An Analysis of the Strategic Profiles of Small- and Medium-sized Hotels in the Alps

The aim of the PhD Thesis was to study the strategic development and the forms of relationships that exist among smalland medium-sized hotel enterprises (SMTEs). This business category was chosen as the object of study because of its importance within the tourist offering (Rispoli, Tamma 1995; Kozak, Rimigton 1998). The research looks specifically at smalland medium-sized hotels in Alpine regions, given that in these destinations the predominant business category is made up of autonomous SMTEs which are family-run and whose development is deeply rooted in the territory and in the local community (Tschurtschenthaler 2000, Keller 2004). Despite the numerical importance of SMTEs, the academic research has thus far focused mainly on large businesses (Quinn et al. 1992; Thomas 1998), thereby leaving a knowledge gap with regard to the structural, strategic and managerial characteristics of SMTEs (Friel 1999; Page et al. 1999). The study of the different paths of development among hotel businesses in Alpine regions from the mid-1700s to the present (Leonardi 2000; Battilani 2001; Bartaletti 2004; Bätzing 2005) shows on one hand the importance of the territory’s natural resources as an attractive feature of the tourist offering, and on the other the ability of the local community to take advantage of increasing flows in tourist demand and to improvise business activities (spontaneous professionalization, Nocifora 2001), by investing local resources (financial and real estate) and setting up an accommodations sector. An analysis of the path of development over time has found that spontaneity and individualism are prevalent in business activities and are distinctive elements of the birth and development of hotels and other tourist businesses in these regions. In light of the increasing complexity of the sector since the 1990s and the limits endemic to the small size of the businesses, we maintain that the reactive strategy (Miles and Snow 1978) that these businesses have adopted until now is not sufficient to maintain their competitiveness in the medium and long term; that is, they are not able, alone, to offer the increasingly articulated and complex tourist offering that a large segment of the tourist market demands (Smeral 1998, Martini 2002, Pomfret 2004). The thesis focused on the contents of the development strategies and paths of these enterprises, with particular attention to the dynamics of relationships (the nature, intensity, purpose and depth) that hotels develop with other local actors within the same competitive environment (Porter 1985; Rispoli 2002). Emphasis was given to the study of whether the behaviour of the businesses is the result of their entrepreneurial spontaneity or of a process whereby they have deliberately taken certain strategic decisions from a more informed standpoint (Mintzberg, Waters 1985). The latter would allow them to channel emerging ideas into a stronger and more defined strategy for the medium and long term. The aim of the analysis of inter-business relationships was to identify business profiles that are distinct from the individualistic pattern followed by some enterprises, and as such are oriented towards forming and maintaining relationships with other businesses. The research foresaw two lines of analysis: a study and discussion of the theoretical framework and field research in the Alpine regions of Italy and Switzerland. In order to fill the knowledge gap regarding the SMTEs, some schemes and contributions from the specialist literature in the tourist sector have been added, along with some tools and models of analysis coming from the literature on manufacturing enterprises, with specific reference to the study of small business systems (Piore, Sabel