

“…In particular, this evidence is relevant within the Italian context, where family members are usually involved in the decision making processes (Pellicelli 2016). Furthermore, this evidence is underlined within the Mediterranean and Italian tourism sector (Santarelli and Lotti 2005;Bagnaresi et al 2019).…”

“…The operating dimension concerns the company's success with its customers and is mainly measured by the employment rate (Kim and Kim 2005), the average price per room or turnover on the number of rooms sold (Chung 2000). Finally, the organizational dimension considers the satisfaction of the various corporate stakeholders, particularly property and employees (Bagnaresi et al 2019).…”

“…The past few years have seen increasing attention paid by policymakers to tourism industries (Meo et al 2020;Alola et al 2020). The centrality of these industries has been highlighted by tourism's central role in countries such as Italy, France, and the United Kingdom (Giaccio et al 2018;Bagnaresi et al 2019). An increasing number of reports underlined that investments in the cultural sector could represent enablers on citizens' wellbeing (Newell and Seabrook 2006;Palmi et al 2016).…”

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“…The operating dimension concerns the company's success with its customers and is mainly measured by the employment rate. Finally, the organizational dimension considers the satisfaction of the various corporate stakeholders, particularly property and employees (Bagnaresi et al, 2019).…”