[Excerpt] The main reason empirical submissions to Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CQ) are rejected is that the authors failed to adequately answer the “so what?” question. Almost all empirical submissions to CQ provide compelling evidence that some relationship exists between two or more variables, but fewer of them make a compelling case that those relationships are worth knowing more about. To help future authors make that case more successfully, I will use this essay to share my definition of a meaningful empirical contribution and to provide suggestions about how to make and sell such contributions. I will also identify some common errors in communicating a study’s contribution that authors should avoid.