Globalization's Impact on Hilton Hotels: A Research Project

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RESEARCH PROJECT
Investigation on the critical issues of globalization in the international hotel industry- a study of
Hilton Hotel

Table of Contents
BACKGROUND...........................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES..................................................................................4
PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................5
METHOD................................................................................................................................... 7
TIMESCALE................................................................................................................................ 8
RESOURCES............................................................................................................................... 9
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX................................................................................................................................11
Bath Spa University Research Ethics Approval Form...........................................................11
Ethical Review of Research Projects – Checklist..................................................................12
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BACKGROUND
Hospitality and tourism are one of the fastest growing industries around the world that have
provided employment opportunities, also contributed to the growth and development of the
country. The hospitality industry is one of the crucial parts of travel and tourism industry in
which a wide range of services is provided including travel arrangement food and beverages,
accommodation facilities and leisure activities to the travellers (Niewiadomski, 2014).
On the other hand, globalization can be referred to as amalgamations of the different
economies, societies as well as civilizations around the world. It has gained significance in
recent years in hospitality and tourism industry as it provides the opportunities to a traveller
a wide range of choices to visit and stay at any destination and gain memorable experience
(Niewiadomski, 2014). Globalization had led the hotel organization to expand around the
world and make their presence felt worldwide.
Globalization’ presence has intensified the competition level in the hospitality industry as
hotels focus on identifying new ways for growth and development. The hotels operating at
an international level are focused on providing outstanding customer services in order to
compete for potential customers. The integration of globalization is also accelerated by the
flow of information due to technology among individuals (Brookes and Becket, 2011). Due to
the free exchange of technologies, labour, products, goods and services through
globalization, it has become easy for the consumer to access to any information using the
internet and also be aware of the availability of wide range and variety of services choices.
The major competition for the hotel management operating at the international level to
provide excellent services including accommodation, food and beverages and travel
arrangement according to the needs and requirements of the customers and not on intense
promotional campaigns and cost-cutting strategies. Globalisation brought positive factors
such as reduced investment risk due to distributed operations, increasing sales, getting low-
cost labour and resources and also builds worldwide recognition while negative factors are
loss of authenticity, increased competition, increased customers' expectations and harm to
the environment.
Hilton hotel is one of the world largest and fastest growing hospitality organizations in the
world that comprises about 17 brands over 113 countries around the world. It also has more
than 5,600 properties worldwide (Hilton, 2019). This paper is focused on investigating the
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critical issues of globalisation influencing the international hospitality industry with specific
reference to Hilton hotel.
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RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES
RESEARCH AIMS:
The research project aims to analyse the major types of globalisation impact that may be
faced by the Hilton hotel at the time of their business expansion in the global market. It also
studies the challenges faced by the Hilton hotel in the new hospitality market in order to
suggest for overcoming the problem.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
The research objectives are:
1. To determine the impact of globalisation on the Hilton hotel in their plan to enter a
new global economy.
2. To collect and analyse data using effective research methods in context to
globalisation factors influencing the growth and success of the Hilton hotel's
business.
3. To determine and analyse the impact of different factors of globalisation on business
operations of Hilton hotel.
4. To develop appropriate strategies and plans for successful implementation of
business in a new economy along with further long-term growth.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. What possible impact does the globalisation leave on Hilton hotel in terms of
business expansion?
2. What could be the negative impact of globalisation that may be faced by employees
of the Hilton hotel to gain competitive advantages in current market conditions?
3. What type of opportunities does the globalisation provide to Hilton hotel in terms of
gaining business success?
4. What actions can be taken by Hilton hotel to minimise the negative impacts of
globalisation?
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PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW
The purpose of this research project is to identify and analyse the positive and negative
factors of the globalisation that influences the business operation, expansion and
sustainability of the hotel chain Hilton hotel. It is observed that globalisation has made its
presences in almost every sector and industry including hospitality industry. The
globalisation has influenced the hospitality industry in both a positive and negative manner.
Current and future trends were identified in a paper published by Kapiki (2012) that affects
the tourism as well as hospitality industry including safety and security of the guests,
significance of offering excellent services, adopting technologies to enhance competition and
globalisation. The performance indicators of Greek tourism for the last 10 years were
analysed in the paper in order to suggest different ways and methods overcome recession
for the tourism entrepreneurs. It was suggested to hotel chains to carefully analyse the
current as well as future trends along with applying proper adaptations, investments in
exceptional services and also utilising social networks as well as new technologies.
