Search results

Previous literature has identified human resources as a key source of competitive advantage in organizations of all sizes. However, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face difficulty in comprehensively implementing all recommended Human Resource Management (HRM) functions. In this study, we shed light on the field of HRM in SMEs by focusing on the context of Greek Small and Medium-sized Hotels (SMHs), which represent a dominant private sector employer across the country.

Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and 34 in-depth interviews with SMHs' owners/managers, we explore the HRM conditions leading to high levels of performance, while taking into consideration the influence of internal key determinants.

We uncover three alternative successful HRM strategies that maximize business performance, namely the Compensation-based performers, the HRM developers and the HRM investors. Each strategy fits discreet organizational characteristics related to company size, ownership type and organizational structure.

To the best of the authors' knowledge this is among the first empirical studies that examine different and equifinal performance-enhancing configurations of HRM practices in SMHs.

Some firms excel at positively presenting their employer brand (talk), while others excel at effectively implementing human resource management (HRM) practices for the benefit of the employees (walk). Which approach is more effective? Focusing specifically on small and medium-sized hotels (SMHs), this study explores the relation of employer branding (EB) and HRM practices with organizational performance (OP).

Stratified sampling was used to identify 34 top management figures (owners, CEOs, and top HR managers) from SMHs across Greece. These individuals agreed to participate in in-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, focusing on their hotels’ HRM, EB, and organizational performance. The interviews were subjected to content analysis, further coupled with graphical exploration of the relations between the concepts under study.

The findings reveal a noteworthy pattern: high-performing SMHs tend to prioritize EB, particularly leveraging social media channels. This prioritization is further reinforced by the implementation of HRM practices, including extensive training and rewards. Clustering SMHs into four different levels based on their application of EB and HRM practices and the effect of these practices on OP, enables us to extend this study and gain valuable insights into the interplay of these factors.

This study highlights the need for practitioners to invest in HRM practices, especially in training and rewards, while giving due attention to EB, despite the potential resource limitations SMHs often face. Importantly, when basic levels of HRM are combined with high levels of EB, OP seems to be maximized.

Both HRM and EB deal with the employer – employee interaction, that’s why EB in most companies is the responsibility of the HRM department. Surprisingly, academic research has treated them as distinct fields, in isolation, ignoring their combined effects. This paper is the first to conceptualize EB as communication (“talk”) and HRM as practice (“walk”) and to thus propose that a complementarity relationship between these two dynamics may facilitate OP. Additionally, this study is the first to combine content analysis with a quantitative exploration to gain more holistic and valuable insights on the topic.

The term “carbon footprint” emerged during the early 2000s, but many hotels remain unaware of what they should do to implement a comprehensive programme to reduce carbon footprint despite having some environmental measures. This study aims to investigate the barriers to reducing hotel carbon footprint and to explore why many hotel managers remain bystanders.

In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with hotel executives to understand what hinders hotels’ implementation of comprehensive programmes to reduce their carbon footprint. The NVivo 11 software package was used to organise data and code the transcribed interviews to identify patterns and themes.

The findings identified several main barriers. They were (1) a lack of understanding, (2) a lack of owner initiative, (3) difficulty with measurements, (4) a lack of stakeholder coordination and support, (5) a lack of a strong mediator, (6) balancing interests and (7) risky investment. The findings of this study suggest some specific strategies for overcoming these barriers.

The study sample was restricted to the Hong Kong hotel executives interviewed; therefore, the findings will not reflect the full picture of managerial perceptions. Drawing on the foundations laid by this study, researchers could collect quantitative data from hotels in other countries to conduct a cross-cultural study.

Very few studies have investigated barriers to carbon-footprint reduction programmes. Specifically, none have been published in the hotel environmental management literature. This study represents a preliminary step towards understanding the barriers that prevent hotels from implementing the programmes.

The purpose of this paper is to review contributions made to the strategic question about human capital development issues in the hotel industry in Nigeria and how they can be addressed.

Based on the strategic question, a critical analysis of each contribution was carried out to identify the key themes, and then the issues, impacts and proposed solutions related to each theme.

The findings show eight key themes related to the human capital development question in the hotel industry in Nigeria.

