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Article
Publication date: 14 August 2017

Factors determining hotel activity outsourcing. An approach based on competitive advantage

Tomás F. Espino-Rodríguez and Juan Carlos Ramírez-Fierro

The purpose of this study is to examine the levels of the main hotel outsourcing activities to identify the factors that determine the use of external suppliers for these…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the levels of the main hotel outsourcing activities to identify the factors that determine the use of external suppliers for these activities.

Design/methodology/approach

A model was developed that analyzes the relationship between competitive advantage and outsourcing and how the relationship between competitive advantage and activity performance is affected by whether an activity is outsourced or not. Moreover, the study builds a matrix called “outsourcing and competitive advantage” where each of the activities can be placed. The study was carried out with a representative sample of hotels in a tourist destination, analyzing 12 activities from different departments in the hotels.

Findings

The study results indicate that there is a positive relationship between the competitive advantage of an activity and its outcome. In addition, the findings show that the relationship between competitive advantage and activity performance is stronger when the activity is developed internally than when it is outsourced. The study supports a negative relationship between the degree of outsourcing an activity and its competitive advantage. In addition, the findings showed that a change in the way of managing the outsourcing is determined by its performance.

Practical implications

This study aims to help managers make decisions about outsourcing by considering the perspective of the competitive advantage. Each hotel can situate the activities in the matrix created and compare itself to the sector mean for a strategic positioning of the outsourcing.

Originality/value

Most studies analyze asset specificity as a key variable; however, the competitive advantage has not been used in previous studies, in spite of being a better defined variable in the literature. This study classifies the activities into core and non-core and establishes their relationship with outsourcing. It also studies how the way of managing an activity (outsourcing or in-house) moderates the relationship between competitive advantage and performance. These aspects have not been analyzed in the literature..

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 29 no. 8
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-05-2016-0291
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

  • Performance
  • Outsourcing
  • Competitive advantage
  • Hotels
  • Activities
  • Matrix

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2003

MNEs, globalisation and digital economy: legal and economic aspects

Georgios I. Zekos

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination…

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Abstract

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 45 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/03090550310770875
ISSN: 0309-0558

Keywords

  • Globalization
  • Digital marketing
  • Electronic commerce

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Article
Publication date: 1 July 2006

Redesigning the supply chain: reengineering, outsourcing, and relational capabilities

Manuel Rodríguez‐Díaz and Tomás F. Espino‐Rodríguez

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competitive advantages of the networks of firms forming the supply chain and distribution channels through process integration…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competitive advantages of the networks of firms forming the supply chain and distribution channels through process integration, outsourcing, and creation of relational capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

A four‐stage methodology is created to redesign the supply chain depending on the creation of relational capabilities: internal analysis to determine the focal company's competence; relational analysis in the outsourcing of activities; process integration; and development of relational capabilities.

Findings

The development of relational capabilities is based on two dimensions: company level of competence in performing activities, and strategic contribution of the activities to competitive advantage. Four cases are analyzed from those two dimensions: high competence/low strategic contribution; low competence/high strategic contribution; low competence/low strategic value; and relational and internal capabilities, where relational capabilities strengthen internal capabilities. Finally, it is established what actions are necessary for the activities analyzed from those dimensions to be a source of competitive advantage by means of relational capabilities created through process integration and outsourcing to highly competent firms.

Practical implications

The development of a short self‐evaluation questionnaire that helps firms implement the methodology and creates the basis for its empirical application by researchers.

Originality/value

The paper studies relational capabilities, an aspect omitted from the internal perspective of the resource and capability theory. It also determines four ways in which relational capabilities influence the strengthening of internal capabilities. The theoretical approach is developed in the redesign of the supply chain.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/14637150610678087
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

  • Supply chain management
  • Competitive advantage
  • Business process re‐engineering
  • Distribution channels and markets

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2004

Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage with activity based cost management system

Hooshang M. Beheshti

In the era of competitive global environment and technology‐based organizations managers are, more than ever, pressured to find ways to maintain their competitive…

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Abstract

In the era of competitive global environment and technology‐based organizations managers are, more than ever, pressured to find ways to maintain their competitive advantage. In order to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage, managers must examine the internal processes of their companies. The firm produces products or provide services by performing a set of activities that create value. Increasing the value of these activities can increase the competitive advantage of a firm. There are several methods that have been developed for adding value to the core activities in the firm. One method that is gaining popularity among companies is activity‐based cost management (ABCM). ABCM as a system can provide managers with a strategic view of the activities that are essential to the competitive nature of the enterprise.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 104 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570410537462
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

  • Activity based costs
  • Competitive strategy
  • Continuous improvement
  • Total quality management
  • Competences

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Article
Publication date: 1 July 2005

Firm competitive behavior as a determinant of CEO pay: Empirical evidence from the US pharmaceutical industry

Evan H. Offstein and Devi R. Gnyawali

To provide insight, explanation, and empirical evidence into how and why CEOs get paid the amounts that they do.

