ABSTRACT
During the twentieth century hotel chains, which are professionally managed, multi-unit organizations, have risen to prominence. The rise of hotel chains is a significant development for participants and customers of the hospitality industry, and for students of organizations and the American economy. The transformation to hotel chains also provides an opportunity to examine ideas about why one form of organization rather than another is used in an industry. Most of organizational theory in the last twenty years has been about the determinants of success for organizational forms. Transaction cost economics explains the prevalence of organizational forms with efficiency arguments. The short explanation for the existence of large professionally managed organizations is "because they are more efficient in some circumstances". Efforts of the preconscious position to explain organizational forms focus on diffusion processes. When institutions are seen as conscious constraints on action, attention turns to the rewards and punishments that accompany them.
