Knowledge mapping of hospitality research − A visual analysis using CiteSpace

Hospitality literature constitutes a considerable accumulation of data for follow-up studies. This study used CiteSpace to analyze investigations published in three top journals of hospitality research: International Journal of Hospitality Management (2008–2014), Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (2008–2014), and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (2009–2014). This application resulted in comprehensive knowledge maps of hospitality research. The study identified major disciplines that provide knowledge and theories for the hospitality discipline as well as contemporary research topics and most influential researchers.     

Influence of institutional economics on firm birth and death: A comparative analysis of hospitality and other industries

This paper investigates how public policies, such as taxes and regulations influence firm formation (birth) and closure (death) in the hospitality and other industries in the United States (US), using an institutional economics approach and the dimensions of the Economic Freedom of North America (EFNA) index. The literature has been scant when it comes to examining the effects of policies of formal institutions on firms’ birth and death in the hospitality industry, and whether these effects in hospitality differ from those of other sectors. The study uses panel data from government sources and the EFNA dimensions and applies cross-sectional dependence and unit root tests, followed by a panel generalized least square approach for the analysis. Our findings show that components of economic freedom have varying effects on firms’ birth and death. The study provides practical contributions for policymakers and managers by improving the understanding of firm births and deaths in the US.     

The why,how, and what of public policy implications of tourism and hospitality research

We synthesized policy implications of tourism and hospitality research by reviewing 12,269 articles published in 10 leading journals from 2012 to 2021. The most common rationale for policies (i.e., the why) is market failure, while the most typical role of policies (i.e., the how) is to create incentives. In addition, policies are typically hybrid and include suggestions for formal and informal institutional setups (i.e., the what). Because our review revealed that only 114 articles (i.e., 0.93%) included the why, how, and what of actual policies, we offer a theory-based research agenda on policy-making focused on making tourism and hospitality more inclusive and focusing on evolutionary dynamics, providing an understanding of the impact of crises and contemporary solutions, focusing on resilience and institutional complexity, and addressing the actors and time dimension. Our results, combined with those of our suggested research directions, will benefit organizations and society and simultaneously enhance the perceived societal value-added, contributions, and stature of tourism and hospitality research.     

A systematic literature review of research on diversity and diversity management in the hospitality literature

With demographic shifts, international labor mobility, and the blurring of geographical boundaries, workforce diversity and diversity management have assumed an important role in hospitality operations. More importantly previous research has established the role diversity plays on outcomes such as innovation and firm performance. Yet reports of research on diversity and its management in the hospitality industry are fragmented, underdeveloped, and inconsistent. To assess the current state of this research, we provide a systematic review of the available research on the different dimensions of diversity, and on topics related to diversity management. Using articles found in hospitality journals, we identify current themes explored by scholars as well as gaps and limitations. We provide suggestions for topics, themes and methodologies for future research and highlight the importance of research that can inform managerial practice. Our review indicates that there is greater need for theory development, empirical data-driven research, and expansion of contexts in hospitality-diversity research, especially in terms of geographical regions covered by extant studies.     

Commercial hospitality in tourism: A global comparison of what culturally matters

As the hospitality academy matures it has worked towards bespoke theory development. Emerging literature has attempted to quantify, and develop measurements for, the intangible and situationally variable dimensions of hospitality and/or hospitableness. This paper aims to explore whether the importance tourists place on various aspects of ‘hospitality’ differs according to their culture, using country/region of origin as a proxy. A cross-national survey was conducted across multiple destinations in the Asia-Pacific and Europe. Data captured the importance 2248 tourists placed on 12 facets of hospitality. Results indicate that tourists’ nationality influences the importance they place on all facets of the hospitality experience. The study contributes to theory by advancing our understanding of how different cultures evaluate the importance of the multiple aspects of commercial hospitality. Practically, the study challenges hospitality industry conventions, which standardize rather than personalize guest-host interactions.     

A theoretical link between corporate giving and hospitality firm performance

This study makes a unique contribution to the hospitality literature by offering a theoretical model of the link between corporate giving (CG) and hospitality firm performance based on a duopolistic competition model with rational profit-maximizing hospitality firms. The equilibrium outcomes of the proposed model explicitly explain the mixed findings of the relationship between CG and hospitality firm performance found in the previous empirical studies. Specifically, the optimal level of a hospitality firm’s CG is positively related to the total market demand and the competitive advantage of CG, and negatively related to the induced cost of giving practices. Moreover, a positive or neutral relationship between CG and hospitality firm performance depends on whether CG could induce a competitive advantage of brand differentiation and customer loyalty to increase profit.     

