The future of small firms in the hospitality industry

Abstract

This paper provides a wide‐ranging review of what is currently understood about the management and development of small firms in the hospitality industry, with particular reference to entrepreneurship. Its premiss is that small firms in this industry should be seen as an analytical category that is distinct from other – larger – enterprises. Assertions made by those who see small hospitality firms as merely miniaturised versions of larger organisations are, therefore, rejected as ill‐conceived. The paper is also critical of the quality – and thus value – of widely cited statistics, which are often used as evidence of the inexorable decline of small firms. The paper concludes by tentatively suggesting that far from suffering such misfortune, many small firms are likely to experience prosperity in the years ahead. Furthermore, a minority of firms which can be classed as entrepreneurial represent dynamic engines which have the potential to drive the hospitality industry into a healthy future.

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