ANÁLISIS DE LA LECHE DURANTE EL TRANSPORTE

Research on Airbnb has reported that hotel industry executives have had mixed views about Airbnb, with many of them remaining skeptical about its relevance as a competitor (Guttentag, 2016; Zervas et al., 2016; Guttentag, 2017). The findings of this thesis indicate that hotel industry executives in Helsinki resonate with similar viewpoints, as most of them are not concerned about Airbnb as a competitive threat. Similarly to the U.S (Varma et al., 2016), hotel executives in Helsinki see Airbnb as appealing mainly to niche customer groups during peak times. Nevertheless, executives from leading hotel organizations in Finland commented that their organizations have observed minor negative impacts on narrower customer segments, even as their organizations’ overall performance has improved along with market growth. Hotel executives also stated that Airbnb impact on hotel performance is hard to pinpoint. The findings of this thesis provide additional support to past research on Airbnb, which has identified that hotel executives underestimate the disruptive threat posed by Airbnb (Guttentag, 2016; Varma et al., 2016).

The results of thesis supported the notion presented in Varma et al. (2016) that large hotel organizations tend to adopt a “wait and watch” approach, but contradicted the notion that smaller hotels would be more active in developing responses. One main reason for non- response could be that the market was growing rapidly, so hotel organizations in Helsinki had little motivation to explore what threat Airbnb posed. The various external and internal factors influencing response in my theoretical framework provided several possible reasons for non- response. These will be covered in detail in the next sub-sections. Literature on disruptive innovation can also help to explain why incumbents find it difficult to respond to change.

According to disruptive innovation literature, incumbents are tied to their existing ‘value networks’, where their internal processes have been designed to serve existing stakeholders like specific customer groups (Bower and Christensen, 1995; Christensen, 1997). This makes sense in the context of hotel industry, where hotel properties are significant long-term investments to the hotel business model. Additionally, hotels’ challenges in adapting to changes brought by digitalization were discussed in the literature review of this thesis and the interviews. When incumbents have made significant investments or are facing organizational

changes, they are more likely to concentrate on their existing businesses (Charitou and Markides, 2003). This was clearly evident in the research context of this thesis, as hotel organizations were mainly interested in extracting more value from their existing businesses. Furthermore, many organizations seemed to struggle with change and update to industry best practices retrospectively.

In terms of competitive responses, this thesis found no direct support that hotels had set lower prices in response to Airbnb (Zervas et al., 2016), even if past research on Airbnb has identified that this should be the case in capacity constrained cities during peak times (Farronato and Fradkin, 2018). The likely explanation is that this was simply not captured by the qualitative method used, as Airbnb performance indicators in sub-section 4.1.3 contradicted hotel executive comments that Airbnb would still be at a small scale in Helsinki. Past research on Airbnb has stated that hotel executives underestimate the disruptive threat posed by Airbnb (Guttentag, 2016; Varma et al., 2016); the trajectory of Airbnb growth in Helsinki and the analysis of executive comments throughout the findings support this viewpoint.

This thesis found partial support that hotels engaged in competitive responses that enhanced their product offering and improved personalization (Varma et al., 2016). However, contradictory to the findings in Varma et al. (2016) these have been mainly due to general market developments rather than solely because of Airbnb. The shift to non-standardized lifestyle and boutique offerings has been on-going since 2010 (Guttentag, 2016) and these trends were strongly present also in the local hotel industry in Helsinki. Some executives interviewed for this thesis implied that brand configurations and strengthened communication were, at least to a minor extent, partly due to Airbnb. These indirect responses were enacted by around half of the organizations in each segment. Finally, one hotel organization reported that it had made an agreement with Airbnb to list some of its properties on the Airbnb platform, using it as an additional distribution channel. This cooperative action is aligned with Airbnb’s new strategy to list smaller hotels on its website as noted by media sources like Zaleski (2018).

The most direct competitive response by hotels against Airbnb in Finland have been lobbying and raising public discussion, which have been occurring since 2014. Similar to the U.S (Blal et al., 2018), industry lobbying activities in Finland were found to be mediated through a national industry trade association (i.e. MaRa). This thesis provided new insights on lobbying formation by identifying how in the context of Finland, executives from leading hotel chains

are in a key role to influence the agenda of their industry trade association. Furthermore, MaRa has been a vocal critic of Airbnb in the Finnish media. The industry association also has a successful track record in successfully influencing regulatory outcomes. Theory suggests that joint lobbying activities through industry association may have been chosen due its proven effectiveness in influencing the regulatory environment (Bombardini and Trebbi, 2012). This thesis provided some evidence that hotel majors were motivated to influence Airbnb regulation due to competitive and ideological reasons. These included addressing regulatory inequalities and concern for consumer protection. In conclusion, industry level factors like the presence of trade associations (Chen and Miller, 2015) and the role of institutional environment (Smith et al., 2001) were identified as important for hotel competitive response against Airbnb in this thesis.