Learn from the past and prepare for the future: A critical assessment of crisis management research in hospitality

Given the substantial impact of crisis on the hospitality industry, crisis and crisis management have drawn attention from scholars. While each study makes a significant contribution to the existing knowledge of crisis management in hospitality, the fragmented perspective of each study makes it difficult to identify the key findings and unsolved problems. This paper presents a synthesis and critical assessment of state-of-the-art crisis management research in hospitality. It categorizes articles based on a three-stage framework covering pre-crisis planning, mid-crisis management, and post-crisis recovery. Two main perspectives in the literature are identified: one from hospitality service providers and one from stakeholders. Core research topics and concepts in each stage and perspective are reviewed. In addition, this paper proposes four major directions for future research: crisis management from stakeholders’ perspectives, integrative research, causal and behavioral research, and theoretical enhancement. It discusses the theoretical and practical implications of this study.     

Hospitality studies and hospitality management: A symbiotic relationship

The key contribution of this paper is to critically analyse advances made since the introduction of hospitality as a higher education subject, to capture contemporary thinking, and to support the recognition of the intellectual benefits for hospitality management theory and practices of a curriculum informed from a social science-based studies perspective. The benefits of this inter-relationship are demonstrated through the inclusion of an illustration informed by historical means of enquiry, which applies hermeneutical analysis and interpretation of St. Benedict's Rule (c. 530 A.D.). This serves to tangibly demonstrate the academic rigour, value, and educational gains achievable through a symbiotic relationship between hospitality studies and hospitality management.     

Rating tourism and hospitality journals

This paper reports on the findings of a global study of tourism and hospitality academics asking them to rate their collective literature. The study adopted a peer assessment method, using a snowball sample to maximize response rates. Overall, 70 tourism and hospitality journals were assessed (40 tourism and 30 hospitality) by 314 tourism and 191 hospitality experts. The study revealed that tourism and hospitality community, collectively, rates its journals in a clear hierarchy based on a combination of awareness and perceived quality rating.     

A review of entrepreneurship research published in the hospitality and tourism management journals

This research evaluates the entrepreneurship research in field of the Hospitality and Tourism Management to obtain a better understanding of its progress and potential. The study examines entrepreneurship articles published in seven leading hospitality and tourism management journals from 1986 to 2006. Findings indicate that Tourism Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management are the top three journals that publish entrepreneurship research. However, the amount of entrepreneurship research in the leading hospitality and tourism management journals appears less than expected. Publication of empirical work has not increased over time over the past 21 years, and theoretical work remains at a consistently low level. Even for empirical studies, there is a lack of methodological sophistication of analytical and statistical tools. The results suggest a concern that entrepreneurship research remains under studied; therefore, more theoretical work is needed to map a course of study and to develop a framework unique to the entrepreneurship domain of hospitality and tourism research. The good news is that there are abundant opportunities for scholars in hospitality and tourism management to explore the field of entrepreneurship as a viable research paradigm.     

Research on information technology in the hospitality industry

This paper reviews recent research on information technology in the hospitality industry. The analysis revealed three broad research areas: the Internet's effects on distribution; on pricing; and on consumer interactions. Similar to aftermath of the dot com boom, the hospitality industry is realising that the information technology has unintended effects and prognosticators are often wrong. While the reviewed articles provide sound advice for hospitality operators and a rich stream of future research for academics, poor rigor and a lack of relevance throughout the reviewed journals underscore a worrying trend in hospitality research.     

Literature in strategic management in the hospitality industry

This literature review of the research in strategic management in the hospitality industry covers the 2 year period of 2002–2003. Using a contingency model framework for the analysis the research reported in refereed journals in the field of hospitality is reported. Additionally, research that considered the context of the hospitality industry but published in non-hospitality refereed journals was also included. Key issues and needs in the area are provided at the conclusion.     

Conceptual model for analysing management development in the hospitality industry: A UK perspective

This paper presents a conceptual, contingent model of hospitality management development (MD). Having explored the dimensions and relationships in the model, it is then applied to the UK hospitality industry through analysing the nature of the hospitality industry for potential influences on MD and evaluating research into its practice. The embryonic model is presented as a vehicle to enhance understanding of the complex influences and contexts of hospitality MD and to distinguish distinctive characteristics of MD in the hospitality industry.     

