# Stanley Sun Faculty Global Research Fund – Hospitality Research Grants

**Publisher:** Cornell Center for Hospitality Research  
**Published:** n/a  
**Category:** Academia & observatories  
**Type:** Report  
**Access:** Free  
**Official source:** https://business.cornell.edu/centers/chr/research-publications/stanley-sun-faculty-fund  
**Canonical:** https://tourismintel.ai/reports/the-stanley-sun-faculty-global-research-fund-cornell-college-of-business

## At a glance
- 2025 grants support three faculty projects on auction transparency, creativity bias, and tribal casino workforce management in hospitality.
- 2023 recipients studied sustainability attributes in hotel bookings and links between cultural amenities and housing prices.
- 2022 research examined Google price meta impact, subscription programs in restaurants, and regional identity strategies in Mexican hospitality.
- Fund awards grants to Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration and SC Johnson College faculty.
- Research topics span consumer behavior, pricing, innovation, sustainability, and operational management across hospitality and service sectors.

## What the report covers
The Stanley Sun Faculty Global Research Fund awards grants to support faculty research at Cornell's Nolan School of Hotel Administration and SC Johnson College on topics relevant to hospitality, travel, and service industries. Administered by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, the fund has supported research projects across three grant cycles (2022, 2023, and 2025) spanning consumer behavior, pricing dynamics, workforce management, sustainability, and strategic innovation. The initiative bridges academic inquiry and industry-specific challenges.

## Key findings
The 2025 grant cycle awarded three projects: Anderson and Davis investigate how transparency shapes auction behavior and outcomes, with applications across hospitality markets. Lucas examines age-related misperceptions about creativity and their effect on bias in hospitality innovation and leadership. Slaugh analyzes workforce dynamics in tribal casinos, focusing on how career trajectories and membership status inform operational and community alignment.

The 2023 cycle examined demand-side and location-based factors. Adalja's research measures how sustainability attributes influence consumer choice in online hotel bookings. Liu's project establishes connections between cultural and urban consumption amenities and housing price formation, suggesting linkages between experiential infrastructure and real estate valuation.

The 2022 cohort focused on distribution, pricing, and brand strategy. Anderson untangles traffic and reservation impacts of Google's price meta tool. Park studies subscription program effectiveness in restaurant delivery and adjacent categories. Sine examines how cultural strategies help Mexican hospitality firms manage regional identity perception.

Additional 2022 research addressed soft branding and voluntary sustainability engagement. Chun and Kim investigate consumer preferences and behavioral drivers for soft-branded hotel products. Ozanne and Zhang explore how language framing influences participation in voluntary sustainable hotel programs, suggesting communication design shapes environmental program uptake.

## Key numbers
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Grant cycles completed | 3 cycles | Years 2022, 2023, 2025; publicly disclosed recipients |
| 2025 grant recipients | 3 faculty projects | Awarded for research on auctions, creativity bias, and tribal workforce management |
| 2023 grant recipients | 2 faculty projects | Sustainability in hotel bookings; cultural amenities and housing prices |
| 2022 grant recipients | 6 faculty projects | Topics: price meta, subscriptions, regional identity, soft branding, language framing, sustainability engagement |

## Why it matters
**DMOs & destinations** — Research on regional identity strategy and cultural amenities' impact on housing and tourism demand provides evidence for destination branding and community development. Findings on sustainability attributes and consumer choice inform positioning strategies. Cultural and language framing research supports messaging design for visitor engagement and sustainable tourism initiatives.

**Hotels & hospitality** — Projects on auction transparency, pricing meta, and subscription models directly inform revenue optimization and distribution strategy. Research on soft branding, sustainability engagement, and consumer behavior in bookings supports product positioning and loyalty design. Workforce studies in tribal enterprises highlight operational innovation and community-aligned HR practices relevant to diverse hospitality contexts.

**Travel tech & distribution** — Findings on price transparency effects, Google meta's traffic and reservation impact, and subscription program effectiveness provide evidence for platform design. Research on language framing and consumer preferences in bookings informs interface and recommendation strategy. Studies on sustainability and soft branding attributes help refine search, filtering, and personalization algorithms.

## Methodology and limits
This brief draws on publicly disclosed summaries of grant recipients and project titles from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research website. The source provides descriptive overviews of research proposals across three funding cycles (2022, 2023, 2025) but does not include quantitative findings, sample sizes, or methodological detail. This brief is based on the publicly available summary only; full research outcomes and data are not available in the source text.

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© Cornell Center for Hospitality Research for the original report. This brief is an original editorial summary by TourismIntel (https://tourismintel.ai). Read the original: https://business.cornell.edu/centers/chr/research-publications/stanley-sun-faculty-fund