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The purpose of the paper is to compare the role of the sector and geographical features in explaining the performance of a hotel structure.

The paper constructs a measure of net profit for available room (GOPPAR) for a representative sample of Italian hotels and uses a constrained linear regression model in order to identify the role of sectoral and geographical features. The analysis is released adopting a multiple cross sectional approach and considering not only the average role of sectoral and geographic characteristic, but also the time trend of relation inspected.

Results obtained show that the overall national trend is not significant for explaining the performance of each hotel. Considering geographical and sectoral features, the first of these explain better the disalignment of the performance respect to the national average.

The paper proposes an analysis of the hotel industry using a standard geo‐sectoral classification. More data about the characteristics of the firms considered in the sample could allow to define a more detailed model that consider also other hotel features that could impact on the demand and supply of the service.

Results could be useful for the hotel chains and for institutional investors specialized in the hotel sector, in order to define a first guideline for the property selection process and diversification portfolio strategy.

The paper represents the first work that analyse the role of regional and sectoral factors in explaining the performance of the hotel industry and supports the thesis proposed with and empirical evidence on world leading market (Italy).

The purpose of this paper is to study whether geographic and sector diversification allow for a significant reduction in the risk exposure of a portfolio of hotel investments in one of the major tourist markets, the Italian market.

This paper evaluates the benefits related to a Markowitz diversification approach for the construction of a specialised portfolio in the hotel real estate market. The portfolio analysis considers the degree of efficiency of each portfolio, the type of diversification adopted by a more efficient portfolio, the persistence of results over time and the impact of diversification constraints.

The results demonstrate that, while standard geographic and sector diversification allow for good results, the more efficient portfolios are more concentrated. The trade‐off is worse if some concentration constraints are established, but the portfolios identified are characterised by higher performance persistence.

The analysis only considers high‐quality hotels in the Italian market. Unfortunately, some information on costs is not as detailed as would be desired. The availability of a more complete database could increase the significance of the results obtained.

The results are relevant for constructing all hotels' portfolios, like those managed by a real estate fund manager, in order to define the type and degree of diversification that allow for minimal risk exposure.

This paper is the first to apply the Markowitz theory to the Italian hotel industry in order to identify the best diversification criteria.

The development of Research Management and Administration (RMA) in Europe is strongly connected with the development of the Science and Technology (S&T) policy of the European Union (EU). These policies were the result of a continuous debate between the member states and the European Commission and European Parliament.

Although there is no data on the early development of RMA, there are some publications on the history of the development of the S&T policy in Europe: the excellent publication ‘A History of European Union Research Policy’ by Luca Guzzetti (Guzzetti, 1995). Guzzetti’s book investigates the history of EU research policies from 1948 up to the preparation of the Fourth Framework Programme (FP) (1994–1998).

The RMA aspects are constructed mainly by oral history complemented with some written sources. The history shows a gradual development of the profession unevenly spread in time and European geography. This has mainly with the EU enlargement in the same period, when new member states were connected to the FP. The profession started with a few colleagues’ way back in the eighties of the last century as financial people were dealing with the first European financial reporting up to the present day where RMA is becoming a field of work attracting many new colleagues.

In this chapter, the author describes the education of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti (RSC) children in Italy focussing on possible pathways to school inclusion. According to available national reports, there are about 140,000 RSC people living in Italy, who the author calls a ‘hidden minority’. The author provides detailed information on their ethnic origins and traditions, describes their legal and social situation, culture and language. Then the author outlines the attainment of RSC in the Italian education system and the most important policies to support their successful education. In conclusion, the author presents selected programmes to promote social inclusion and education of RSC children.

Cycle tourism is considered as a trendy opportunity of local development that should be taken into consideration by several destinations to (further) increase tourism according to the sustainable development approach. It is a broad and complex phenomenon that involves various social and economic actors. Cycle tourists are looking for new and deep experiences to better benefit from the local identities and the uniqueness of the landscape of a territory. Cycle tourism gives sustainable access to environmental and cultural resources of territories often neglected. Despite its evident potentialities, the lack of studies represents a drawback that could compromise the local development. The aim of this chapter is first to describe the characteristics of this form of tourism both in terms of its contribution to the sustainable development and of demand and supply features. Second, the study focuses on an Italian area that is strongly investing in the development of this form of mobility: an area called “Insubria,” which is located in the Lombardy region, near the Swiss border and includes, as main cities, Varese and Como. The work explores whether the supply of the tourism product in this area is aligned with the current and future demand trends of cycling and tourism. The analysis ends with some suggestions about possible improvements in the area and for the long-term industry competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess whether immigrants suffer from unequal access to health care services, that add to prevailing socioeconomic barriers to care.

