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The purpose of this paper is to analyze three different forms of benefit systems and the effects of their application on Spanish firms’ attraction and retention capacity, differentiating these systems depending on the flexibility offered to the workers.

The data of this study have been collected from a sample of 308 human resources managers in Spanish firms, through an online questionnaire. The hypotheses were tested by ordinary least squares regression analyses.

The results show that firms having more flexible compensation systems, that is, those providing greater freedom to workers in the election of their benefits and the design of the benefit system, reported to have a higher attraction and retention capacity than firms offering to their employees a unique and similar benefit package for all the employees.

Future studies could extent this study by analyzing different contexts in order to determine whether some institutional factors can influence these results. Similarly, it would be interesting to analyze the effects of these systems on other organizational outcomes, such as their financial performance.

Human resources policies and, especially, compensation policies have a significant influence on the ability of firms to recruit and retain core employees, necessary for corporate success. This study sheds light on the effectiveness of different benefits systems in enhancing the firms’ capacities to attract and retain core employees. Taking into account the hard financial and labor environment that the Spanish firms have to face, the results of this study can have important implications for managers.

This paper responds to recent calls asking for the necessity of analyzing the effect of different benefit systems in contexts different to the broadly considered American context. Similarly, these results could be applied to other countries with conditions similar to Spain, that is, countries where the benefit systems have been traditionally less flexible and with an offer of benefits quite different than firms located in countries where the State offers a less-social assistance to citizens.

This paper aims to analyze how a biophilic atmosphere inspired by nature influences customers’ affective states and intention to visit shopping centers, and to empirically test how affective states affect and mediate the relationship between the nature-based atmosphere and behavior or intention to visit.

Four hypotheses are examined empirically through a model of structural equations using control variables. A survey of 403 consumers distributed in 24 large shopping centers was used.

The findings indicate the influence of the biophilic atmosphere on affective states and the intention to visit. Also, it is shown that affective states mediate in this relationship and effect.

The research suggests that shopping centers are potentially places to take advantage of people’s natural predisposition. Thus, they can combine biophilic architecture and atmosphere with other more traditional factors of attraction to increase the likelihood of visiting. A biophilic atmosphere can improve the attraction capacity within a highly competitive environment, where design and management of space is a topic of special value.

By incorporating the perception of the biophilic atmosphere in consumer evaluations when visiting shopping centers, this research has shown its influence on visiting intentions through affective states. The research proposes an alternative model that can increase and stimulate the attraction of demand and loyalty, as well as strengthening new paths in the field of retail and services marketing.

This study examined the waiting times to board an attraction at a theme park (Tokyo DisneySea in Japan) using a simulation based on measured values. Park visitors often complain that waiting times are too long; guests (Disney's term for park visitors) must stand in long, slow-moving queues outdoors in all weather, enduring heat, cold, rain and wind. This can undermine their health and reduce customer satisfaction. To date, no research has offered a scientific approach to solve the problem in the context of theme park queues.

The attraction examined two queues: a short waiting queue for guests with priority entry tickets and a long waiting queue for guests without priority entry tickets. The total number of guests with priority entry tickets remained a constant value, as in the current system; however, the author designed the number as a monotonically increasing function to reduce the waiting times for nonpriority entry. It was impractical to analyze queues or try to explain proposed wait time reduction methods using theories and mathematical models alone. Therefore, the author used a simulation study based on real data to demonstrate the proposed method of this study.

The simulation results indicated that the proposed method significantly decreased guests' waiting times in the nonpriority entry queue, without changing the number of guests in both priority and nonpriority entry queues.

Simple queues can be analyzed using theoretical calculations, but complicated queue systems require simulation methods. Therefore, this paper cannot provide a theoretical basis for the method.

The proposed method offers benefits to managers of any event or location seeking to manage queue times and not just theme parks (e.g. exhibitions, concerts, etc.). Advance tickets are equivalent to priority entry tickets, so applying the proposed method can shorten waiting times on the day of the event.

This study has important practical implications for queues management, and the proposed approach is a unique system that reduces waiting times, thus increasing customer satisfaction. The proposed method can be applied to similar types of priority entry systems.

This paper aims to provide a theoretical frame and practical experience for understanding and improving knowledge creation in the RIC. This paper proved through an empirical study that knowledge transfer, knowledge assimilation and knowledge sharing between firms in a resource-based industry chain (RIC) have positive influence on knowledge creation.

A theoretical model covering knowledge transfer, knowledge assimilation, knowledge sharing and knowledge creation is established in this paper. The research object is the phosphorus chemical industry chain in central Guizhou.

The findings of this paper provide a theoretical frame and practical experience for understanding and improving knowledge creation in the RIC.

The subjective measures of knowledge capacities present a serious limitation. Another limitation is that the authors examined knowledge creation within the context of RIC. The cross-sectional design prevented the authors from studying causal relationships among the variables.

First, it contributes to the knowledge creation of inter-organization literature. Second, it contributes to the studies of knowledge creation in supply chains. Third, this study demonstrates the importance of investigating the strong network embeddedness and industry property of RIC, which have a critic effect on the capabilities of knowledge sharing, transfer and assimilation.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the touristic potential of music festivals in Catalonia. It is an opportune goal because even though this region is experiencing an important increase of new festivals and cultural events, there is a lack of adequate coordinating and guiding tourism policies.

The data was gathered with a survey to managers of music festivals that provided information about their management structure and economic results. The study findings are the result of an analysis done with a statistical multivariate technique and constructing indicators of event economic feasibility and tourism specialisation.

