Examining the determinants of hotel chain expansion through international franchising

    Authors

    I. Alon; L. Q. Ni;Y. C. Wang

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Int. J. Hosp. Manag.

    Keywords

    Franchising; Internationalization; Hotel industry; Hospitality; Bayesian; data analysis; AGENCY THEORY; STRATEGIES; MANAGEMENT; OPERATIONS; FORMS; FIRM; Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism

    Abstract

    This study proposes and tests an agency-based organizational model of internationalization through franchising in the hotel sector. Using data obtained from a Franchisor Questionnaire 2001-2008, we analyzed a panel of 117 observations of 17 U.S.-based hotels. Our analysis reveals that a hotel franchisor's decision to internationalize through franchising is positively related to the percentage of franchises, the ratio of franchised units to the total number of units. The article contributes to the literature by empirically modeling international franchising of hotels, which present unique characteristics among franchising companies, with a high investment capital requirement, maturity in the product life cycle, and a high level of standardization and globalization of operations. The unique characteristics of individual chains and their segment in the industry are particularly important, as revealed by both data analysis and expert opinion. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    International Journal of Hospitality Management

    Volume

    31

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    379

    Last Page

    386

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000300467900009

    ISSN

    0278-4319

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