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The purpose of this study is to review the hospitality and tourism strategy literature to identify trends related to key topical areas of research. The study objectives include identifying hospitality and tourism strategy challenges; presenting a synthesis of frequent strategy topics; and identifying opportunities for future research.

Earlier studies in the hospitality strategy literature were reviewed and synthesized to identify trends, gaps and opportunities.

Hospitality strategy research continues to improve and extend the boundaries of strategic thought in the hospitality literature. In assessing the literature from 1980 to 2013, it was apparent that the literature was following the mainstream trend of combining theoretical perspectives to some degree as well as applying more process-based concepts to hospitality strategy research. There were several challenges for propelling hospitality strategy research forward; these included the educational infrastructure, theory development and the quantity and quality of researchers in the field.

Given the depth and breadth of the strategy topics and research, it was difficult to ensure sufficient coverage was provided in the limited space of one journal article.

The study provides a good foundational understanding of where the hospitality strategy research had been and the trajectory of where it was headed. Further, it serves as a valuable resource for current researchers and those entering this area of research.

An overview of the trends occurring within the hospitality industry environment and their impact on organisational strategy, structure and performance is presented.

Increasing competition in the hospitality industry in Europe and downsizing of head‐office staff in corporate firms will require the development of new unit‐level management skills. The change needed is from an operations orientation to strategic thinking – a difficult management development task for this industry and one that is lagging behind other changes. Competition increasingly looks like a question of who can best time the matching of the necessary internal structural changes to the implementation of the strategies chosen to deal with increasing buyer power and the profitable use of new technology.

In today′s complex and competitive environment, strategic management becomes the primary means of adapting organisations to their changing environment. For firms in the maturing hospitality industry to survive and grow, they will have to depend on their ability to align themselves strategically with the turbulent environment and select appropriate strategies to create defendable competitive positions. The findings of a nationwide study which was conducted to extend Porter′s framework of business strategy to the service industry by exploring the level of strategic management in restaurant firms in the United States are given. Companies′ emphasis in resource allocation in various competitive methods, and the nature of the relationship between strategy and structure are also examined.

The purpose of this paper is to provide contextual information around the grass-roots activities which resulted in legislation allowing the opening of drug consumption rooms in Denmark. This background has not been included in, e.g. the annual Danish Focal Point reports to the EMCDDA.

An account by some of those involved on the grass-roots and political activities which resulted in the enabling changes in law and the provision of building-based drug consumption rooms in Denmark.

The actions described originated in a concern for the health and well-being of drug users. That grass-roots action can act as a catalyst for political changes in social policy to take account of the situations and needs of socially marginalised groups.

The paper describes the sequence of grass-roots actions from the point of view of those involved. It does not seek to represent the views of those opposed to the activists’ aims.

The use of international evidence to support policy and legal changes in one nation, Denmark, in order to improve conditions for drug users. The need for funding commitments to support and realise the legal and policy changes.

The success of long-term campaigning on behalf of a specific marginalised and socially excluded group of citizens and the countering of myths and stigma associated with this group.

This is a unique account told by those directly involved of the social and campaigning processes which led to a change in the law and a shifting of popular and political opinion and action.

The aim of this paper is to explore the amusement park industry and its evolution during the 1990s. The primary causes of change in this industry are determined and their impact on the companies operating in this business is investigated. The assumption to be ascertained is how currently operating amusement park firms have been able to effectively respond to the threats and opportunities created by the environmental changes occurring in the 1990s. The analysis is framed into three main sections: first, it offers an overview of the amusement industry; second, it examines the environmental trends affecting it; and third, it attempts to delineate the future development of the amusement business.

Reports on the first survey of chief executive officers of multinational hotel chains, sponsored by the International Hotel Association. The purpose of the survey was to assess the environmental scanning practices in those hotel firms and to learn how their executives view the uncertainty of the global business environment.

The objective of this research is to conduct an exploratory study that will gain consensus among restaurant industry professionals, academics and outside industry experts on the set of work practice dimensions in a high performance management systems (HPMS) for restaurant managers in the US casual restaurant sector.

An exploratory case study method was employed that used a combination of data collection techniques: interviews for the pilot study, the Delphi method and secondary data collection. Restaurant experts were chosen to consider the components of an HPMS construct for unit management in the US casual restaurant business. Assumptions were made based on a review of strategic human resource management literature, then experts were interviewed and a Delphi was conducted to gain consensus.

The authors find thirteen dimensions of an HPMS, which are common to unit management in US casual restaurants. Three work practices that were not considered relevant dimensions to the casual restaurant industry were removed from the Delphi. This translates into a difference of seven work practices between a manufacturing work system and a restaurant work system, which are either excluded or included in a restaurant work system.

Previous strategic human resource management research has dubbed HR work practices “high performance work practices”. With few exceptions these studies have been conducted in contextual settings that do not possess similar operational characteristics to the restaurant service industry. That there are differences in the business models between these industries and hence in the work practices between them is apparent from the results. Additionally, this study was targeted to management in the restaurant industry, not overall employment as the other studies.

This paper aims to investigate the social structure of strategic management research in the hospitality management field to determine whether a strong social structure is needed and, if so, how this structure can be enriched within the hospitality field.

A total of 1,652 articles related to hospitality strategic management published in leading hospitality and tourism as well as business journals were analyzed using co-authorship analysis combined with social network analysis.

The study’s findings demonstrate a progressive growth in collaboration. Leading authors, institutions and countries in the collaboration networks are identified. Network analysis shows that the ties in the network are too weak to build a strong social identity, although the community is broad.

This study provides solutions for building a strong social identity related to strategic management in the hospitality field. Moreover, this study helps leaders and managers, who need to know whom to speak to within academia to get industry-based advice, as well as scholars, junior researchers and graduate students, who must recognize the individuals producing knowledge in the academic field, to identify the key actors within the field.

As one of the first studies in this field, this research discusses why a strong social identity is necessary and how it can be built further while also looking at the potential for expansion in future studies.

This study aims to gain an understanding of hotel experiences during the pandemic by examining sentiments of guests posted online.

This paper incorporates the balance theory, in a dyadic system to analyze the ways in which guests were motivated to restore a position of balance during the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Qualitative content analysis was used to detect thematic patterns of hotel experiences based on examining online reviews shared by actual guests of two major hotel brands – one more closely associated with convenience-driven automation (high-tech) and the other known for providing more guest–employee interaction (high-touch).

The analysis of the reviews yielded six main themes: “purpose of visit,” “COVID safety concerns,” “technology adoption,” “COVID limitations,” “exceeded expectation” and “hospitality of staff.” Staff displaying a welcoming attitude was the main factor in creating a convivial experience for guests at both hotel brands, but the technology was not highlighted as much in guests’ reviews. Despite the pandemic, guests of both hotel brands had similar levels of enjoyment regarding their hotel experiences regardless of the high-touch or high-tech nature of the operations.

User-generated content often reflects the opinions of those who are very satisfied or not satisfied at all. Different data collection techniques could be used to get a “big picture” view of the balance between high-touch and high-tech experiences.

The findings offer support to researchers and practitioners who advocate that high-touch and high-tech can indeed co-exist, and that these distinct service delivery modes do not have to be mutually exclusive.

This paper provides new trajectories that can broaden the approaches undertaken by hospitality/tourism scholars and practitioners based on user-generated content. This study is one of the first to adopt the lens of the balance theory, in a dyadic system, to investigate how guests may be psychologically motivated to balance their perceptions and expectations during a time of crisis.