Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>To explore the nature and potential of competitor‐focused accounting practice (CFA) in a large hotel.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>Unstructured tape‐recorded interviews ranging from one to one‐and‐a‐half hours' duration were conducted with 21 senior managers representing finance, marketing, hotel operations, casino, and human resource management in a large hotel.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>Levels of CFA formalised application appear limited, especially when compared with a widely held managerial perception that significant benefits could derive from applying CFA. The CFA practices noted were conducted in an unstructured and <jats:italic>ad hoc</jats:italic> manner. The main generic use of CFA is in connection with sensitising staff with respect to competitors’ strengths and also strategy development. The hotel shared occupancy level information with competing hotels.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Research limitations/implications</jats:title><jats:p>The study suffers from all the limitations generally associated with a single company qualitative field study. These limitations include the degree of subjectivity that is invoked when researchers interpret qualitative field study data.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Practical implications</jats:title><jats:p>The paper clarifies the notion of “CFA” and provides an outline of CFA management issues arising in the context of a hotel. An outline is provided of those parts of a hotel operation that are most likely to be more active in CFA, together with empirically informed suggestions with respect to CFA uses in a hotel.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>The paper is highly original. Despite the generally accepted importance of strategy development being informed by appropriately conducted competitor analysis, there has been a paucity of research concerned with competitor analysis in the hotel industry.</jats:p></jats:sec>