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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the service quality of full-service restaurants in Vietnam to explore possible factors that may impact customer perception, which subsequently influences customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Based on the DINESERV model and service clues, the possible dimensions to construct customer perception were realised, and four key dimensions were suggested.

Data were collected from four urban local full-service restaurants in Vietnam, and factor analysis and SEM-PLS were then performed to uncover the relationship between customer perception, satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

The results suggest that customer perception significantly influences customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions, and customer satisfaction itself is also found to have influence on behavioural intentions.

This is an original piece of work which contributes to the exploration of service quality in developing countries and to the incorporation of cleanliness into analyses of restaurant service quality in particular.

Although previous research has highlighted the importance of innovative intermediary services that are delivered through cluster initiatives to foster own attractiveness and the development of business, little emphasis has been placed on examining the patterns and influencers of such a change in new organisational forms from a management perspective. The present study investigates the change patterns of core intermediary activities in cluster initiatives as well as the influence of various stakeholders on change in those core activities.

The empirical data of this work illustrates the general picture of change within new organisational forms and therefore emerges from a survey study carried out among numerous European cluster initiatives originating from different industries. The main propositions for testing have roots in and are discussed through the prism of Stakeholder Theory as well as entrepreneurship, change and intermediary (middle-hands, brokerage) literature.

The findings reveal that intermediary activities are under continuous change, and the changes appreciated by the initiative members tend to gradually increase in intensity over time. Internal stakeholders are actively engaged in the change process activities, and external stakeholders are too, but to a limited extent. This leaves space for creativity and action for the initiatives.

This research combines stakeholder theory and literature on intermediation (new forms of organisations), change, and entrepreneurship. The outcome of the study might serve as a ground for theoretical classification of cluster initiatives as a particular type of intermediary in accordance with their specific occupation. This would add to the ongoing discussion on definition and typologies of intermediaries as well as lift the awareness on the peculiar constellation of stakeholders within these innovative organisations – their engagement expectations and level of involvement.

Knowledge on which stakeholders can turn to in the event that a special service is needed can shorten implementation times and improve the quality of services. This knowledge is a way to choose suitable and influential networking partners who can assist by pushing existing working mechanisms in a favourable direction.

The study illustrates the patterns behind changes of intermediary activities/services over time, which would form solid ground for developing new methods to assist in achieving stakeholder satisfaction through cluster-initiative services. Therefore, this work can serve as a benchmarking example for traditional organisations that find themselves in “sleeping” mode or that aim for revitalization.

The contribution of change and engagement mechanisms to effectivization and innovativeness of organisations are highlighted as main value added of this research.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between information technology (IT) use and management innovation through the mediator role of knowledge-based resources.

The paper presents empirical evidence from a survey of 109 companies that run hotel establishments in the Spanish territory. A model of relationships is proposed and tested through a system of structural equations.

The use of IT favors the development of organizational knowledge and the ability to integrate this knowledge. Moreover, a positive and direct relationship was found between IT use and management innovation, and indirectly through organizational knowledge and knowledge integration capability.

The designed questionnaire did not include any questions related to specific IT tools that could contribute to better knowledge management practices in hospitality organizations, but rather generic questions about IT use. The large number of IT tools that can potentially support knowledge management practices in hospitality companies would make the questionnaire unwieldy for its target respondents.

This paper sheds light on a topic that has hardly been studied in the services literature. Specifically, it addresses the way organizations can facilitate management innovation through the use of IT, while considering the mediator role of knowledge-based resources.

El objetivo de este estudio es evaluar la relación entre el uso de las tecnologías de la información (TIC) y la innovación organizativa a través del papel mediador de los recursos basados en el conocimiento.

El trabajo presenta evidencia empírica a partir de una encuesta realizada a 109 empresas que gestionan establecimientos hoteleros en todo el territorio español. Un modelo de relaciones se propone y testa mediante un sistema de ecuaciones estructurales.

