The effect of competitive strategies and organizational structure on hotel performance

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of competitive strategies and organizational structure on hotel performance and to explore whether organizational structure has a moderating effect on the relationship between competitive strategies and hotel performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a causal and descriptive research design to determine the cause‐and‐effect relationships among competitive strategies, organizational structure, and hotel performance based on previous studies. A 28‐question self‐administered questionnaire comprising three sections was employed. The target population for this study was US hotel owners and general and executive managers whose e‐mail addresses were listed on a publicly available database. A census survey was carried out and e‐mails were sent to all of the hoteliers listed in the database.FindingsThe results show a competitive human resources (HR) strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's behavioral performance, and a competitive IT strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's financial performance. Organizational structure is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between both of these strategies and behavioral performance, a result similar to those reported by Jogaratnam and Tse and by Tarigan. However, the results of the current study show that organizational structure has no influence on the relationship between a brand image strategy and a hotel's behavioral performance, nor does it have any moderating effect on the relationship between a hotel's financial performance and its competitive brand image, HR or IT strategy.Practical implicationsWhen hoteliers face an uncertain environment, they need to select which form of organizational structure to adopt with care. Hotels that adopt an organic structure allow greater flexibility in the workplace, meaning that they may lose control of their employees and productivity. A mechanistic organizational structure, in contrast, gives hoteliers the power to monitor employee behavior and productivity, which may help them to achieve goals and boost financial performance.Originality/valueThe paper provides further evidence of how competitive HR and IT strategies help to explain hotel performance, whereas a brand image strategy and organizational structure are not good explanatory factors in this regard. Hotels with a mechanistic such structure enjoy a greater relationship between a competitive HR strategy and behavioral performance than their organically structured counterparts. With regard to IT strategic implementation, in contrast, hotels with an organic structure enjoy superior behavioral performance to those with a mechanistic structure.

Unlocking Value Creation Using an Agritourism Business Model

“…The compilation period was about 3 months, with several requests made by telephone in order to solicit the answers. The final sample was composed of 110 agritourism businesses, which corresponded to a response rate of 11%; this compares favourably with rates reported in previous online surveys among tourism and hospitality operators [53].…”

A model that connects information technology and hotel performance

“…IT should be connected with other non-IT company factors like strategy, clients, and services. Based on the analysis of different global proposals about how IT can improve hotel organizational performance (Chathoth, 2007;Law & Jogaratnam, 2005;Law et al, 2013;Leung & Law, 2005;Piccoli, 2008;Siguaw, Enz, & Namasivayam, 2000;Tavitiyaman, Qiu Zhang, & Qu, 2012), we posit that the general process involves acting upon the following organizational performance drivers: operational productivity, employee productivity, customer service, and commercialization (Fig. 1).…”

Financial performance of Spanish hotels during the crisis

“…On the other hand, the positive influence of human resources initiatives on hotels' performance was demonstrated by Sourouklis and Tsagdis (2013). Tavitiyaman et al, (2012) also suggested the human resources competitive strategies to influence directly hotel's behavioural performance, and the information technologies affect hotel's financial performance.…”

“…Other indicators that assess the financial performance of the hotel industry companies are the total revenues and the revenues per room (Chen, 2011;Chung and Kalnins, 2001;Xiao et al, 2012), the ratio between the net operating income and the operating expenses (Chen and Lin, 2012), the ROA (Return on Assets) (Tavitiyaman et al, 2012), the ROE (Return on Equity) and the stock return (Chen, 2011), the net profit (Tavitiyaman et al, 2012) and the net profit margin (Jae and Jang, 2007).…”

“…According to Claver et al (2007 a;2007b) and Tavitiyaman et al (2012), hotels in chains achieve higher levels of performance, both operational and financial.…”