Bridging the academic-practitioner chasm: Towards a model of hotel B2B sales.

Abstract

This paper presents a synthesized hotel B2B sales model, relevant to practitioners, while anchored in theory. This is in response to calls for further research to integrate fragmented existing theory and to bridge the theory-practice divide. The paper shows that (i) the hotel B2B sales model comprises complex constructs, which hold challenges for theory development; (ii) the (major) hotel corporations operate in all modes of Inter-Organizational Integration and various relationship strengths – i.e. transactional, consultative, collaborative and strategic; and (iii) economic and behavioral theories explain this evolving model. The contribution of this paper stems from enhancing understanding by integrating fragmented knowledge.