Title

Examining the determinants of hotel chain expansion through international franchising

Authors

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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