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The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between practices of quality management (QM) and the characteristics of organizational design, and QM and competitive advantage.

The study uses a partial least squares approach to test these relationships in 350 hotels in Spain.

The findings show that QM influences specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions, and that QM practices influence both cost and differentiation competitive advantage. The results also indicate the importance of QM strategic and operational systems as practices that have a key impact on the characteristics of organizational design. Similarly, the QM operational system is key in the relationship between QM and cost competitive advantage. Finally, the QM operational, information and strategic systems positively influence differentiation competitive advantage.

When hotels adopt QM practices, there will be significant changes in a number of organizational variables, including specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions. This paper provides empirical evidence that QM practices improve both cost and differentiation competitive advantage in the hotel industry.

There has been little research on the effects of QM on organizational design in the hotel industry. The contribution of this paper is that analyze the effects of QM on organizational design and competitive advantage, extending knowledge about these issues in a specific sector.

This study aims to examine the relationships between quality management, human capital and innovation (both incremental and radical), and social sustainability practices in hospitality. Also considered are the mediating roles of human capital and innovation.

The study considers 365 hotels located in Spain, using a structural equation model based on Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis.

The findings show that quality management practices, human capital and incremental innovation all have a direct relationship with social sustainability practices. Human capital and incremental innovation partially mediate the relationship between quality management and social sustainability practices. Radical innovation has no impact on social sustainability practices and does not play a mediating role.

This study enriches the literature on social sustainability in hospitality by showing that quality management, human capital and innovation can enhance social sustainability practices. It offers practical insights by understanding key drivers for promoting social sustainability in the hospitality sector.

Prior research in hospitality has not used a mediation model to empirically examine the aforementioned relationships.

The contingency theory holds that organizations in fit have higher performance levels than those in misfit. However, the results obtained in previous research works are far from homogeneous. The purpose of this study is to compare various fit perspectives seeking to check whether or not the divergence in results might derive from the use of different types of fit. The findings in this paper largely fail to confirm the fit‐performance links described in the traditional contingency theory. Some arguments are proposed in an attempt to explain this fact.

The purpose of this paper is to jointly analyse external adjustment (environment‐strategy) and internal adjustment (strategy‐structure), and their influence on firm performance in a set of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of a European‐Mediterranean region in order to check whether models mainly validated in US firms are applied in this context.

Following a quantitative methodological approach, a survey was applied to a sample of 91 SMEs of Alicante (Spain) from different industries in order to contrast nine hypotheses. Various statistical procedures were used, such as cluster analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Moreover, external and internal adjustment indices have been created.

Findings show that traditional theoretical models are not exactly applicable in a context of European‐Mediterranean SMEs. Cost leadership strategy is not associated with a favourable environment, and innovation differentiation strategy is not associated with organic structures. The relationship between adjustment and performance is partially confirmed.

The caveats normally associated with survey methods apply, as do those related to the use of cross‐sectional and managerial perceptions data. Besides, the findings are limited to SMEs.

Implications for SME managers regarding the fit between environment, strategy, structure and its effect on performance are addressed. The results can serve as guidelines that will help managers in the formulation and adoption of their strategies.

The interest of this paper is that two issues often treated separately are now jointly analysed: internal and external adjustments. Moreover, it supplies empirical evidence of these issues in a European‐Mediterranean region, in which no similar studies have been carried out until now.

Decisions about the design of the organization and the competitive strategy of a firm are very important in order to gain competitive advantage and to improve firm performance. The relationship between organizational structure, competitive strategy, and firm performance has usually been analyzed using the contingency approach. The objective of this paper is to extend the relevant empirical literature of the strategy‐structure‐performance paradigm by comparing the resource‐based view (RBV) with contingency theory. To that end, the paper seeks to examine how organizational structure affects firm performance, taking into account the relationship with competitive strategy.

A sample of large Spanish firms was studied using the partial least squares (PLS) technique.

The results support both the RBV and the contingency approach, but the RBV is more strongly supported. The findings show that organizational structure does not exert a direct influence on performance, but has an indirect influence through competitive strategy.

The findings are limited to large firms. Therefore, they cannot be generalized to smaller companies. In addition, the use of opinion scales gives the study a subjective character. However, in this respect, most of the characteristics of organizational structure and competitive strategy are difficult to measure with objective data.

Researchers have studied the relationship between strategy and structure for a long time based on contingency theory. This study provides an alternative formulation for organizational design theory, based on the RBV, which makes it possible to reframe the relationships between strategy and structure by analyzing the organizational structure as a valuable resource and a source of competitive advantage.

This paper aims to analyse the influence of environmental proactivity on cost and differentiation competitive advantages, and to explore the double relationship between environmental proactivity and business performance.