Interpretation of hospitality across religions

Given the inter-religious locus of modern tourism and importance of host–guest interaction, current study explores how religion is involved in constructing hosts’ understanding of hospitality and hospitable behavior in private, public, and commercial settings. Utilizing hermeneutic phenomenology as a methodological framework, we resorted to in-depth interviews with 30 participants representing Buddhist, Christian and Muslim faiths and did document analysis of respective holy texts. Regardless of religious beliefs, hosts in this study understand hospitality first as their relations to their own communities and only then as associations with outsiders. This communal understanding of hospitality is supported by religious teachings. Findings reveal that interpretation of hospitality and hospitable behavior in private and public domains vary according to religious values while commercial hospitality, somewhat influenced by religion, is mostly understood as a money-making venture. The results are discussed in respect to definitional characteristics of hospitality, the host–guest paradigm, and global processes.     

Theory in hospitality management

This paper comments on the absence of any commonly agreed theoretical framework about hospitality management. A tentative proposition is made for a model which identifies the inter-dependent and inter-related elements of hospitality management which might be used as a basis for management teaching and development as well as for research.     

State dependence in the influence of monetary policy regime shifts on hospitality index returns

Previous research studies reveal that changes in monetary policy can significantly affect hospitality stock returns. This paper makes another contribution by showing that the impact of shifts in the Fed monetary policy regime on US hospitality index returns varies to a great extent in the different stages of business cycle and under different credit market conditions. Shifts in the Fed monetary policy regime are measured by directional changes in the discount rate (DR) and directional changes in the federal funds rate (FFR). In particular, the significant influence of monetary policy regime shifts on hospitality index returns depends on the state of economy. The significant influence of DR exists only during periods of business cycle contraction. In addition, although US hospitality index returns respond significantly to FFR under both business cycle expansion and contraction, the size of the response is substantially larger and more statistically significant during periods of business cycle contraction. Finally, the impact of both DR and FFR on hospitality index returns depends on the credit market conditions, especially when the credit market is tight.     

An integrative systematic review of innovation research in hospitality and tourism

This study critically reviews the key perspectives and topics in innovation research in various disciplines and the hospitality and tourism (H&T) field. This study synthesizes and analyzes 85 innovation literature review studies from several fields and 261 empirical articles from the H&T literature to achieve this purpose. The key topics are organized into three different perspectives based on how the phenomenon is understood: innovation as an economic phenomenon, innovation as a market phenomenon, and innovation as an organizational phenomenon. Through in-depth analysis and discussion, this article identified an extensive array of potential future research avenues. Some of these include exploring innovation as systemic turbulence under the lens of complexity theory, the commercialization of idle innovations as part of the open innovation paradigm, and the effect of corporate governance on innovation, representing key industry implications of the study.     

Intellectual structure of strategic management research in the hospitality management field: A co-citation analysis

This study investigates the intellectual structure of strategic management (SM) research in the hospitality industry through co-citation analysis. This study analyzes the evolution of SM research from related SM articles inclusively published in hospitality- and tourism-focused journals as well as business- and management-focused journals from 1971 to 2016. This study is the first to map the intellectual structure of SM research in the hospitality industry to analyze the changes in the influence of the most significant studies, journals, and disciplines/fields as well as the relationships among the subfields on SM research in the hospitality industry. This study suggests that marketing is a dominant subfield in SM research within the hospitality industry. In addition, the resource-based view is a dominant approach in the field, although the positioning school was dominant during the field’s early stages.     

Progress on image analytics: Implications for tourism and hospitality research

Despite the increased recognition of the importance of images as a rich data source, the full potential of images to advance tourism and hospitality knowledge, both conceptually and theoretically, has yet to be fully tapped. This study provides a critical review of image analytics, examining its broad implications for tourism and hospitality research. This paper offers the progress of image definitions, features and related theories, as well as presents a methodological framework for conducting image-related studies, complementing the dominant textual analysis used in tourism and hospitality research. The paper makes contributions to the tourism methodological literature by developing a point of reference for the application of image analytics in tourism and hospitality studies.     

Thirty years of research on tourism and hospitality management in China: A review and analysis of journal publications

The tourism industry in China has undergone rapid development since 1978 and is foreseen as being the world's largest tourism market by 2020. However, no comprehensive review of literature in this context has been completed, and international academics have little understanding of China tourism research. This paper aims to provide an overview of 119 articles selected from six leading English language academic journals published from 1978 to 2008. Content analysis points to the evolving trend in Asian universities in terms of journal contributions. Consumer behavior has gained popularity as a research topic, and will likely remain as a prevalent research theme in the near future. A tendency toward multiple-authorship, rather than single authorship, and more sophisticated methodological procedures has also been found. Future analysis may focus on including other forms of publications and Chinese language journals to capture the full picture of China tourism.