Additionally, Khamrang (2013) presented the paper in an attempt to create a development
process of tourism in the country supported by the development model of Bhutan along
with its contribution to the economy of the country. The doctrine of Gross National
Happiness (GNH) had guided the narrative of tourism policy of Bhutan. The four pillars of
GNH are a cultural promotion, environmental conservation, equitable socio-economic
development and good governance embarked the tourism policy of Bhutan. Bhutan was a
non-monetized economy operated in isolation until the midst of 1960. The year 1974 is
marked as the birth of tourism industry when the country allowed the tourists from outside
the country thus generating significant national revenue from the tourism industry.
The hospitality industry was facing the global challenges related to sustainability which
brought the attention of the third annual CHR sustainability Roundtable to begin the
roundtables (Ricaurte, 2012). The representatives from various global hotel companies,
service providers and a diverse group of hospitality as well as sustainability academic and
researchers joined in together in a roundtable held on October 2011 at the School of Hotel
Administration at Cornell University. A major focus of attention was specific issues of
interest identified including complexities to manage sustainability across a variety of types
and operating levels of the hotel in numerous jurisdictions around the world (Ricaurte,
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2012). This roundtable acted as a catalyst for increasing focused research thereby adding
value to the discussion and sustainability practices of the hotel industry.
Another paper by Ivanov and Ivanova (2016) had assessed the influence of hotel chains on
the level of globalisation on a particular destination. Economic, composite, social, as well as
a political index, are the four indices to measure globalisation. The literature on globalisation
was contributed by empirically assessing the influence of the presences of hotel chains on
the level of globalisation of particular country. The number of affiliated hotels along with the
share of the affiliated hotels was used to model the hotel chain's presence. It was found that
the level of globalisation of the country was not influenced by the presence of hotel chains.
According to Gross and Huang (2011), a research paper was carried out to understand the
internationalisation prospects of domestic hotel firms in China. It examined the largest
domestic hotel firm of China, Jin Jiang Hotel group, in order to find that the organizational
development of the firm is in its pre-internationalisation stage and had adopted a careful as
well as a passive approach on its path to internationalisation. Government support, network
and management standards, company abilities, issues related to state-owned enterprises,
company abilities, marketing and brand strategy and other external opportunities or
challenges are the factors identified in the paper, which may affect the internationalisation
of the
A panel of 117 observations of 17 hotels based in the UK was analysed by using the data
gathered from a Franchisor questionnaire between 2001 and 2008. The analysis revealed a
positive relation between the decision to internationalise through franchising by franchisor
and franchises percentage, the ration between franchised units and a total number of units
(Alon et al., 2012). The research was aimed to contribute to the literature related to
international franchising of hotels representing the unique characteristics such as maturity in
the product life cycle, high standardisation level, the high capital requirement for investment
and globalisation of operations.
Thus it can be observed that there are various pieces of literature reviews, researches and
papers related to the globalisation and its significance and impact on the hotel organizations.
it has become essential for the hotel organizations to expand at international level so as to
enhance their market presences and serve potential hospitality market.
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METHOD
The research project is aimed at identifying the impact of globalisation on business
expansion and growth of the Hilton hotel and also challenges faced by the hotel in the new
hospitality market.
The settings of the research are in the first stage a research proposal will be developed and
then a complete research project will be prepared and presented including both primary and
secondary data collection and analysis in order to draw reliable research outcome (Neuman
and Robson, 2014). At last, recommendations will be provided to Hilton hotel based on the
results and finding drawn from the research and reach to the conclusion.
The research will be conducted by employing a combination of research methods that is
qualitative and quantitative research methods. The qualitative research method is focused
on identifying the views and opinions related to the impact of globalisation on the business
growth and expansion of the Hilton hotel. These views and opinion of the people will be
quantified by using quantitative research methods (Walliman, 2017).
This research project will include both primary and secondary data collection methods.
Secondary data collection method will be included in the research to get the background
information for the project. Secondary data will be collected from a wide range of sources
such as journals, research papers, studies, articles, books, blogs and online publications
(Walliman, 2017). Secondary data will act as a base for the primary research. The selection
of the secondary resources will be based on its relevance to the research topic.
In addition to this, primary research will be conducted to collect fresh and original data and
information for the research. The participants selected for the research will the employees
of Hilton hotels. Questionnaire survey method will be used to collect the primary data for
the research (Mackenzie et al., 2012). A systematic questionnaire comprising at least 10
questions will be distributed among the participants so as to collect their response for the
research. A total of 100 employees will be selected for the research in order to analyse the
data and reach a suitable conclusion for the research.
