Search results

The article examines the entrepreneurial decision-making in the Greek tourism and hospitality sector during a period of an economic crisis.

The nationwide study includes the responses of 503 entrepreneurs engaged in the Greek travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The research employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), and examines trust, enterprising negotiation power, tourism decision-making considerations and crisis effects. It also includes the categorical data of operational mode and company type.

The analysis has generated three different pathways for entrepreneurial decision-making during crisis in the Greek tourism and hospitality sector. These pathways are (1) crisis conditions, (2) enterprising operations and focus and (3) enterprising capabilities.

Due to the limited employment of fsQCA in the tourism sector, its full potential is still to be explored.

The study provides three different pathways that Greek tourism entrepreneurs select for their decision-making according to the characteristics of their firms and their market orientation.

Theoretically, the study contributes by enhancing understanding of entrepreneurial decision-making during periods of crisis. In the methodological domain, the research employs fsQCA, which has only recently started to be used in tourism and hospitality, and generally the service sector.

The influence of destinations’ poverty on tourism decision-making and, more precisely, destination selection has received scant attention despite the increasing importance of poverty. The purpose of this study is to examine the combination of factors influencing tourists’ destination selection in relation to developed destinations’ rising poverty levels through the adoption of complexity theory.

This study used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the combinations of factors that are significant in influencing destination selection whereas necessary condition analysis was used complementarily to evaluate the size effect of the examined conditions. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with industry stakeholders were performed to examine the relationships that describe the generated configurations.

In total, four solutions were generated: the cultural influence and poverty, the destination aspects, the poverty issues and the travel experience and poverty while qualitative data reveal that industry policymakers and practitioners hold different perceptions of tourists’ destination selection process.

Study results show that poverty perceptions influence destination selection. Hence, poverty must be considered in travel behaviour investigations beyond the developing destination context, whereas destinations may select either one or a combination of the generated sufficient configurations when deciding on their tourism development plans.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study examining the effects of developed destinations’ increasing poverty levels on tourism decision-making and specifically on destination selection.

This paper aims to examine developments in tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic using the hotel sector in the North-East of England as the area of study. The country has attracted a lot of attention not only because of its importance as a tourism destination but also due to its rather controversial management of the pandemic at least in its early stages.

Fifteen semi-structured interviews based on ten open-ended questions were conducted with North East of England-based hotel managers of international brands on the level of their hotels’ preparedness to effectively deal with pandemic cases. The interviews took place in August and September 2020 with participants kept anonymous.

Meeting new operational and bureaucratic requirements added to the cost structure and proved a major challenge for managers who saw their hotel occupancy rates and revenue collapsing within a short period of time. Innovative and aggressive pricing strategies were introduced to lure especially younger travelers in the absence of business clientele. Staff were made redundant and/or asked to work overtime making effective human resource management very difficult.

This is one of the first research attempts to highlight the importance of the COVID-19 pandemic for the hotel sector in a major region of the UK. The paper also attempts some generalization by discussing managerial implications and suggesting a possible way forward for the hotel sector. Developing resilience by building on previously used successful business practices proves of essence.

This study aims to explore the interface of competitive productivity (CP) levels in times of turbulence.

Drawing from a sample of 507 Athenian holidaymakers, the study uses a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the chaordic systems amongst perceived risks (social; destination; price; quality) in tourism purchasing intentions. It considers three grouping variables (age; monthly income; trip [domestic; overseas]). It further evaluates the effect sizes of those risks upon purchasing intentions by complementary using necessary condition analysis (NCA).

fsQCA revealed three sufficient configurations: price-quality nexus (micro); generated experience (meso) and perceived destination image (macro). NCA showcased that the effect size of the examined perceived risks is relatively low, while destination risks have the highest impact.

Only a few studies use fsQCA and NCA in the field of tourism and hospitality studies thus, their full potential and implications of exploring the interface of tourism decision-making components with CP levels are still unexplored.

This is the first study examining the nonlinearity of risk-induced decision-making triggers of holidaymakers affected by the recession in line with the principles of CP. Its theoretical contribution lays in the exploration of the interface of CP and its three levels of application (micro [tourist], meso [firm/business], macro [destination]) in times of turbulence. Managerially, it strengthens the assumption that CP and customer loyalty are strongly associated even in times of turbulence when destinations and firms should make a strong point to maintain their competitive edge. Methodologically, the study highlights the value of fsQCA for identifying multiple pathways, a relatively new method in tourism. Furthermore, it introduces NCA, a new complementary method in tourism research.

This study aims to evaluate the complex behaviour of tourists in terms of the formulation of destination image related to its gastronomy. Through the examination of gastronomic image, memorability of experiences and food personality traits such as neophobia and neophilia, this research investigates the chaordic (chaos versus order) systems and provides specific pathways that formulate the gastronomic destination image.

Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this study examines the chaordic relations amongst memorable tourism experiences (MTEs), gastronomic neophobia and neophilia and gastronomic image upon the formulation of destination image. This study also includes two grouping variables (nationality [stratified], age).

Three sufficient configurations were revealed that can lead to the formulation of destination image, explaining the attributional gastronomic decision-making of holidaymakers. These solutions concern: food personality traits, generated experience and gastronomic image.

In spite of the need for examining the complexity and the chaordic systems in the gastronomic domain, the lack of a sufficient number of studies using fsQCA hinders its full potential. The complete lack of gastronomic studies using this method highlights the necessity of its use for research in the respective field.

This study explores the complexity of how food-related personality traits influence the attainment of MTEs and the formulation of gastronomic image and how the chaordic systems influence the overall image of a destination.

This paper aims to examine the complexity of attribute configurations affecting tourism decisions related to peer-to-peer accommodation and the sharing economy in destinations affected by recession.

Based on chaos and complexity theories this non-parametric research examines the perspectives of 352 peer-to-peer accommodation holidaymakers in Athens, Greece. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the study examines the complex relations between social and economic aspects, benefits, risks and consumer trust with regard to purchasing intentions. The paper also compares fsQCA with the dominant linear methods of analysis (regression; Cramer’s V) and highlights fsQCA’s suitability when dealing with tourism complexity.

The results reveal three configurations explaining the attributes of holidaymakers’ tourism decisions characterised by socio-economic orientation, trust formulation and price sensitivity. They also highlight the superiority of fsQCA towards conventional linear analyses in complexity aspects.

The examination of the complexity concept using fsQCA can provide a better understanding of the influence of attributes which affect tourism decisions especially for countries suffering from deep recession such as Greece. Still, due to the lack of fsQCA implementation in tourism studies, its full potential needs to be further examined.

In terms of the literature, the study provides an understanding of the complexity formulation of tourism decisions during recession, with special focus on the sharing economy. It further explores the attributes that affect tourism decisions and associated linkages. Methodologically, the study highlights the value of fsQCA and its advantages compared to conventional methods of correlational analysis. It also progresses from fit to predictive validity for the models suggested.

This paper aims to critically review the underlying assumptions and theoretical conceptualizations of duality theories in general. In particular, the paper seeks to augment McCabe et al.’s (2016) reconceptualization of consumer decision-making in tourism. Additionally, the paper offers an integrated duality theory model.

A critical discussion of the basic assumptions, recent advances and constructive criticism of duality theories found in the extant literature prefaces a detailed account of McCabe et al.’s (2016) new general tourist choice model. The author enriches and expands the conceptualization of this model and offers an advanced dual-process theoretical framework for decision-making with a broader range of variables, greater versatility, and suggestions for future research.

The findings indicate mental processes with broader external inputs (stimuli) with possible outputs (decisions/behaviors) warrant inclusion and expansion in a fulsome dual-systems model of tourist decision-making.

This research study adds to the literature of duality theories in consumer decision-making. While factors, contexts, personal preferences and other dimensions in the tourism industry are and will continue to be fluid over time, this study offers an integrated decision-making framework that provides clear linkages that mark pathways for new developments, future research and practitioner applications.

The integrated duality theory framework enables researchers and destination management organizations managers to acquire enhanced explanatory and predictive value of tourism decision-making, which can lead to offering improved products/services. The model’s emphasis on simultaneous engagement of both heuristic and analytic dual processes reflects fundamental human nature; decision-making can be “both/and” as well as “either/or” with heuristic and analytic processes.

This study aims to illuminate the field conditions under which social entrepreneurship can become institutionalized and transform the existing institutional fields.

A comparative case study was conducted among three social enterprises, within different regional institutional fields, following a most different systems design: OTELO, in Mühlviertel, ADC MOURA, in Baixo Alentejo and STEVIA HELLAS in Phthiotis.

The results indicate some of the field conditions under which an institutionalization of social entrepreneurship can thrive, namely, a high civil approval, a highly institutionalized and decentralized institutional field that allows the social enterprise to remain autonomous, as well the anchoring of the venture to a pre-existing counter-hegemonic narrative or/and to an embedded network that drives the dissemination a new institutional logic forward.

The institutionalization of the voluntary collective action that social entrepreneurship embodies has significant limitations. The same is true for innovation, which tends to lose its innovative spirit as it becomes institutionalized. Future research has to explore if institutionalized social entrepreneurship can maintain a voluntary perspective and an innovative drift.

Most studies on institutional entrepreneurship deploy in-depth case studies while multi-case comparative research remains rare. The current comparative study adds significantly to the understanding of institutional entrepreneurship, as it compares different degrees of institutionalization and successful institutional entrepreneurs to non-successful ones.