Brand Partnerships

Abstract

Brand partnerships in hotels typically involve an owner (often a brand franchisee) and an operator (not always providing a brand identity), two separate business entities that contribute their respective assets to give the hotel the required cachet to succeed in the marketplace. When their relationship is amicable, the two entities can work together to help the hotel project an attractive image and position itself against competing brands. However, when the relationship is not cordial, one partner or the other might work deceptively in a self-interested pursuit of advantage. This chapter examines that possibility, called opportunism, and discusses strategies for successful brand partnerships. It shows that when brand employs noncoercive influence strategies in the presence of strong relational norms, opportunism decreases, whereas it increases when the brand applies noncoercive strategies in the presence of weak relational norms.