Data reveals the coexistence of two different types of festivals in Catalonia depending on their cultural or touristic orientation and with clear differences in their management style. Both types have a professionalized management structure and an economic self‐sufficiency when compared with the rest of Catalan cultural events, so they can be considered as an asset for regional tourism development. Nevertheless, some problems are detected in management practices that should be improved when implementing a specific tourism event policy.

The research has built a unique event data base that can be useful for decision making in tourism public administration. The paper suggests that local and regional administration should consider music festivals and cultural events, in general, as excellent resources to create new tourism products. Some of the characteristics of festivals, such as their important potential as tourism attractions and their cultural identity or the economical success, are critical assets to their high potential in local tourism development. These findings should justify a more resolute public policy of events and music festivals in Catalonia.

The authors' approach to quality is in contrast to the usual view found in economics. They analyse the quality of tourism as a system which includes final consumption, product‐based market services, the natural environment and cultural resources at no cost, and the impact of the local society, all from the macroeconomic point of view. They point out that if optimal use is to be made of resources in the sense of achieving sustainable system quality, this use must be compatible with carrying capacity.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of the relevance of shore excursions in the distribution of cruise passenger flows; an approach which has been overlooked by many studies on cruise tourism. Specifically, the paper focuses on two destinations: Barcelona, a mature cruise destination suffering from the impact of overcrowding; and Valencia, an emerging cruise destination facing the risk of future (similar) impacts.

The method used is multiple-case study with replication logic. First, web content analysis is conducted of shore excursion descriptions of the destinations selected so as to identify the itineraries, as well as the municipalities and the specific tourist attractions included in the tours. Then, word-processing tools are used to create a regional and local data set to arrange the narrative data. Finally, density maps are drawn in order to examine the different visitor flows within the tourist hinterlands from the supply perspective.

The results indicate that most shore excursions are concentrated in the port cities. Comparing the two destinations, the paper argues that the redistribution within the cities is not equally balanced. Nevertheless, the results also reveal that the excursions offered by local shore tourism operators (TOs) in both destinations have contributed to the expansion of the cruise tourist hinterland over a wider regional area.

This paper evaluates the visitor flow distribution from a supply perspective. Hence, future studies should examine the demand dimension in order to gain a deeper understanding of the concentration intensity. Additionally, it would be worth examining not only visitors taking guided tours but also the independent ones (those who visit the destination on their own).

Despite the growing importance of cruise tourism, research on the role of local shore TOs in this sector is quite limited. One element that deserves more research attention is related to the role of shore excursions in the spatial configuration of the cruise tourist hinterland. Finally, the results obtained could also have significant implications for policy makers developing and promoting effective measures to prevent overcrowding.

The purpose of this study is to identify the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions of young women in India because currently Indian Government is emphasizing heavily on women’s participation in the mainstream of economic activities in the country. This study focuses on entrepreneurial intentions as the most important stage of entrepreneurship process. Based on the theory of planned behavior, propounded by Ajzen (1991), it points out intentions as the most significant predictor of human behavior.¤

This paper uses multi-method analysis for validation of the model proposed by Linan. In Study 1, an adapted version of Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ) (Linan and Chen, 2009) was administered to a group of 248 female students studying in under-graduate science, commerce, arts or management courses, who voluntarily participated in the survey. Quantitative data analysis was conducted using partial least square (PLS) path-modeling algorithm. In Study 2, qualitative study was conducted on 110 young female students using focus group interview technique. Framework analysis was used for the data analysis of the qualitative study.

This study confirms the role of social valuation as an important antecedent of entrepreneurial intentions among women. However, it also identifies that entrepreneurship education is also an important element that affects the entrepreneurial intentions of young women in India.

The study uses multi-method analysis for identifying entrepreneurial intentions among young women in India.

This paper aims to compare the forecasting performance of different models with and without big data predictors from search engines and social media.

Using daily tourist arrival data to Mount Longhu, China in 2018 and 2019, the authors estimated ARMA, ARMAX, Markov-switching auto-regression (MSAR), lasso model, elastic net model and post-lasso and post-elastic net models to conduct one- to seven-days-ahead forecasting. Search engine data and social media data from WeChat, Douyin and Weibo were incorporated to improve forecasting accuracy.

Results show that search engine data can substantially reduce forecasting error, whereas social media data has very limited value. Compared to the ARMAX/MSAR model without big data predictors, the corresponding post-lasso model reduced forecasting error by 39.29% based on mean square percentage error, 33.95% based on root mean square percentage error, 46.96% based on root mean squared error and 45.67% based on mean absolute scaled error.

Results highlight the importance of incorporating big data predictors into daily demand forecasting for tourism attractions.

This study represents a pioneering attempt to apply the regularized regression (e.g. lasso model and elastic net) in tourism forecasting and to explore various daily big data indicators across platforms as predictors.

Studies on how accounting is involved in financial crises and austerity are limited. The context of austerity provides an interesting opportunity to explore the role of accounting in shaping governmental financial resilience, i.e. the capacity of governments to cope with shocks affecting their financial conditions.

Based on a multiple case analysis of eight Italian municipalities, this paper explores how accounting contributes to the government capacities which are used to anticipate and respond to shocks affecting public finances.

Municipalities cope with financial shocks differently; accounting can support self–regulation and can affect internally-led or externally-led adaptation. Different combinations of anticipatory and coping capacities lead to different responses to shocks.

The findings can be useful for public managers, policymakers and oversight bodies for strengthening governmental financial resilience in the face of crises and austerity.

The results provide evidence of the conditions, contexts, processes under which accounting becomes a medium which can support both anticipation of and coping with financial shocks, supporting cuts in some cases and resistance in the short run or driving long-term changes intended to maintain public services as much intact as possible. This highlights the existence of different patterns of governmental financial resilience and thus indicates ways of best preserving the service of the public interest.