Fetching the ‘exterior’ ‘in’: Effects of an alliance’s collaborative governance and collaborative accountability on hotel innovation performance

From a firm perspective and based on the innovation life cycle approach, this paper has two aims: to examine how collaborative governance (CG) and collaborative accountability (CA) in hotel chains affect innovation performance (IP, i.e., creation, diffusion and evaluation) and to highlight the connections between IP and firm performance (financial, nonfinancial and environmental). PLS-SEM was used to analyse survey data from a sample of managers of international chain hotels in Egypt (n = 126). The results indicate that CA significantly affects IP and firm performance, while CG does not. Moreover, all IP dimensions are significant antecedents of hotel performance at the financial, nonfinancial and environmental levels. This study is one of the few addressing the effects of CG and CA on the innovation life cycle as a higher order construct in the hospitality arena. Accordingly, the final section provides meaningful theoretical and managerial contributions.