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Hospitality employees’ attitudes and behaviors play a crucial role in enhancing customer satisfaction and service quality and ultimately firms’ success; therefore, organizations must have skilled, customer-oriented staff. More research is required to help hospitality managers gain insights into the best strategies to promote and retain customer-oriented employees. This study specifically sought to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the ways that authentic leadership (AL) can affect employees’ customer orientation and turnover intention, including exploring affective commitment’s (AC) potential mediating role.

The sample included 350 employees from different hospitality organizations in Portugal. Data were collected using anonymously completed structured questionnaires available online or in a paper-and-pencil format.

The results demonstrate that AL has a positive effect on customer orientation and a negative effect on turnover intention. Moreover, they indicate that AC mediates the relationships between AL and both customer orientation and turnover intention. All hypotheses received empirical support.

Hotel managers can increase employees’ AC and customer orientation by engaging in AL behaviors. Similarly, management can avoid having employees voluntarily leave their jobs using more AL styles and strengthening employees’ affective bonds to their organization.

Prior hospitality studies have rarely focused on AL. This study is the first to analyze AL’s effect on customer orientation and AC’s role as a mediator variable in the relationships between AL and customer orientation and turnover intention, thus integrating all these variables into a single research model.

The concept of sustainable development (SD) is a popular response to society’s need to preserve and extend the life span of natural resources. One of the 17 goals of the SD is “education quality” (Fourth Goal of Sustainable Development [SDG-4]). Education quality is an important goal because education is a powerful force that can influence social policies and social change. The SDG-4 must be measured in different contexts, and the tools to quantify its effects require exploration. So, this study aims to propose a statistical model to measure the impact of higher education online courses on SD and a structural equation model (SEM) to find constructs or factors that help us explain a sustainability benefits rate. These proposed models integrate the three areas of sustainability: social, economic and environmental.

A beta regression model suggests features that include the academic and economic opportunities offered by the institution, the involvement in research activities and the quality of the online courses. A structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis allowed selecting the key variables and constructs that are strongly linked to the SD.

One of the key findings showed that the benefit provided by online courses in terms of SD is 62.99% higher than that of offline courses in aspects such as transportation, photocopies, printouts, books, food, clothing, enrolment fees and connectivity.

The SEM model needs large sample sizes to have consistent estimations. Thus, despite the obtained estimations in the proposed SEM model being reliable, the authors consider that a limitation of this study was the required time to collect data corresponding to the estimated sample size.

This study proposes two novel and different ways to estimate the sustainability benefits rate focused on SDG-4, and machine learning tools are implemented to validate and gain robustness in the estimations of the beta model. Additionally, the SEM model allows us to identify new constructs associated with SDG-4.

The purpose of this study is to determine the differences and similarities between the terms entrepreneurship and innovation when they are implemented in teaching–learning processes involved in the education field and the main characteristics of entrepreneurial and innovative individuals.

A qualitative methodology was used. A total of 21 Spanish experts in entrepreneurship and/or innovation in education at different levels participated in in-depth structured interviews.

There seems to be some connection between entrepreneurship and innovation, as there are cases in which one involves the other. Although innovation is more related to the improvement of processes, products and services, entrepreneurship is linked to the creation and setting up of businesses. Educational entrepreneurship and innovation could be defined in the same way. Entrepreneurship education, in contrast to innovation education, encompasses innovation but goes beyond it. It includes curricula and long-lasting educational changes that are part of a more comprehensive organisational approach and educational plan, oriented to the accomplishment of teaching–learning outcomes. More characteristics were mentioned for entrepreneurs than for innovators.

This study is an initial attempt to explore ideas from experts in education that could facilitate the work of teachers and educational stakeholders in a crucial area, entrepreneurial and/or innovative education. Having an entrepreneurial attitude is essential for individuals in a globalised society to successfully meet the challenges of the 21st century.