This PhD by Publication explores the evolution of the British hotel industry from the mid-18th to the early 21st century. The thesis is constructed around five published articles. The five articles comprise: two that research the diffusion of innovation and British hotel industry evolution in the 19th century (Bowie, 2015; Bowie, 2018); two that investigate the adoption of management innovations in British hotel brands between 1998 and 2008 (Osman, Hemmington, and Bowie, 2009; Wang and Bowie, 2009); and a methodological article that evaluates the role of contextual analysis in management history research (Bowie, 2019). All five articles primarily adopt an interpretive philosophy using qualitative research methods that yield contextual depth and rich data to facilitate detailed analysis. Two of the articles employ the historical method to analyse text in newspaper archives and trade directories. Two of the articles adopt a phenomenological strategy with the main focus on internal document analysis, non-participant observation, and interviewing customers, employees, and managers to explore their different perspectives. One article is a literature review analysing the relationship between contextual analysis and newspaper archives. There is an extensive evaluation of the methodologies used in these published works. The creation of a tapestry analogy, used as a device to integrate the corpus of work, represents a methodological contribution to knowledge. The tapestry analogy provides a tool to explore hidden meanings in a text that can reveal intricate relationships within the narrative. The thesis makes a theoretical contribution to knowledge in the field of British hotel industry evolution by developing a framework to explain the transformation of the British hotel industry from an ‘inn-keeping’ stage in circa 1810, to a ‘hotel management’ stage in circa 1910, to a ‘multi-brand, corporate hotel management’ stage in circa 2010. The framework incorporates multi-level perspectives of hotel industry evolution and innovation; and uses elements of industry lifecycle theory. The analysis extends academic understanding of the evolutionary nature of hotel industry development from small-scale, micro-managed, cottage businesses to an industry dominated by large-scale, systems-orientated, international corporations. This evolution is underpinned by wide-scale industry adoption of dominant innovations that eventually transformed the British hotel industry during different stages of the industry’s lifecycle.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/f19n-xy06
Crawford Bowie. David Edwin
Supervisors: Quinton, Sarah; Bowen, David
Oxford Brookes Business School
Year: 2020
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