Expansion strategies and evolution paths of hotel groups in China

The organizational structure change of enterprises should be subject to the change of strategy, and strategy change is the reaction to the environment change. This paper studied the expansion strategies and evolution paths of hotel groups in China by a survey in 2007, in which the research objects were 91 hotel groups listed by China Tourist Hotels Association. The conclusions are drawn: based on the two dimensions of unification management function scope and the unification management degree, hotel groups can be divided into four strategic types, including strategically concentrated group, close function group, widespread alliance group and loose union group. Simultaneously there are three different expansion paths: stability path, growth path and undulation path. About 72.5% of Chinese hotel groups have a stability or growth expansion path.