Leadership research in the root of hospitality scholarship: 1960–2020

This study documents the intellectual structure and progress of hospitality leadership research over the past sixty years by presenting a perspective and conspectus. The authors use text mining analysis to explore topic highlights and how they have shifted over time. Leadership development has been the predominant feature followed by contemporary leadership behaviors. Of the eight leadership domains revealed by the co-citation and text mining analyses, four are associated with leadership styles, which in their turn impact on employees. LMX is the leading theme in hospitality leadership research, with growing attention to the darker side of leadership, particularly abusive supervision. The current study contributes to the hospitality literature by considering coverage of leadership issues since the 1960 s. Furthermore, it encompasses the evolution of hospitality leadership research from the development of theory to a focus on impacts, thereby providing crucial insights that may allow industry professionals to lead their organizations more effectively and efficiently.