A meta-analysis of hotel performance: continental or worldwide style?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at the focal points of ‘‘research styles’’ which emerge from segmenting previous studies above all on the (continental) geographic basis of the empirical evidence employed and in particular according to their European, American or Asiatic origin. These three areas account for 88 percent of the articles identified. Geographic importance is primarily related to contextual differences and consequently to diverse research designs, in terms both of the dependent and independent variables used. Design/methodology/approach – The paper proposes a meta-analysis of the literature. The databases for the observations proposed are made up of the main studies published in international journals in the last 20 years dealing with hospitality management, tourism and service management, despite having strategic management or special business functions as their focus, and using the hotel industry as their empirical basis. Bibliographical research made it possible to identify 180 articles. Findings – The findings confirm the relevance of context in order to understand the research streams. 88 percent of the papers use evidence drawn from European (37 percent), Asian (32 percent), and North and Central American (19 percent) countries; five nations were taken as the basis for 67 percent of the articles examined. The present paper shows the strong link existing between the type of evidence used, research design (sample, kind of data, number of years), the choice of dependent and independent variables, thereby identifying three different research styles: European, American and Asiatic. Originality/value – The conclusions show the strong influence which the source of evidence brings to bear on research design and hence on the factors characterizing the choice of dependent and independent variables. The conclusions also describe some evolutionary lines in the research which might reveal new perspectives in the studies of performance determinants. Keywords Performance measurement (quality), Performance criteria, Hotel and catering industry, Research methods