Random sampling method will be recruited to select the participants of the research. The
collected data will then be presented using tables and charts of Ms-excel (Mackenzie et al.,
2012). A research ethical approval form is filled and included in the appendix section to
demonstrate the consideration of ethical implications for the research.
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TIMESCALE
Tasks Start date End date duratio
n
Preparation of research proposal 3/18/2019 4/1/2019 14
Searching and reviewing academic literature 4/2/2019 4/29/2019 27
Projecting tools and techniques of data
collection and analysis
4/30/2019 5/14/2019 14
Submission of research proposal 5/15/2019 5/20/2019 5
Selection of sample size and collection of
primary data
5/21/2019 7/26/2019 66
Analysis of primary data collected 7/27/2019 8/23/2019 27
Interpretation of primary data and
information
8/24/2019 10/6/2019 43
Drawing the research results and findings 10/7/2019 11/3/2019 27
Final dissertation submission 11/4/2019 12/16/201
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42
Poster presentation submission and
assessment
12/23/2019 1/13/2020 21
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RESOURCES
In order to effectively complete the research project, the resources required will be financial,
human and physical resources. Physical resources include the stationery materials including
paper, sheets, note pen and other stationery, computer, network connection, books, and so
on (Neuman and Robson, 2014). Human resources will be required to complete the research
project as support staff will be required to collect the data from the employees of Hilton
hotel. Along with it, research experts and IT professionals will be needed to carry out data
collection and analysis.
Additionally, guidance and support from the tutor and research supervisor will be welcomed
for the correct direction of the research. The financial resource is one of the most crucial
resources required for the research (Neuman and Robson, 2014). The estimated expenses
required for the research project is given in the table below:
Particulars Estimated expenses
Salaries and wages 550
Computer and other IT Peripherals 900
Refreshments to staff 350
Stationery and printing material 450
Travel costs 400
Network services 600
Other administrative expenses 950
Total 4200
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REFERENCES
1. Alon, I., Ni, L. and Wang, Y., 2012. Examining the determinants of hotel chain
expansion through international franchising. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 31(2), pp.379-386.
2. Brookes, M. and Becket, N., 2011. Internationalising hospitality management degree
programmes. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 23(2),
pp.241-260.
3. Gross, M.J. and Huang, S., 2011. Exploring the internationalisation prospects of a
Chinese domestic hotel firm. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 23(2), pp.261-274.
4. Hilton, 2019. Welcome TO HILTON (Online) available at
https://www.hilton.com/en/corporate/ Accessed on 22nd April 2019
5. Ivanov, S. and Ivanova, M., 2016. Do hotel chains stimulate globalisation?. Tourism
Management Perspectives, 19, pp.102-108.
6. Kapiki, S., 2012. Current and future trends in tourism and hospitality: the case of
Greece. International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, 2(1).
7. Khamrang, L., 2013. Modernisation, Globalisation and Development in Bhutan:
Tourism as a Catalyst. Journal of Management & Public Policy, 5(1).
8. Mackenzie, J., Tan, P.L., Hoverman, S. and Baldwin, C., 2012. The value and
limitations of participatory action research methodology. Journal of hydrology, 474,
pp.11-21.
9. Neuman, W.L. and Robson, K., 2014. Basics of social research. Toronto: Pearson
Canada.
10. Niewiadomski, P., 2014. Towards an economic-geographical approach to the
globalisation of the hotel industry. Tourism Geographies, 16(1), pp.48-67.
11. Ricaurte, E., 2012. The hospitality industry confronts the global challenge of
sustainability.
12. Walliman, N., 2017. Research methods: The basics. Routledge.
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APPENDIX
Bath Spa University Research Ethics Approval Form
Student/Staff name
Programme and/or module
Title of the proposed
research project:
Investigation on the critical issues of globalization in the
international hotel industry- A study of Hilton Hotel
Number and type of
proposed participants
100 employees of Hilton hotel
How is permission being
sought from the participants
and/or their parents/carers?
Through informed consent by explaining the details of
the research
How is participants’
anonymity to be preserved?
By storing the responses of the participants in password-
protected computer and sealed box.
Describe the research
methods proposed (e.g.
interviews, classroom
observations)
Questionnaire survey
List the ethical issues and
potential risks associated with
the research methods outlined
above (e.g. confidentiality) and
how you propose to deal with
each of these.
1. Maintaining the confidentiality of the
participants.
2. Not collecting any personal information
3. Making them aware of the purpose and details of
the research
4. Giving voluntary rights to withdraw from the
research at any given point of time.
Describe how your findings will
be reported or disseminated
Through email and poster presentation
I have read the
University’s
Process and Procedure
for
the Approval of Research
Activity
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