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This paper aims to examine how organisational values affect diversity in terms of different competencies in rural family Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Recruiting a diverse workforce in rural family SMEs can be particularly difficult due to the prevalence of internal family values and the lack of available local specialised competencies. A deficiency of diversity in employment and competence acquisition and development can create problems, as it often prevents rural family SMEs from recruiting employees with a wide variety of qualifications and skills.

The study takes on a multi-case method of Swedish rural family SMEs, applying a qualitative content analysis approach. In total, 20 in-depth structured interviews are conducted with rural family SME owners and 2 industries were investigated and compared – the tourism and the manufacturing industries.

Rural family SMEs lack long-term employment strategies, and competence diversity does not appear to be a priority for rural family SMEs, as they often have prematurely decided who they will hire rather than what competencies are needed for their long-term business development. It is more important to keep the team of employees tight and the family spirit present than to include competence diversity and mixed qualifications in the employment acquisition and development.

Contrary to prior research, our findings indicate that rural family SMEs apply short-term competence diversity strategies rather than long-term prospects regarding competence acquisition and management, due to their family values and rural setting, which strictly narrows the selection of employees and competencies. Also, a general reluctance towards competence diversity is identified, which originates from the very same family values and rural context.

This paper aims to present a review of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) literature on the adoption of technology for marketing with the objective the knowledge trajectory from SMEs to tourism SMEs (TSMEs) and presents a research agenda for the adoption of digital marketing among TSMEs.

The quantitative literature review method is adopted to analyze 50 articles published in high-ranking journals from 2011–2021. The selected papers were reviewed to quantitatively present the popular theoretical frameworks, constructs and research methods used for the adoption of digital marketing among SMEs and to present a future research agenda in the context of TSMEs.

The findings present a review of theoretical approaches, research design, methods, and models used by researchers, and identify new directions for future research in the context of the adoption of digital marketing among TSMEs. The paper presents a theoretical critique of the technology adoption theories and builds on diffusion of innovation theory, technology–organization–environment (TOE), and institutional theory to propose an expanded model to study digital marketing adoption among TSMEs.

The article presents a significant advancement in the theoretical understanding of the adoption of digital marketing by offering the application of the TOE framework with moderating role of mimetic and normative pressures. Thus, the study contributes to the scarce research on institutional theory in the context of services (tourism) and offers an alternative and holistic perception to study digital marketing. The research model serves as an organizing tool for future researchers and practitioners to probe and further augment knowledge development in tourism and TSMEs.

Negligible published work on TSMEs makes this study valuable and the proposed model gives strategic information in the given context.

This paper aimed to test a proposed framework highlighting strategic green marketing initiatives and how they drive new technology implementation towards green corporate performance, underpinned by institutional isomorphism.

The study used a quantitative method and convenience sampling approach in gathering data using adapted questionnaires to solicit first-hand information from 225 employees of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism and hospitality sector underpinned by the theory of institutional isomorphism.

The study shows that green communication and green strategy alignment have significant predictive effects on new technology implementation. Cultural isomorphism significantly moderated the effects of implementing new technology (i.e. green communication and strategy alignment). In addition, “new technology implementation had a significant predictive effect on green corporate performance”. Meanwhile, the moderation effect of “green creative behaviour on the new technology-green corporate performance dyad was positive but insignificant.”

The study’s novel framework confirms how green communication strategy and green strategy alignment complement cultural isomorphism to explain the impact of new technology implementation on green corporate performance, underpinned by institutional isomorphism.

This study aims to explore the patterns and transformational dynamics of the executive–interpreter network in the innovation processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises in hospitality.

Grounded in social network theory and adopting a case-based approach, this study features a multi-case design focusing on three Chinese boutique hotels. Data were collected through Web page and document reviews, participant observations and semistructured interviews.

