Structure Conduct Performance and Efficient-Structure Hypotheses : Evaluation in Indian Tourism Industry

The study examines the Indian tourism Industry for both structure conduct performance and efficiency structure hypotheses. The two hypotheses are tested on basis of data collected from Prowess for a period 2011-2015. Two measures of performance were utilized i.e. return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) while Market share (MS) was used to measure structure and Marketing expenditure per unit of sales was used to measure the conduct variable. Multiple regression analysis in SPSS 20 was used to analyse the data. The overall results suggest that tourism industry is independent of the structure (SCP hypothesis) but there is a significant relationship between marketing expenditure per unit of sales with profitability. The current study supports the efficiency hypothesis in the Indian Tourism Industry. The results indicate that the policy makers should be concentrating on policies and strategies which help the operators (companies) in this industry improve their efficiency rather than worrying about concentration in the industry. The HHI indicated that the Indian tourism industry was moderately concentrated. The results of the study would help practitioners understand the industry better and frame policy and strategies which reap better profitability for the industry as a whole. It would also improve the existing bank of literature on both SCP and ES hypothesis as well as Indian Tourism industry