E‐innovation: Internet impacts on small UK hospitality firms

Within the small firms sector, the Web is anticipated to bring unprecedented new opportunities for business development and competitive advantage. The reality in small firms, however, may be that lack of understanding of the value the Net may provide in the context of their own organisation, deters many owners from gaining such advantages. This paper looks at six cases of small hospitality firms. “E‐innovation” here represents innovative strategy enabling customers to do what best serves their purpose via information communications technology. These small hospitality firms have adopted the Web and used it; as a result they have changed business processes and personal expectations. Suggests that the current narrow focus on business growth or on technology alone seen in current initiatives may miss owners such as these who took up the Net for social and personal reasons but developed business uses alongside them. Recommends that an integrated hosting of such firms would provide better customer access, and therefore lead to benefits for such firms. Where targets are set for increases in tourism, it is also recommended that the Internet might play a part in developing such growth, if integrated and applied to the context of hospitality firms.