Results capture how executive–interpreter network dynamics contribute to innovation in small- and medium-sized hotels. Key factors in social networks (e.g. size, scope and strength) shift throughout innovation. This study presents a design-driven approach as a means of innovation. Findings also delineate the network development conditions under which innovation dynamically occurs in boutique hotels.

Practical implications center on how network dynamics help small- and medium-sized hotels innovate more effectively. These insights can assist hotel operators and prospective market entrants in improving their hotels’ performance and competitiveness.

This study blends social network theory with a design-driven approach to explore innovation mechanisms in small- and medium-sized hotels. It offers empirical evidence for practitioners regarding design-driven innovation. Findings enrich the body of knowledge on both design-driven innovation theory and hospitality innovation.

This study aims to identify the role of innovation research in formulating the intellectual structure of the hospitality and tourism literature by performing a bibliometric analysis.

In total, 6,255 journal articles on innovation were gathered from Scopus and analyzed using co-citation, bibliographic coupling and thematic content analyses. The most influential articles were also carefully read to reveal a nomological network of innovation research in hospitality and tourism scholarship.

Co-citation analysis reveals that there are six significant clusters in the field of innovation research. Various philosophical underpinnings might be used in different circumstances, with actor-network and Schumpeterian theory playing significant roles. A review of current works using bibliographic coupling reveals five interesting emerging research areas and makes numerous recommendations for when to conduct more studies. A review of influential articles displayed differences between the co-citation and bibliographic coupling analysis findings and produced a framework for further investigation of the knowledge field.

This paper is among the first integrative reviews on innovation research in hospitality and tourism by quantitatively reviewing published articles and qualitatively reviewing the content of the most influential studies.

This research is an empirical study that addresses whether knowledge resources impact on, or do not impact on, innovation development and if this impact is mediated by dynamic capabilities in the medical tourism sector in Mashhad city, Iran.

A quantitative research methodology was applied and questionnaires were used for data collection in this study. A total of 108 questionnaires were collected of which 102 questionnaires were valid. Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling technique.

Empirical evidence obtained from the study reveals that the dynamic capability of learning plays a significant role in transforming knowledge resources into innovation in the medical tourism sector. The mediating role of coordinating capability in the relationship between explicit and tacit knowledge and innovation is considerable and it influences human capital, as well. Sensing capability also exhibits some degree of a mediating role; however, integrating capability is not influential and its role in transforming explicit knowledge to innovation is rejected.

Most studies on innovation in medical tourism focused on market and its typology, and neglected the role of knowledge resources and dynamic capabilities. The current study bridges this gap and thus contributes to the scientific literature.

This study explores the role of international tour operators as the agents assuming the governance and the upgrading of the tourism global value chains (TGVCs), with a special focus on their influence on the development of technological capabilities (TCs) in the hotel industry.

The data used in this article originates from a survey carried out in 2016 on Spanish small and medium-sized hotel companies. An ordinal regression analysis is employed to test the hypotheses proposed in this research.

This study finds that tour operators exert a positive effect on the technological upgrading process in the hotel industry by stimulating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest in TCs. The causal mechanisms through which these effects take place differ across the various stages of the relationship between hotel companies and tour operators.

The results have implications both for hotel management in terms of how hotels take advantage of technological upgrading to become more competitive, and for public administrations in terms of what measures can boost the development of hotel TCs in order to increase their added value.

To date, very few studies have analysed the tourism sector based on the influence on the development of TCs of SME hotels by combining GVC concepts and the resource-based view. It is also the first time that the causal mechanisms are shown to explain such influences.

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of individual dynamic capabilities (DC) constructs and whether they had comparable effects on a company’s competitiveness in market turbulence (MT). This study used quantitative methods to determine how the DC elements, sensing, learning, integrating and coordinating, influenced competitiveness, with the moderating role of MT during a real-time crisis.

Survey data was gathered from 426 tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (TSMEs) in the United Arab Emirates and analyzed quantitatively.

