Social ties in family-run hotels - a driver of innovation in response to external disruption?

Abstract of this study

Previous research indicates that family-run hotels have unique resources resulting from the interplay of family and business systems. However, there is a research gap regarding the specific role of social resources (relationships between people) in the innovativeness of family businesses in challenging times. Based on interviews with hotel owners, this study provides an in-depth understanding of how social resources enable innovative responses to unexpected events.

The results show that social resources of family-run hotels promote digital innovation, business model innovation, guest loyalty innovation and sustainable innovation on two levels - internal and external. Internal social resources, such as emotional support and collaborative decision making within families, increase resilience and creativity in problem solving. External social resources, such as strong community networks and stakeholder relationships, improve firms' adaptive capacity by facilitating skill sharing and institutional support. The findings extend resource-based theory by contributing to the understanding of social resource-enabled innovation in family hospitality firms.

Findings from this study

• The complex social resources (interpersonal relationships) of family hotels play an important role in their ability to innovate, especially in response to unexpected crises.
• This study thus disproves the assumption that family businesses are less innovative due to their risk aversion. Instead, it can be shown that they use social resources to secure both the business and the family system and actively respond to disruptive events.
• Social resources promote different types of innovation: digital innovation, business model innovation, guest loyalty innovation and sustainable innovation.
• Social resources work on two levels.
  Internal social resources come from the family system itself and relationships with employees (e.g. emotional support in the family, joint decision-making, flexibility of family members, loyalty and flexibility of employees).
  External social resources include relationships with guests and other stakeholders in the destination (e.g. guest loyalty, cooperation with regional businesses, institutional support).
• Internal social resources strengthen resilience and promote creative problem solving through increased communication and exchange of ideas, while external social resourcesimprove adaptive capacity by facilitating the exchange of resources (e.g. mutual support among businesses) and institutional support (e.g. government aid).