Patenting Behaviour of Hotel Firms

Abstract

The characteristics of the hotel industry have led to the belief that hotel innovation happens through incremental service improvement, which is hardly patentable. In addition, there is a belief that technological development occurs only by incorporating innovation from other industries. Therefore, most research on innovation in the industry excludes the patenting behaviour of hotel companies, which might be a significant gap in the literature.. This paper is set up to address this gap using secondary data regarding the patents registered by hotel firms and variables concerning the characteristics and performance of those firms. Two hundred twenty-two patents (222) from 72 hotel firms in 14 countries were analysed and categorised using a mixed approach, qualitative and quantitative. A cluster analysis generated two profiles of firms according to their characteristics and patenting behaviour. The results suggest that hotel firms tend to patent inventions useful for innovating their processes or products and applicable in other industries (e.g., types of beds; flavoured beers; baskets for dishwashers). This result questions the approach of hotel firms as exclusive innovation adopters. Some hotel firms have an impressive track record of patent applications, with firms that have submitted dozens of applications each. The study has relevant implications for theory and practice, bringing a fresh approach to the study of innovation in the industry and revealing that patenting has been a growing industry trend.