Using a uniquely rich Italian health survey, the authors estimate the correlation between immigrant status and the probability of accessing health services, conditional on a rich set of individual and territorial characteristics.

Results show that foreigners are more likely to contact emergency services and less likely to visit specialist doctors and use preventive care. Similar results hold for second-generation immigrants.

The authors discuss the sources of observed inequities and suggest tentative policy implications to promote equal access.

Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.

This paper aims to examine the effects of traditional customer satisfaction (CS) relative magnitude and social media review ratings on hotel performance and to explore which online travel intermediaries’ review ratings serve as the most reliable and valid predictor for hotel performance.

In 2014, CS and hotel performance data were collected from the internal database of full-service hotels operated and managed by a large hotel chain in the USA. Each property’s social media review ratings data were hand-collected from major online travel intermediaries and social media websites.

The results of this study indicate that social media review rating is a more significant predictor than traditional CS for explaining hotel performance metrics. Additionally, the social media review rating of TripAdvisor is the best predictor for hotel performance out of the other intermediaries.

This research contributes to the hospitality literature because it examines the incremental explanatory power of social media review rating and traditional CS on hotel performance. Among the leading online travel intermediaries, the findings show that TripAdvisor’s social media review rating has the most salient effect on hotel performance.

The result of this study provides useful practical implications for hotel marketers and revenue managers. This study assists hotel marketers and revenue managers in better allocating their budget for marketing and suggests ways for channel optimization.

The finding of this study will help revenue managers, marketing managers, and hotel owners make decisions regarding their marketing budget allocation to their social media marketing campaign and select the optimal online travel intermediaries as part of their channel management strategies.

This paper aims to explore the impact mechanism of Chinese university students’ perceived entrepreneurial environment on their entrepreneurial tendency in the context of Chinese economic transition. In particular, the paper provides a reference for relevant departments to make policies and entrepreneurship educators to perfect the pedagogical design and curriculum development in entrepreneurship education programs.

The authors used questionnaires to collect data in Chinese universities via random sampling, and gained 729 valid questionnaires. Results from principal component analysis indicate that the scales have a good reliability. In particular, entrepreneurial attitude had three components. The hypotheses are tested by using Spearman correlation and multiple linear regression; the level of statistical significance of F-test was less than 0.05. Hence, multiple linear regression can be used in the analyses.

The study found that university students’ perceived social environment and economic environment have a positive influence on their entrepreneurial tendency, and entrepreneurial attitude is partially playing a mediating role between students’ perceived entrepreneurial environment and entrepreneurial tendency. However, students’ perceived policy environment has no significant impact on entrepreneurial tendency.

Environmental factors are often viewed as“gap fillers” in related studies, and mostly concentrated in the Western developed countries. This study attempts to fill the gaps in the context of Chinese economic transition.

This paper gathers initial evidence about the nature and features of the equity crowdfunding model in Italy, especially in terms of regulations. The purpose of this study is to examine how equity crowdfunding might support the real estate sector in Italy.

To explore the recent initiatives in the development of FinTech in Italy, especially referring to equity crowdfunding’s instrument, a qualitative perspective is used. In particular, this paper relies on primary data from regulations and secondary data from the public domain, which are examined in relation to the current literature.

The results of this study show that equity crowdfunding represents a funding method that is rapidly increasing in Italy, despite rather rigid regulation. Among the various sectors involved, the real estate sector could benefit from the crowdfunding models and, specifically, from the equity one. The development of new real estate equity crowdfunding portals that allow diversification of investment (by reducing the typical entry barriers for real estate investment) could guarantee greater investment transparency and simplicity.

Real estate crowdfunding can be a simple way to invest in the real estate industry. Thanks to the use of technology, specifically internet-based platforms, this type of crowdfunding allows for small investors, as well as professional investors, to access an asset class otherwise not open to small investment tickets and improve the diversification of investments.

Although recent literature has examined the concept of crowdfunding and highlighted different models, aspects and campaigns, no prior studies, to the authors’ knowledge, have explicitly and jointly investigated, also based on the state of art of regulation, the equity crowdfunding model and the real estate sector in Italy.