The population consists of all three- to five-star hotels in Spain. A sample of 350 hotels was classified according to environmental proactivity and performance levels, employing a two-step cluster analysis. Significant differences between groups were examined.

The results show two types of environmental behaviour (reactive and proactive), with proactive hotels developing significantly better on both cost and differentiation competitive advantage and achieving significantly higher performance levels. Hotels which achieve above average business performance levels are significantly more environmentally proactive.

The present paper demonstrates that environmental management is related to competitive advantages and business performance. Environmental management systems are more developed in higher category, chain-affiliated and larger hotels. This could be due to having more resources to develop their environmental capability. The environmental proactivity scale employed in this study is presented as a reference measure for hotel managers to benchmark their current practices and implement environmental improvements.

First, measuring environmental proactivity using four managerial systems (operative, information, strategic and technical) is innovative and provides a more detailed approach to measuring environmental proactivity. Second, demonstrating a double association between environmental proactivity and performance provides fresh insights into the relationship between these variables.

The primary objective of the current study is to examine the role of leadership styles and Industry 4.0 in organization performance. In addition, the direct and indirect effect of job satisfaction, competitive advantage and business sustainability is also examined. For this purpose, a cross-sectional research design was selected. Population of the study were based on the manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Thailand. Employees of these SMEs were selected to collect the data. Therefore, respondents of the study were employees of Thai manufacturing SMEs. Various close ended questions related to the concerned study were asked on a five-point Likert scale. Furthermore, this study analyzed the data with the help of Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results of the study revealed that both leadership styles and Industry 4.0 have significant role in organization performance. Leadership styles and Industry 4.0 influence positively on job satisfaction and competitive advantage, respectively. Further, job satisfaction and competitive advantage influence positively on business sustainability. Finally, business sustainability significantly improves organization performance. Therefore, the current study has vital importance for practitioners to enhance organization performance through leadership styles and Industry 4.0.

The idea that knowledge management can be a potential source of competitive advantage has gained strength in the last few years. However, a number of business actions are needed to generate an appropriate environment and infrastructure for knowledge creation, transfer and application. Among these actions there stands out the design of an organizational structure, the link of which with knowledge management is the main concern here. More specifically, the present paper has as its aim to identify the characteristics of organizational structure that facilitate the development of knowledge management processes.

The research strategy used to achieve this aim is the multiple case study method, which has been applied to six Spanish firms of recognized international prestige characterized by their excellence and proactivity in matters of knowledge.

In general terms, the results show that these companies adopt flexible, increasingly flat organizational forms with fewer hierarchical levels which not only allow but also encourage communication and teamwork among staff members so that everybody can interact more easily. This makes it possible for employees to take better advantage of their competencies, generating organizational routines and increasing the value of their contributions thanks to the freedom of action they are given.

The main contribution made in this paper lies in the fact that, from a study of business practices, it describes the way in which certain Spanish companies construct knowledge socially and orient their behavior through their organizational structure.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect the servant leadership on innovative work behaviour (IWB) of teachers. Besides this, the mediating effect of ambidexterity on enhancing IWB and moderating role of gender has also been investigated.

Variance-based SEM has been used for testing the proposed structural model with a sample of 350 college teachers.

Findings of the study revealed that servant leadership positively influences IWB. Additionally, IWB can be augmented with the presence of individual ambidexterity.

As per our knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind that makes an additional contribution to the IWB literature by investigating a partial mediating role of individual ambidexterity on the relationship between servant leadership and IWB.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between clustering and hotel competitiveness in emerging economy destinations by analyzing potential mediation of the management innovations implemented.

This empirical study is based on hotel-level information from a survey including 131 hotels in 2014. Colombia was chosen as a representative of Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa (CIVETS) emerging destinations. The relationships were analyzed by structural modeling and partial least squares.

Clustering has a positive direct impact on hotel competitiveness and innovation, and there is a positive effect of innovation on competitiveness. Therefore, the link between clustering and competitiveness is partially mediated through implementation of management innovations.

Hotels should actively participate in agglomerated destinations and build relationships with established firms by clustering. Interaction with related firms and implementation of management innovations will lead to increased levels of economic competitiveness. Public policymakers should foster collaborative strategic networking in the hospitality industry of emerging economy destinations.

This paper focused on separating the direct and indirect effects of clustering on hotel competitiveness. Implementation of management innovations was considered as an outcome derived from clustering in emerging tourist destinations, using the example of Colombia. Clustering stimulates and eases management innovations within the location, and that combination reinforces the role that cooperating while competing plays in hotel competitiveness for destinations with lagging innovation.