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1 – 9 of 9Rafael Robina-Ramirez, Marta Ortiz-de-Urbina-Criado and Rafael Ravina-Ripoll
There has recently been much interest in analysing the creation of personalised tourism services and studying their effect on organisations. However, there still needs to be more…
Abstract
Purpose
There has recently been much interest in analysing the creation of personalised tourism services and studying their effect on organisations. However, there still needs to be more work in analysing their effect on happiness and the role that emotions play in these processes. This paper aims to analyse, in the context of personalised and innovative tourism services, which factors can encourage and improve managers' happiness.
Design/methodology/approach
A model of analysis is presented with five variables: tourism managers' happiness (TMH), innovative personalised tourism services, internal factors: emotions (IFE), organisational factors (OF) and personal factors (PF). Eight hypotheses are proposed and tested with a structural equation model.
Findings
The results allow the authors to affirm that personalised technological advances applied to tourism services not only contribute to improving the happiness of hotel managers but also in generating emotions that contribute to improving their attitude towards the company.
Research limitations/implications
This scientific work has some limitations. Firstly, this study was carried out exclusively in Spain due to the relevance of this country in the international tourism sector, according to the World Tourism Organisation. The results achieved in this research should be contrasted with other studies in other territories. Secondly, the interviews and surveys were carried out at specific time intervals. It has not led to problems of significant bias in the variance of the standard method. Therefore, it is desirable to undertake longitudinal or cross-sectional studies for future research. Thirdly, it is interesting to develop theoretical models that include other psycho-directive or leadership style constructs to determine whether they holistically enhance the subjective well-being of hospitality managers. Moreover, other types of factors of a social or strategic nature can be considered, which can positively or negatively impact the analysed variables. Finally, future research can deepen the empirical analysis of the relationship between managerial competencies and digital innovation from the perspective of happiness management. These findings would contribute to a greater cognitive understanding of the implications of personalised and innovative tourism services on hotel establishments' happiness and economic benefits.
Practical implications
This paper shows the fundamental role of a happy leadership style in creating responsible, green and innovative environments in today's digital society. Furthermore, the happiness of tourism managers can contribute to the generation of high quality and excellent services that are in line with the principles of sustainable development.
Social implications
Personalised technological advances applied to tourism services not only contribute to improving the happiness of hotel managers but also to generating emotions that contribute to improving their attitude towards the company. On the other hand, it has been observed that personalised and innovative tourism services generate positive effects at organisational, internal and personal levels. The following reflections are advanced: The development of internal factors such as the emotions of awe and gratitude or the generation of trust can enhance the happiness of tourism managers. The happiness of tourism business managers can be enhanced by developing OF such as smart-personalised tourism services and data protection. The happiness of tourism managers can be enhanced by the development of PF such as travellers' desires, expectations and needs, or other factors such as disposable income, health status or family situation.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study that focuses on investigating how personalised and innovative tourism services affect managing happiness.
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Felipe Ferreira de Lara and Márcia Regina Neves Guimarães
Based on a multi-case analysis of small businesses in the metal-mechanical industry in the region of Sorocaba, State of São Paulo, Brazil, the purpose of this paper is to analyze…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on a multi-case analysis of small businesses in the metal-mechanical industry in the region of Sorocaba, State of São Paulo, Brazil, the purpose of this paper is to analyze how small businesses (in terms of the owner, business, and influences exerted by the environment) influence innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Six case studies are used to analyze the Brazilian metal-mechanical industry. The data are collected through semi-structured interviews and direct observations. In addition, innovations over the previous five years are evaluated in order to establish a comparative pattern between companies.
Findings
This study examines how facilitating factors are related to the owners of small businesses. These factors include owners’ personal ambitions, the centralization of decisions, and their confidence in their ability to make effective decisions. Factors related to the organization that favor innovation include a simple and streamlined structure and fewer levels of bureaucracy, whereas low capital intensity limit innovation. While some factors related to the environment favor innovation, others have a limiting effect (e.g. short-term horizons and a lack of formal strategic planning).
Originality/value
The main contribution of this research is to show that innovation is not synonymous with financial investment. Strategic reorganization and the rationalization of productive resources through competitive priorities may lead to innovation in different spheres, helping to increase the competitiveness and strength of the national economy.
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Denise Ann Brady, Patricia Tzortzopoulos, John Rooke, Carlos Torres Formoso and Algan Tezel
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a production planning and control model known as the Lean construction management (LCM) model, which applies a number of visual tools in a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a production planning and control model known as the Lean construction management (LCM) model, which applies a number of visual tools in a systematic way to the planning and control process. The application of the visual tools in this way facilitates the flow of information, thus improving transparency between the interfaces of planning, execution and control.
