ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the methodological approach used to examine the rise of hotel chains, and describes the collection of data and the variables used. Mortality processes are investigated by estimating the instantaneous risk of death of chains. The unit of analysis is the individual chain, so chain level as well as environmental variables can be studied. For founding processes, the individual chain is not a feasible unit of analysis. It is impossible to define the risk set of social actors that may form a hotel chain. The dynamics of organizational growth and decline are not as well understood as mortality or founding. 1980 was chosen for the end of observation because of both practical and theoretical reasons. In 1980 the population of hotel chains is large, and it grows larger in the subsequent decade. That decade also sees a notable increase in activity that leads to the mortality and founding of chains.