El uso de TIC favorece el desarrollo del conocimiento organizacional y la capacidad para integrar dicho conocimiento. Además, se encontró una relación directa y positiva entre el uso de TIC y la innovación organizativa, así como una relación mediada por el conocimiento organizacional y la capacidad de integración del conocimiento.

El cuestionario diseñado no incluyó preguntas relacionadas con herramientas de TIC específicas que pudieran contribuir a mejores prácticas de gestión del conocimiento en empresas de alojamiento turístico, sino preguntas genéricas sobre el uso de TIC. El gran número de herramientas de TIC que potencialmente pueden apoyar las prácticas de gestión del conocimiento en las empresas de alojamiento, complicaría la cumplimentación del cuestionario por parte de los encuestados.

Este estudio amplía el conocimiento sobre un tema escasamente estudiado en la literatura de servicios. En concreto, se aborda la forma en que las organizaciones pueden facilitar la innovación organizativa a través del uso de TIC considerando, simultáneamente, el papel mediador de los recursos basados en el conocimiento.

There is a paucity of studies on the subject of environmental assets and their value. This is particularly the case with the forests. In Croatia, coastal forests are an important public asset especially given their value as an indispensable part of the Mediterranean landscape, yet often threatened by fires. Recognising this value of forests, the ongoing project concerning the coastal forest protection and reconstruction was initiated in 1995. An aspect of the project was to ascertain the aesthetic and recreational value that forests have for local residents. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to report selected survey results, but more important, to give an outline of the methodological approach developed for this complex task. Contingent valuation method, as the most frequently used method for the valuation of public non‐marketed goods and environmental assets was applied. Two surveys were conducted describing hypothetical forest preservation and forest reforestation programmes. The focus of the surveys was to test local residents' willingness to pay for the protection of forests in view and for the reforestation of burnt areas in view. Results demonstrated that majority of respondents was willing to pay for the protection of forests in view as well as for reforestation, and their main motive for paying was esthetical. Both univariate and multivariate methods were applied in order to assess the best predictors of willingness to pay for both surveys.

In this article the important contributions in marketing made by Nordic researchers and its applicability to studies of the marketing/entrepreneurship interface will be discussed. It is argued that much of the contemporary Nordic research in marketing, for example, networks, relationship marketing and recent phenomena such as strategic alliances and imaginary organisations, is important for the understanding of marketing behaviour in entrepreneurial.

This chapter contains a discussion of interdependencies as an explanatory construct in conceptualising the business world and explaining managerial behaviours. Specific interdependencies that exist in business networks influence the outcomes of business relationships. Such interdependencies can be more or less clearly acknowledged and perceived by the practitioners (managers), who can act upon them and create new interdependencies. Interdependence thus also plays an important role in developing effective explanations and conceptualisations of the business world. Some of the interdependencies are consequences of actions focusing on rationalisations, development or positioning, while other interdependencies are made with the intention of creating a specific position or some other effects. To live with, and be competent in, handling interdependencies is thus imperative in the interactive business landscape; as a consequence interdependencies need to be addressed when theorising the business world and its dynamics.

This study aims to add to the existing body of knowledge the link between market structures, strategy and innovation by applying the diagnostic test of the integrated model of innovation, and also present the results of an empirical study applied to tourism in a small open economy. The study uses an archetype and the market outcome resulting from the innovation strategies pursued to compare similarities and differences according to a firms’ geographical location to identify innovative patterns in tourism firms.

The study applies a multivariate analysis using a data set consisting of survey responses from 158 Portuguese firms.

The findings indicate links between service, market structures and innovation strategies considering geographical agglomeration of firms in a small economy, and also different innovation trajectories and positions in the model.

The results of this study are generalizable to a dynamic industry context of tourism firms operating in a small open economy, such as Portugal.

The results suggest that managers need to attend to intangible resources, such as marketing and human resources and their links with innovation and performance, particularly in the case of service firms.

The paper highlights the role of intangible resources, especially marketing and human resources, in tourism firms. Geographical location also influences the firm’s strategy and results.