Design/methodology/approach
Design Science research is adopted for this investigation, which analyses the original development of the model and reports on its testing and refinement over different types of projects. The research is divided into three parts, each part focussing on a different stage of development and construction project type.
Findings
The main findings are related to the benefits of visual management in the construction planning and control process, such as maintaining consistency between different planning levels, so that feasible execution plans are created; control becomes more focussed on prevention rather than correction, and creates opportunities for collaborative problem solving. Moreover, the physical display of the visual tools in a discrete planning area on-site encourages a regular exchange between participants on actual work progress as it unfolds, leading to more timely reaction to the problems at hand.
Originality/value
The problem of a lack of transparency in construction planning and control leads to communication issues on-site, poor process orientation and high levels of waste. LCM improves process transparency by making information related to system-wide processes more readily available to project participants. This enables them to foresee problems in a timely manner and to take necessary measures to resolve them or to adapt the process to current circumstances. The LCM model proposes a new way of applying visual tools and controls systematically to improve transparency in construction planning and control.
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Juan Carlos Leiva and Ronald Brenes-Sanchez
This paper aims to assess knowledge relatedness as a possible determinant of business innovation performance. Knowledge relatedness is understood as the degree of similarity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess knowledge relatedness as a possible determinant of business innovation performance. Knowledge relatedness is understood as the degree of similarity between a firm’s knowledge and that of its parent, i.e. the company that the entrepreneur leaves to establish his or her own firm. Innovation performance results from the competitive position that the company achieves through its management of new products and services on the market.
Design/methodology/approach
For the empirical work, the authors used a database composed of 356 entrepreneurs who established recently their own business in Costa Rica: people who stopped working in multinational companies in Costa Rica and created their own businesses, and people who created their own businesses simultaneously as the former employees of multinationals.
Findings
This paper reports a positive and significant correlation between knowledge relatedness and innovation performance for a number of young firms.
Originality/value
This paper presents the fact of including knowledge relatedness as a research topic linked to business innovation.
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Iara Sibele Silva, Patrícia Bernardes, Felipe Diniz Ramalho, Petr Iakovlevitch Ekel, Carlos Augusto Paiva da Silva Martins and Matheus Pereira Libório
The purpose of this paper is to present the innovation management program (IMP) (FAZ Program) and analyze its results according to the public policy goals that support it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the innovation management program (IMP) (FAZ Program) and analyze its results according to the public policy goals that support it (Pró-Inova) suggesting improvements.
Design/methodology/approach
Intensive-direct-observation method in 43 companies; systematic data gathering and analysis (172 meeting documents); and innovation maturity diagnostics in 30 companies between August 2013 and May 2016.
Findings
The FAZ Program success rate according to the Pró-Inova goals achieved 81 percent. The percentage of completion of FAZ activities decreases during its implementation from 100 percent (strategic module) to 74 percent (management module) and ending at 46 percent (project module). The maturity for innovation of these committees/teams is decisive for those percentages. Companies whose maturity for innovation of the strategic committee and the organizational team are above average or excellent have, respectively, 1.8 and 1.7 times greater probability of implementing the program successfully.
Research limitations/implications
The FAZ Program represents only 4 percent of the programs supported by Pró-Inova. The innovative products, processes and businesses produced by the FAZ Program implementation are not measured. These innovations usually happen several years after an innovative management models implementation.
Practical implications
The maturity for innovation diagnosis is useful both to evaluate the company’s innovation capacity and to predict its chances of implementing the program successfully. Adjusting the structure of the model (e.g. PDCA cycle for the organizational module) and improving the program’s implementation (e.g. ensure management module resources and maturity for innovation capacity) can increase the program’s success rate.
Originality/value
Previous research works on IMPs supported by Pro-Inova focus on describing their methodology or benefits. The results allow answering what and how one of these programs offers in a return to the public innovation support received.
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Louis Maximilian Ronalter, Camila Fabrício Poltronieri and Mateus Cecilio Gerolamo
This work aims to present existing management system standards (MSSs) published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) through a bibliometric analysis…
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to present existing management system standards (MSSs) published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) through a bibliometric analysis, thereby outlining their academic research status and highlighting their relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to environmental, social and governance (ESG) themes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study firstly retrieves a preliminary set of MSSs standards from ISO and filters it in accordance with certain exclusion/inclusion criteria. Secondly, a bibliometric search is performed in the database Scopus. Thirdly, performance analysis is conducted to quantitatively measure the scientific output in academia, and science mapping of co-occurrences of keywords is applied to identify related topics. Thereby, the standards’ relationships to sustainability are outlined. Eventually, the work discusses future research opportunities.
Findings
The findings reveal that whereas research on MSSs focuses predominantly on only a few standards by now, there are actually numerous further standards that address sustainability-relevant topics, which are getting increasing attention among scholars as measured by the number of publications. Therefore, an action plan for future research is derived. Moreover, the findings support the argument of integrating MSSs to cover a broad range of corporate sustainability issues.