The study found that not all DC constructs were equally important in promoting competitiveness. TSMEs’ survival depended more on sensing and integrating capabilities than learning and coordinating capabilities, and on how these capabilities were used by managers or owners of TSMEs. The study found no moderation effect of MT.

The generalizability of the results was hindered by the study’s focus on TSMEs in a single geographic location. The reasons for lack of proper mobilization of DCs constructs were not explored, but the data on the relative efficacy of DC constructs during a crisis significantly contributed to the literature.

This study emphasized ways that companies could improve firm competitiveness during a crisis by deploying DCs to optimize operations. The implications for research, practical aspects and limitations are presented and discussed.

The vulnerability of the tourism industry to an array of risks, encompassing family-related, small- and medium-sized enterprise-specific, strategic, tourism-specific and external factors, highlights the landscape within which small and medium family enterprises (SMFEs) operate. Although SMFEs are an important stakeholder in the dynamic tourism sector, they are not one homogenous group of firms, but have different strategic orientations. This study aims to investigate the interplay between strategic orientation and risk perception to better understand SMFEs risk perception as it is impacting their decision-making processes, resilience and long-term survival. The authors investigate how different strategic orientations contribute to different perspectives on risk among owner-managers.

Based on a qualitative data corpus of 119 face-to-face interviews, the authors apply various coding rounds to better understand the relationship between strategic orientations and the perceptions of risks. Firstly, the authors analysed the owner–manager interviews and identified three groups of different strategic orientations: proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFE, destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFE and passive SMFE. Secondly, the authors coded the interviews for different risks identified. The authors identified that the three groups show differences in the risk perceptions.

The data unveil that the three groups of SMFEs have several differences in how they perceive risks. Proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs prioritize business risks, demonstrating a penchant for innovation and sustainability. Destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFEs perceive a broader range of risks, tying their investments to destination development, emphasizing family and health risks and navigating competitive pressures. Passive SMFEs, primarily concerned with external risks, exhibit limited awareness of internal and strategic risks, resist change and often defer decision-making to successors. The findings underscore how different strategic orientations influence risk perceptions and decision-making processes within SMFEs in the tourism industry.

The authors contribute to existing knowledge include offering a comprehensive status quo of perceived risks for different strategic orientations, a notably underexplored area. In addition, the differences with respect to risk perception shown in the paper suggest that simplified models ignoring risk perception may be insufficient for policy recommendations and for understanding the dynamics of the tourism sector. For future research, the authors propose to focus on exploring the possible directions in which strategic orientation and risk perception influence one another, which might be a limitation of this study due to its qualitative nature.

Varying strategic orientations and risk perceptions highlight the diversity within the stakeholder group of SMFE. Recognizing differences allows for more targeted interventions that address the unique concerns and opportunities of each group and can thus improve the firm’s resilience (Memili et al., 2023) and therefore leading to sustainability destinations development. The authors suggest practical support for destination management organizations and regional policymakers, aimed especially at enhancing the risk management of passive SMFEs. Proactive SMFE could be encouraged to perceive more family risks.

Viewing tourism destinations as a complex stakeholder network, unveiling distinct risk landscapes for various strategic orientations of one stakeholder has the potential to benefit the overall destination development. The proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs are highly pertinent as they might lead destinations to further development and create competitive advantage through innovative business models. Passive SMFEs might hinder the further development of the destination, e.g. through missing innovation efforts or succession.

Although different studies explore business risks (Forgacs and Dimanche, 2016), risks from climate change (Demiroglu et al., 2019), natural disasters (Zhang et al., 2023) or shocks such as COVID-19 (Teeroovengadum et al., 2021), this study shows that it does not imply that SMFE as active stakeholder perceive such risk. Rather, different strategic orientations are in relation to perceiving risks differently. The authors therefore open up an interesting new field for further studies, as risk perception influences the decision-making of tourism actors, and therefore resilience.

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.