Ownership And Management Contractual Relations. An Application To The Hotel Industry

This paper analyzes, from the perspective of incomplete contracts and resource-based view theory, the determinants of the observed ownership and management structures in the hotel industry. For a representative sample of hotels in the Balearic Islands, the results show as higher management complexity increases the probability of management by a hotel chain, despite the contractual relationship. For cases when investments are important to the hotel operations and for the success of its strategy, we do not find evidence that the management by the owner of hotel assets is the dominant solution. Finally, the potential agency problem under management contract is outweighed by the advantages of a specialized channel of distribution and by the reputation effect, specifically through hotel chains. (C) 2011 ACEDE. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.