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Abstract

Purpose

To provide insight, explanation, and empirical evidence into how and why CEOs get paid the amounts that they do.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper blends several methodologies. Using qualitative interviews with several high level managers, it develops a coding listing to capture how pharmaceutical firms compete within their industry. The paper then uses a structured content analysis approach to capture the specific and observable competitive moves that pharmaceutical firms launch.

Findings

Base pay and bonus of the CEO are greater for firms that launch higher volumes of competitive actions. Furthermore, the variety of competitive moves appears to influence a CEO's base salary.

Research limitations/implications

This study has limited external validity since the firms in this sample are all large US pharmaceutical firms. The research implication is that, to date, firm size and past performance were identified as the single greatest predictors of CEO pay. Findings from this study suggest that how a firm behaves in a competitive context is as important as static characteristics of the firm (e.g. size) in predicting CEO pay levels.

Practical implications

Findings of this study begin to inform how directors may arrive at compensation decisions for CEOs. Since governance and CEO pay is becoming a more salient topic, this study suggests that directors can be trained or counseled on how to make more appropriate and refined decisions regarding CEO pay.

Originality/value

This paper employs a unique methodology to arrive at a question that is important, but under‐researched. Namely, we inform audiences who are concerned with how and why CEO's get paid what they do. Because CEO paychecks are a significant organizational expense, more research into how and why CEOs get paid a certain level is important theoretically and practically.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 20 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940510602923
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

  • Chief executives
  • Compensation
  • Remuneration
  • United States of America
  • Competitive strategy

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Article
Publication date: 17 February 2012

Competitive intelligence and firm's performance in emerging markets: an exploratory study in India

Phani Tej Adidam, Madhumita Banerjee and Paurav Shukla

This paper aims to explore the impact of competitive intelligence (CI) practices on the firm's performance in the emerging market context of India. The paper seeks to…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the impact of competitive intelligence (CI) practices on the firm's performance in the emerging market context of India. The paper seeks to answer the following questions: do CI activities have an impact on the market performance of Indian firms? If so, what are the macro and micro environmental drivers of CI for Indian firms? How are CI activities organized within Indian firms? How is the usage and dissemination of CI taking place within Indian firms?

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a stratified sample developed from a variety of mailing lists focusing on Indian firms. The study employed a cross‐sectional, survey‐based methodology.

Findings

The study identifies two key aspects: Indian firms that exhibit higher levels of CI activities indeed achieve better financial performance results; and the current level of CI activities in Indian firms is at a moderate level, thereby suggesting an opportunity for using and implementing more sophisticated CI techniques.

Practical implications

The findings of this study should assist local and foreign managers in having a more informed understanding of CI activities in the Indian marketplace. Additionally, these findings provide directives to managers regarding the untapped opportunities and potential that CI can offer in a highly volatile and rapidly changing market scenario.

Originality/value

This is the first study that empirically investigates the relationship between the level of CI activities and firm performance in an emerging market context. It is also the first study of its kind that explores the current state of CI practices in the Indian market.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/08858621211207252
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

  • Competitive intelligence
  • Firm performance
  • Emerging markets
  • India
  • Business performance
  • Competitive strategy

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Article
Publication date: 12 November 2020

A “knowledge value chain” framework for contractor organisations to maximise chances of winning tenders

Kaveesha Gihani Dewagoda, B.A.K.S. Perera and Sepani Senaratne

Knowledge is a critical asset that places contractor organisations at a competitive advantage when they take part in competitive tendering. However, a dearth of literature…

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Abstract

Purpose

Knowledge is a critical asset that places contractor organisations at a competitive advantage when they take part in competitive tendering. However, a dearth of literature exists on the mechanisms that contractor organisations can adopt to utilise knowledge to gain competitive advantage and win tenders through competitive tendering.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted an interpretive stance with a qualitative approach that comprised a literature review, 15 expert interviews and three case studies. The literature review and expert interview findings were used to develop an intermediate framework of knowledge value chain (KVC), while the case study findings were used to develop the final KVC framework with the intermediate framework as the basis.

