Innovation Management in the Hospitality Industry: Different Strategies for Achieving Success

TLDR

Innovation drives sustained success, yet hospitality-specific studies are scarce, and firms tailor innovation objectives and performance metrics accordingly. The study investigates whether hospitality firms should adopt different approaches based on their objectives for individual innovation projects. The authors analyzed 185 hospitality innovations, categorizing performance into market, financial, and employee/customer relationship dimensions. Twelve of 23 potential success determinants were identified as drivers of performance.

Abstract

The importance of innovation as the key driver of sustained success has been well documented in the marketing and hospitality literature. In the past decade, several studies have investigated the success factors associated with service innovations. Few of these studies, however, have dealt with hospitality innovations. Hospitality firms develop innovations with specific objectives and goals in mind and have several approaches to measure performance accordingly. However, no research in hospitality innovation has addressed the question of whether hospitality firms should have different approaches depending on their objectives for the individual innovation projects. This study obtained data on 185 hospitality innovations and identified three performance dimensions: market performance, financial performance, employee and customer relationship enhancement. Of the 23 potential success determinants, 12 were found to be drivers of performance.