The findings create a framework to kick-start a conversation by all stakeholders in the hotel industry in Nigeria. The lack of reliable data in many areas is a limitation in reaching empirically based quantitative conclusions. It would be useful to include a wider range of stakeholders in the conversation.

All ten articles have contributed different perspectives to the conversation; all confirm that an engagement of all industry stakeholders is critical if a sustainable resolution is to be achieved.

This research intends to look at the regional characteristics through an analysis of crowd preference and confidence, and investigates how regional characteristics are going to affect human beings at all aspects in a scenario of sharing economy. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an approach to provide an understandable rating score. Furthermore, the paper aims to find the relationships between different features classified in this study by using machine learning methods. Furthermore, due to the importance of performance of methods, the performance of the features is also improved.

The Rating Matching Rate (RMRate) approach is proposed to provide score in terms of simplicity and understandability for all features. The relationships between features can be extracted from accommodation data set using decision tree (DT) algorithms (J48, HoeffdingTree, and REPTree). Usability of these methods was evaluated using different metrics. Two techniques, “ClassBalancer” and “SpreadSubsample,” are applied to improve the performance of algorithms.

Experimental outcomes using the RMRate approach show that the scores are very easy to understand. Three property types are very popular almost in all of selected countries in this study (“apartment”, “house”, and “bed and breakfast”). The findings also indicate that “Entire home/apt” is the most common room-type and 4.5 and 5 star-rating are the most given star-rating by users. The proposed DT algorithms can find the relationships between features significantly. In addition, applied CB and SS techniques could improve the performance of algorithms efficiently.

This study gives precise details about the guests’ preferences and hosts’ preferences. The proposed techniques can effectively improve the performance in predicting the behavior of users in sharing economy. The findings can also help group decision making in P2P platforms efficiently.

Green practices have been of increasing interest to both practitioners and researchers in the hospitality context. To understand how green practices have been adopted in the industry, a systematic review of recent hospitality literature is essential. The purpose of this paper is to identify research domains and formulate a definition of green practices that accurately reflects the current hospitality context.

The authors reviewed 146 articles on green practices published between 2000 and 2014 in eight hospitality journals. Using content analysis, multiple researchers coded the articles using a standardized coding scheme.

The number of articles on green practices in the hospitality context has been growing. Most studies focus on managers and the lodging sector. The authors identify three research domains for green practices in the hospitality literature: organizational, operational and strategic. They define a green practice as a value-added business strategy that benefits hospitality operations that engage in environmental protection initiatives.

This framework may help practitioners develop green practice strategies and governments develop effective green policies and reinforce activities aimed at environmental protection. It provides theoretical foundation for future research related to green practices in the hospitality industry. Overall, hospitality stakeholders can use this framework to understand the implementation and effects of green practices.

The authors create an organizational framework for a fragmented body of literature by identifying three research domains for green practices based on a systematic review of recently published hospitality articles (2000-2014). They challenge existing definitions of green practices and propose an accurate definition tailored to the hospitality context.

This study aims to expand previous work on website stage models by proposing a new model including a dimension encompassing digital integration and the context of mobile, digital marketing and new technologies. Also, this study aims to classify Brazilian wineries using the stage model proposed and verify if the designated stages influence the wineries’ presence in digital and mobile media.

Observational research and quantitative content analysis were adopted to examine a sample of winery websites (N = 150) located in different states and regions of Brazil and create a new website stage model. After the new model’s development, the authors conducted a statistic analysis by running a one-factor analysis of variance to assess the influence of the company’s stage in the use of digital media and mobile strategies, as well as its impacts on market development.

The results suggested a quite mature market regarding website stage position, even though there is still room for growth and technological innovation. Also, the research findings show that there is a positive association between the company’s stage in the use of digital and mobile media strategies. In other words, the more advanced the winery stage, the greater its digital media and mobile presence.

While previous studies attempted to identify wineries’ stages through models, this study presents a new approach by updating the past studies’ stages as well as providing and testing a digital media and mobile dimension. This research contributes to consolidating the Brazilian wine industry position regarding its presence in digital and mobile media, bringing reflections to organizations, society and theory development.