Domestic midscale chain hotel brands' effectiveness in research and development: An exploratory study

While many midscale chain hotel brands in China's domestic market have developed rapidly since 2010, it is still unclear how a new midscale chain hotel brand can be most effectively researched and developed. Drawing from resource-advantage theory, this study aimed to understand the effectiveness of six key attributes of new domestic midscale chain hotel brands and map them onto a research and development (R&D) competitive position matrix. The results show that the actual R&D process lasts beyond the opening of the first hotel of the new brand and requires a further 2-year maturation period. This study contributes to the literature by creating a maturation system that could play a key role in the effectiveness of the R&D underlying a chain hotel's brand development. It also provides a compelling tool for monitoring the effectiveness of domestic midscale chain hotel brands' R&D.