Understanding the challenges of implementing best practices in hospitality and tourism SMEs

Purpose – To provide insight into the barriers to the application of best practices in hospitality and tourism small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth interviews were conducted with owners, managers and staff in 89 award‐winning business in the hospitality and tourism industry. Eight areas of best practice that arose from an initial pilot study were investigated in the sample population of SME's. With a holistic and multiple‐cases analysis approach, the case studies are assembled to form a portrait of hospitality and tourism in the UK. Findings – Results suggest a model identifying seven key capabilities that underlie the adoption of best practices and six barriers to their implementation. The seven key capabilities for hospitality and tourism SMEs are customer focused goals, planning and control, partnering and networking, internal and external communication, achieving consistent standards, strategic workforce management, cash flow and performance management. The six barriers to implementing best practices were identified as changing demand, limited resources, lack of skilled labour, lifestyle, lack of competitive benchmarking and location, all of which could create turbulence in the operational environment. Research limitations/implications – As hospitality and tourism SMEs appear to inherit characteristics derived both from the small and medium size of the operation and the nature of the industry sector, the implications of the model and the associated barriers may create obstacles to the benefits of competitive benchmarking and lead to a loss of the pride and passion and impede the growth of their business. Originality/value – Considerable diversity is demonstrated amongst SMEs in relation to their use of strategies while confirming some of the difficulties and challenges inherent to the industry and endemic to smaller organisations.