Findings

The study developed, in three distinctive steps, a KVC framework based on Powell's (2001) KVC for use by the tendering divisions/units of contractor organisations employing quantity surveyors (QSs) to handle tendering work and to increase their chances of winning tenders.

Originality/value

The study developed a KVC framework for the use of contractor organisations to maximise their chances of winning tenders in the field of quantity surveying.

Details

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-02-2020-0021
ISSN: 2044-124X

Keywords

  • Competitive advantage
  • Contractor organisations
  • Knowledge
  • knowledge value chain (KVC)
  • Quantity surveyors (QSs)
  • Tendering

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Book part
Publication date: 30 October 2009

Consortia activity in academic libraries: Anti-competitive or in the public good?

Catherine Maskell

Academic library consortia activity has become an integral part of academic libraries’ operations. Consortia have come to assert considerable bargaining power over…

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Abstract

Academic library consortia activity has become an integral part of academic libraries’ operations. Consortia have come to assert considerable bargaining power over publishers and have provided libraries with considerable economic advantage. They interact with publishers both as consumers of publishers’ products, with much stronger bargaining power than individual libraries hold, and, increasingly, as rival publishers themselves. Are consortia changing the relationship between academic libraries and publishers? Is the role of academic library consortia placing academic libraries in a position that should and will attract the attention of competition policy regulators? Competition policy prohibits buying and selling cartels that can negatively impact the free market on which the Canadian economic system, like other Western economies, depends. Competition policy as part of economic policy is, however, only relevant where we are concerned with aspects of the market economy. Traditionally, public goods for the greater social and cultural benefit of society are not considered part of the market economic system. If the activities of academic library consortia are part of that public good perspective, competition policy may not be a relevant concern. Using evidence gained from in-depth interviews from a national sample of university librarians and from interviews with the relevant federal government policy makers, this research establishes whether library consortia are viewed as participating in the market economy of Canada or not. Are consortia viewed by librarians and government as serving a public good role of providing information for a greater social and cultural benefit or are they seen from a market-economic perspective of changing power relations with publishers? Findings show government has little in-depth understanding of academic library consortia activity, but would most likely consider such activity predominantly from a market economic perspective. University librarians view consortia from a public good perspective but also as having an important future role in library operations and in changing the existing scholarly publishing paradigm. One-third of librarian respondents felt that future consortia could compete with publishers by becoming publishers and through initiatives such as open source institutional repositories. Librarians also felt that consortia have had a positive effect on librarians’ professional roles through the facilitation of knowledge building and collaboration opportunities outside of the home institution.

Details

Advances in Library Administration and Organization
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0732-0671(2009)0000028006
ISBN: 978-1-84950-580-2

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Book part
Publication date: 5 January 2007

Competitive Intelligence

Avi Fiegenbaum

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The Take-off of Israeli High-Tech Entrepreneurship During the 1990s
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-067X(2007)0000012014
ISBN: 978-0-08045-099-5

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Article
Publication date: 6 April 2020

A study on the process and mechanism of social enterprise’s legitimation: Based on analysis of social enterprise’s coopetition with multiple stakeholders

Siqi Xu and Youmin Xi

This paper aims to explore the complete process and underlying mechanism that social enterprises obtain legitimacy during interactions with stakeholders from theoretical…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the complete process and underlying mechanism that social enterprises obtain legitimacy during interactions with stakeholders from theoretical integration of institutional theory and organization ecology perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on theoretical classification, this paper selects six typical Chinese social enterprises and conducts a multi-case analysis.

Findings

The study finds that social enterprises aim at legitimizing single entity or industry and shaping stakeholders’ cognitive boundary simultaneously. Therefore, by adopting constrained cooperation and competition activities, social enterprises use normative isomorphism to achieve personal legitimation and combining ecological niche construction, social enterprises achieve organizational legitimation. By adopting fragmented cooperation-dominant or competition-dominant activities, social enterprises use mimic isomorphism supplemented by competitive isomorphism or population structure creation to obtain industry legitimation. By adopting dynamically integrated coopetition activities, social enterprises use mimic isomorphism and reflexive isomorphism to reach field legitimation.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a mechanism model that the coopetition with stakeholders influences the legitimation process, identifies four stages of social enterprise’s legitimation process and the types of legitimacy obtained in each stage and fills the gap of Chinese indigenous social enterprise research.

Details

Nankai Business Review International, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/NBRI-08-2019-0042
ISSN: 2040-8749

Keywords

  • Social enterprise
  • Legitimacy
  • Legitimation
  • Coopetition
  • Cooperation and competition

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