Types of organizational innovativeness and success in Austrian hotels

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify different types of organizational innovativeness in Austrian hotels and analyze their connection to (innovation) success. In the face of growing international competition, innovation is becoming increasingly important for Austria’s hotel industry. A prerequisite for innovation is organizational innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a quantitative survey of 255 Austrian hotel businesses with a minimum of five employees. Innovativeness was measured by three dimensions (willingness, ability and possibility to innovate) and success by five dimensions (overall performance: financial, market and employee-related success; innovation success: product and process innovations). Findings were obtained by combining an exploratory factor analysis with a cluster analysis. Findings – Factor analysis reveals five factors determining organizational innovativeness: “cooperation as trigger for change”; “acceptance of change”; “resource based scope for change”; “pluralism as trigger for change”; and “loose coupling and error-tolerance”. The cluster analysis identifies four types of hotels regarding organizational innovativeness indicating differences regarding the success dimensions: “potential innovators hindered by scarce resources and unsupportive structures”, “well-resourced conservatives”, “potential innovators hindered by a haphazard approach” and “cautious idea hunters”. On the whole, results show that a balanced configuration of organizational innovativeness combined with a cautious approach is connected with greater (innovation) success. Research limitations/implications – Key-informant and survivor biases have to be considered as all items in the questionnaire were evaluated by self-assessment of the hotel management and only successful hotels (in the sense of survival) were analyzed. One important implication is that (innovation) success depends on the system that enables it; therefore, organizational innovativeness is a precondition of successful innovations. Nevertheless, there is little research on organizational innovativeness in the service sector so far. Practical implications – This paper supports tourism businesses in understanding the concept of organizational innovativeness and its relation to (innovation) success. SMEs, which dominate the Austrian hotel industry, tend to focus on the financial aspect of innovativeness and, in general, do not consider the range of factors that constitute an organization’s innovativeness (willingness, ability and possibility to innovate) and the various outcomes. Originality/value – By combining organizational innovativeness and (innovation) success, the paper applies an important element of innovation theory to the Austrian hotel industry. The characterization of different types of hotels regarding organizational innovativeness and success enables a (self-) assessment for hotel businesses and the deduction of customized implications.

Revisiting the relationship between formal planning process and planning effectiveness

“…Firms armed with innovativeness capabilities can reap the associated benefits, such as improved and new products and services, thereby leading to enhanced performance (Dibrell et al, 2014). Several studies in the tourism sector confirm the connection between firm's innovativeness and its performance indications (Gomezelj, 2016;Kessler et al, 2015). Using data from SMEs in the tourism sector, researchers have demonstrated that there is a positive association between innovation in products and processes and financial performance (Martínez-Román et al, 2015).…”

Hotel Innovation in Different Settings – Two Destinations’ Comparison

“…The first question refers to types of innovation commonly differentiated as product, process, marketing and organizational innovation (OECD, 2005;Schumpeter, 1934); the second differentiates between incremental (significant improvement) from radical (completely new) innovations (Schumpeter, 1934) while the third distinguishes new to the world from new to the unit of observation/company innovation (Sørensen, 2004). Besides newness, another key aspect of innovation is implementation (Kessler et al, 2015) as innovation only occurs when products/services, processes, marketing methods and organizational measures are put to use in organization's operations (OECD, 2005).…”

“…Innovation is generally perceived as one of the key drivers of development and competitiveness (Griesmann et al, 2013;Kessler et al, 2015) and is recognized as a source of increased competitiveness for tourism products, firms and destinations (Hall and Williams, 2008;Hall, 2009). However, tourism businesses have significant difficulties in 'protecting' their innovations as it is usually rather easy for competitors to copy new successful ideas (Camisón and Monfort-Mir, 2012).…”

Evaluation of Knowledge Transfer Practices From a Leibniz Perspective

“…Nonetheless, contemporary literature synthesis indicates that there is still a theoretical disjunction as to the exact role of religion within this process. Further, if and why it (religion) is specifically linked to the many forms of perceived business success (Dai, 2012;Kessler, Pachucki, Stummer, Mair, & Binder, 2015;Lock, 2010;Tervonen & Haapasalo, 2012) and the role it plays within any other process in which it exists as an element. Moreover, in its practical usage, generalist interpretation ~ of knowledge ~ does not automatically indicate full significance of the knowledge content nor its transfer or absorptive capability.…”