The commercial function in hotel firms: organizational structure, performance measurement, and the limits of integration

Configuration theory predicts that organizational effectiveness requires coherence across structure and measurement systems. Using survey data from 196 hotel practitioners across 66 firms, this study tests that claim for the chief commercial officer (CCO) role, developing a taxonomy of commercial systems: fragmented, transitional, and integrated, based on CCO presence and property-level KPI infrastructure. CCO appointment alone yields only a modest measurement advantage; the larger gain requires property-level KPI development. Sixty-one percent of CCO firms remain transitional, showing no broader KPI adoption than firms without one. Firms should treat CCO appointment as the beginning of commercial transformation, not its completion.