Originality/value
The paper connects the concepts of MSSs and sustainability, an upcoming research branch yet characterized by shortage of academic studies (given that research continues to focus on a few standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001). The work therefore opens up the line for more in-detail research on less known but nevertheless sustainability-relevant ISO MSSs.
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Carlos Fernando Ordóñez Vizcaíno, Cecilia Téllez Valle and Pilar Giráldez Puig
The aim of this paper is to analyse the spillover effects of microcredit on the economy of Ecuador, with a particular focus on its potential as a poverty alleviation mechanism.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to analyse the spillover effects of microcredit on the economy of Ecuador, with a particular focus on its potential as a poverty alleviation mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
To address our research questions, we take into account the distance between cantons (Ecuador’s own administrative distribution) by adopting a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model. To this end, a database will be constructed with macroeconomic information about the country, broken down by canton (administrative division of Ecuador), and in a 2019 cross section, with a total of 1,331 microcredit operations in all 221 of Ecuador’s cantons.
Findings
We find a positive effect of microcredit on these neighbouring regions in terms of wealth generation.
Research limitations/implications
We acknowledge that this study is limited to Ecuadorian cantons. Nonetheless, it is crucial to emphasize that focussing on an under-represented developing country like Ecuador adds significant value to the research.
Practical implications
Facilitating access to microcredit is one of the main solutions to address the goals proposed in the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Social implications
Microcredit activity contributes to the creation of value and wealth in Ecuador, exerting a spillover effect in neighbouring areas that can generate positive multiplier effects and alleviate poverty. For all of the above reasons, our proposal for the country is to support and promote microcredit as one of the main solutions to address the goals proposed in the SDGs.
Originality/value
The novelty of this study lies in the use of spatial econometrics to observe the indirect effects of microcredit on the regions bordering the canton in which it was issued, thus examining the spatial effects of microcredit on wealth distribution.
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Carlos de las Heras-Pedrosa, Carmen Jambrino-Maldonado, Dolores Rando-Cueto and Patricia P. Iglesias-Sánchez
The management of employee happiness and well-being has been gaining interest in academic research in recent years; however, few studies have focussed on the entrepreneur's…
Abstract
Purpose
The management of employee happiness and well-being has been gaining interest in academic research in recent years; however, few studies have focussed on the entrepreneur's perspective. The aim of this paper is to analyse the state of research on women-led businesses, well-being and happiness management.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric study has been carried out since 1996, the first year in which publications in this field were detected. In total, 128 papers are identified in the most reliable database, Web of Science Core Collection. A network mapping of authorship, citation and co-occurrence of keywords in scientific publications is shown.
Findings
The results of this study confirm that societal changes resulting from crises increase research interest in improving organisational environments and happiness. After the economic crises of 2013, there was a boost, and after the pandemic, there is again a boost in research. More than half of the publications and citations on female entrepreneurship and happiness management are post-pandemic. The study offers some research directions and emphasises the role of gender.
Originality/value
This article brings a new approach to the study of well-being in organisations, highlighting the relevance of the role female leadership plays in promoting happiness at work.
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Jason Donovan, Steven Franzel, Marcelo Cunha, Amos Gyau and Dagmar Mithöfer
In recent years, governments, donors, and NGOs have increasingly embraced value chain development (VCD) for stimulating economic growth and combating rural poverty. In line with…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, governments, donors, and NGOs have increasingly embraced value chain development (VCD) for stimulating economic growth and combating rural poverty. In line with the rise in interest, there has been a proliferation of guides for VCD. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a review of 11 guides for value chain along six different dimensions, ranging from objectives and value chain definitions to monitoring impact. The paper concludes with suggestions for the use of guides based on local needs and context, and recommendations for future guide development.
Design/methodology/approach
The review compares the concepts and methods endorsed and it assesses the strengths and limitations of the guides for steering development practice.
Findings
Overall, the guides provide a useful framework for understanding markets and engaging with chain stakeholders, with a strong emphasis on strengthening institutions and achieving sustainability of interventions. However, the guides often lack discussions on the conditions necessary at different levels for VCD to advance development objectives and achieve that sustainability. The guides are designed to be implemented largely independently of the specific context, in which the chain is situated, despite the major implications context has for the design of interventions and overall success of the chain. Attention to mutual learning, whether related to tool design or the outcomes and impacts of VCD interventions, is limited.
Research limitations/implications
More critical reflection and debate is needed on the design of guides for VCD. The authors suggest three areas for this reflection and debate: concepts, methods, and tools for addressing the needs of the poor in value chains; tools for addressing variations in the context; and mechanisms for mutual learning on the design and implementation of VCD.
Originality/value
The paper concludes with various recommendations for guide authors and donors that support VCD.
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