The speed of change and performance risk: examining the impacts of IT spending in the US hotel industry

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of the speed of change (trend) in information technology (IT) expenditures on performance risk indicated by revenue volatility in the US hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach To systematically investigate the impacts of IT expenditures on hotel performance risks, this study collects the same store proprietary data of 1,471 hotel properties from CBRE, a leading hotel consulting firm in the USA, from 2011 to 2017, with a total of 10,297 observations. Findings Econometric analyses are performed and results indicate a significant and positive impact of the speed of change of IT systems expenditures on the performance risk after comprehensively controlling for confounding factors following prior research. Originality/value With the increased importance of IT in day-to-day activities, hospitality business owners have started to quickly adjust their investment in IT infrastructure and superstructure to enhance their business performance. However, their fast-changing expenditures may introduce more risks to their businesses based on the speed–accuracy tradeoff, systems theory and the Schumpeterian Growth Model. This study is one of the pioneer projects that ever assessed the impact of IT expenditure and speed of change on performance risks of hotels.