Foreign direct investment patterns of global hotel chains

The hotel industry is a key sector in the twenty-first century. Even in the context of a global financial crisis, the hotel industry is consolidating global brands, expanding geographically, and diversifying its services offer. American and French traditional powerhouses have consolidated their position, although emerging economies in Asia and Latin America have also enabled the creation of powerful hotel chains. This study focuses on the largest hotel chain worldwide to shed new light on foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions (i.e., location choices), namely the choice of location according to the customer. This study uses the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method, drawing on Miles and Snow's (1978, 2003) typology, to examine statistical data on countries, tourists' nationality, and customers of Accor global hotel group. The present study analyzes the configurations of countries' economic development and geographical and cultural distance that lead to FDI decisions in the recent expansion of global hotel chains, thereby extending the application of gravitational theories to multinational enterprises' FDI decisions.