The role of business model innovation in the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 crisis

Matthias Breier; Andreas Kallmuenzer; Thomas Clauss; Johanna Gast; Sascha Kraus; Victor Tiberius

doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102723

The role of business model innovation in the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 crisis

Int J Hosp Manag. 2021 Jan:92:102723. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102723. Epub 2020 Oct 26.

Authors

Matthias Breier¹, Andreas Kallmuenzer², Thomas Clauss³, Johanna Gast⁴, Sascha Kraus⁵, Victor Tiberius⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Lappeenranta Campus, Yliopistonkatu 34, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland.
² Department of Strategy, CERIIM - Excelia Business School, 102 Rue de Coureilles, 17000 La Rochelle, France.
³ Department of Entrepreneurship and Management, University of Witten/Herdecke, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 58455 Witten, Germany.
⁴ Department of Management, Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Montpellier Business School, 2300 Avenue des Moulins, 34080 Montpellier, France.
⁵ Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Universitätsplatz 1, 39000 Bolzano, Italy.
⁶ Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, Germany.

Abstract

The hospitality industry worldwide is among the hardest-hit industries from the COVID-19 lockdowns. Initial theoretical and practical observations in the hospitality industry indicate that business model innovation (BMI) might be a solution to recover from and successfully cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Interestingly, some firms in the hospitality industry already started to successfully adapt their business models. This study explores the why and how of these successful recovery attempts through BMI by conducting a multiple case study of six hospitality firms in Austria. We rely on interview data from managers together with one of their main stammgasts for each case, which we triangulate with secondary data for the analysis. Findings show that BMI is applied during and after the crisis to create new revenue streams and secure a higher level of liquidity, with an important role of stammgasts.

Keywords: Business model innovation; COVID-19; Crisis; Hospitality; Stammgasts; Tourism.