Celebrating Hospitality Finance and Accounting Research

I am delighted to introduce this Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CQ) Special Issue on Hospitality Finance and Accounting. When former editor Mike Lynn and I began discussing this issue in 2017, our intent was twofold. First, we wanted to curate a collection of articles focused on key finance and accounting issues in hospitality management to highlight the important work being done in these areas. Second, we wanted to spread awareness that the CQ welcomes research in these areas that provides actionable knowledge of value to hospitality industry professionals and advances academic research. Editor Bruce Tracey shared this vision when he took over the reins as editor in 2018, and we are very pleased to present this special issue.

The 10 articles in this issue reflect the breadth of hospitality finance and accounting research. Several of the articles examine critical issues in hotel valuation, including natural occupancy shifts, the value of location, how ownership structure influences capital expenditures, and the impact of renovation capital expenditures on hotel performance. Two articles examine classic corporate finance questions—the impact of board size and corporate governance on firm performance—in the specific and unique setting of the hotel industry, offering innovative insights for managers and scholars. Two articles study capital markets-related questions, examining earnings persistence and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loan default in the lodging industry. And finally, two articles turn their attention to the restaurant industry to examine how restaurant firms are affected by corporate social responsibility communication and investment–cash flow sensitivities. Collectively, these articles both advance our knowledge and remind us of the wealth of additional finance and accounting questions yet to be answered.

This special issue is the result of a tremendous amount of creativity, faith, and hard work generously contributed by many people. In addition to the authors who submitted their best work, I would like to thank the more than 60 scholars who reviewed submissions, helping to select and refine the final collection of articles. We had a very robust set of over 40 submissions, and the reviewers’ contributions were outstanding and critical. I also thank the CQ editors past and present, Mike Lynn and Bruce Tracey, for supporting this special issue. It has been a pleasure for me to serve as the guest editor, and I look forward to seeing many more excellent articles in hospitality finance and accounting in future issues of the CQ.

Pamela Moulton