International Journal of Hospitality Management 30 (2011) 157–166 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman Bridging the gap: An examination of the relative alignment of hospitality research and industry priorities Ceridwyn King * , Daniel C. Funk, Hugh Wilkins Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Gold Coast, Queensland 4222, Australia article info Keywords: Hotel industry Contemporary issues Research Qualitative Managers abstract Effective organisational decision making in a highly competitive and fragmented market demands cur- rent and relevant insights. Given the global perspective in which the hotel sector operates, the need for such insight is intensified. This study seeks to establish a dialogue focussed on responding to this need by examining the relative alignment of hospitality research and industry priorities for the purpose of informing industry practices. First, a literature review of academic and trade publications in the hotel sector provide a baseline understanding of current discussion in their respective communities. Second, a series of in-depth interviews with managers of hotel properties were used to assess the perception of industry priorities on contemporary issues. Findings suggest that industry priorities are not consistent with the emphasis in the literature. Most notable, generational change was identified as of particular importance with respect to managing employees, while brand differentiation, or lack thereof, was high- lighted as a concern when operating in a highly competitive market. To date, both issues appear to have received limited attention in the literature, representing a significant opportunity for future academic research. Crown Copyright © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Effective organisational decision making demands high levels of management awareness of current operational and strategic envi- ronmental issues (Hitt et al., 2005). Such awareness is amplified in a highly competitive and rapidly changing operating environment as reflected in the hotel industry which operates in a dynamic envi- ronment, at both national and international levels. Within certain key quality hotel sectors, such as luxury and first class, there is a par- ticular high level of concentration (Jones, 2002). These sectors are extremely competitive as there are low switching costs (Skogland and Siguaw, 2004) and little opportunity to develop competitive advantage through differentiation or cost leadership (Bowen and Shoemaker, 1998; Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000). As such, the higher priced segments operate in an increasingly globalised and competitive marketplace. Given the competitive national and international environment in which these hotel sectors operate, the need for market aware- ness is intensified. With competitors and consumers operating in a global market, the challenge for the hotel sector is to ensure its focus at the property level reflects knowledge of the contempo- rary challenges presented in such an environment. While the need * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 7 5552 8827. E-mail address: c.king@griffith.edu.au (C. King). for research on the contemporary issues and challenges of man- agement in the hotel industry is apparent; the nexus between the needs of the hotel industry and the research contribution from aca- demics is less evident. Given the necessity for the hotel sector to be able to respond effectively to contemporary issues for future sus- tainability, there is an opportunity for academia to facilitate such an effective response through rigorous, methodical and theoretically underpinned research. Therefore, this research seeks to initiate the process of greater hotel industry and hospitality research align- ment through the initial identification of the relative convergence of academic research with the needs of industry. Stimulating a discussion to establish a meaningful and relevant academic (hospitality) research agenda to inform industry prac- tices requires an examination of the hotel sector’s perspective of issues impacting the sector as well as a review of current hospital- ity academic research. As a result, the broad objective of this study is realised, which is to explore contemporary hospitality manage- ment issues perceived as important to hotel general managers and to evaluate the extent to which these issues feature amongst the main research themes pursued in academic research. Such an eval- uation informs the extent to which academia is in a position to assist industry in dealing with its identified issues. Furthermore, it is intended that this research is likely to inform curriculum devel- opment to ensure future hotel management professionals are in touch with contemporary industry concerns as well as enrich the hospitality literature in general. 0278-4319/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.04.009