Digital Service Innovation In the Danish Hotel Industry

Abstract

This research studies the hotel chain industry in Denmark with the purpose of finding barriers for digital service innovation regarding customer engaging products. The research in innovation and the hospitality industry are plentiful, and this study aims to extend the knowledge by answering the following research question:

What are the primary barriers to customer engaging digital service innovation in the Danish hotel chain industry and what can be done to improve digital service innovation?

This research question is investigating by the research field of the Danish hotel chain industry using the mixed methods approach, relying on both qualitative and quantitative data. Implementing qualitative data from varying experts from hotel chains and from suppliers of digital solutions. With the quantitative data providing objective findings from a larger sample that can be compared to the qualitative findings. Providing complementary strengths from each method within the critical realist’s scope to understand the underlying structures that cause barriers for digital service innovation, and further how to improve them.

The results indicate a complex organization structure due to digitalization. With a rigid structure disabling autonomy due to owners and brands managing hotels with the focus on the end customer and not the employees. Resulting in lack of incentives to search for new digital innovations for the hotels, while employees have a lack of autonomy due to time and coordination restrictions that especially harms improvisational efforts. This research provides tools towards breaking up these structures to overcome the identified barriers and enable autonomy and improvisation that is found to be essential for improvement of the digital service innovation strategy