International Hotel Strategy and Institutional Distance: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

In recent international hotel strategy literature, institutional differences between home and host country have been mostly neglected. Although concepts such as institutional distance have become more prevalent as analytical tools in the mainstream international business literature, not much of it has so far been adopted in the wider field of international hospitality management. The objective of this article is to propose a conceptual framework that is based on insights from new institutional economics in order to further our understanding of international strategies for hotels. It introduces the concept of institutional distance as a supplement to Yip’s popular global strategy framework. This article aims at providing a template for active researchers in the field to embed their empirical contributions within the wider international business literature.