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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of successful business performance among accommodation firms by focusing on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and destination attractiveness.

A web-based e-mail survey was undertaken in the Sardinian accommodation sector in 2012. The sample included 224 accommodation firms and analyses were performed using ordered logit regressions.

The results suggest no differential impact of EO on sales and profit depending on the attractiveness of the location in which the accommodation firm operates. Both EO and destination attractiveness were found to exert independent positive effects on firm performance. Furthermore, EO was found to have a larger effect on firm performance than destination attractiveness.

The study mainly considered hotels and camping accommodations in Sardinia. Additional investigations across accommodation types and geographic contexts are needed.

The findings suggest that accommodation firms should focus on implementing entrepreneurial activities and not only, as frequently happens, concentrate on selecting attractive destinations in which to conduct their business. Moreover, the findings also suggest that accommodation firms that are located in less attractive areas may produce good performance if they are managed with an EO. Finally, training programs should be developed to improve the entrepreneurial abilities of accommodation managers.

The specific topics of this paper have been understudied. The findings hold practical implications for entrepreneurs and managers who are involved in the accommodation sector.

The purpose of this study is to assess the key determinants of sustainability practices and policy adoption in small- and medium-sized tourism accommodation firms and its possible impact on the firm’s competitive advantages.

A combined model has been developed and tested with a set of relevant hypotheses based on primary data collected from tourism firm’s owners and personnel. Structural equation modeling has been used to test and validate the hypotheses.

The key results indicate that collaboration and innovation of tourism firms, employee culture, technological infrastructure, tourism intermediary’s sustainability practices and top management support have a significant impact on sustainability practices adoption, whereas government sustainable tourism policy and local’s attitude toward sustainability have an insignificant impact.

The findings assist managers and owners of tourism accommodation firms to re-address their policy and operational processes toward sustainability. This study is an endeavor to bridge the knowledge gap of current literature on sustainable practice adoption and tourism accommodation firm. This would be ensured through encouraging the economic aspect of sustainability practices and also facilitate social well-being, which is a real contribution that ought to practice to other countries where the tourist area is environmentally adverse tremendous.

Considering sustainability is a social commitment, this study positively changes tourists’ behavioral approach reducing the undesirable use of social resources and maximizing the enduring socio-economic and environmental development for social well-being.

The novelty of this empirical study is that sustainability practices and policies adoption is entirely a new phenomenon. However, the mediating impact of the construct on the competitive advantage of small and medium tourism accommodation firms enhances the effectiveness of emerging tourism economy.

The aims of the paper are to evaluate the relevance of environmental factors (seasonality, size and quality) on hotels’ performance and benchmarks; to measure the bias in efficiency resulting from a failure to control for these sources of heterogeneity; and to propose some managerial policies to handle for environmental heterogeneity.

The sample is constituted by 2,705 hotels operating in Emilia-Romagna (Italy). The metafrontier approach is used to identify the different production processes and measure technical efficiency scores.

Different production processes exist among accommodation firms due to environmental features; not considering heterogeneity in technological sets produces high levels of bias in the efficiency measurement, albeit the ranking of hotels tends to be fairly consistent; the star rating is the primary source of efficiency bias followed by seasonality, while size has a minor impact.

Future research could be directed to analyse the relevance of environmental heterogeneity in other areas; study the dynamics; investigate agglomeration effects; and use other methodological tools.

The analysis proposes new managerial interventions: targeted strategies to different groups; creation of networks of enterprises, clustered mainly in respect to size for highly rated enterprises and seasonality for low-rated enterprises; and incentives to annual hotels and raise in the product quality.

This paper simultaneously considers several environmental factors affecting heterogeneity in hotel production processes; investigates the effect of heterogeneity on either the efficiency scores or the ranking of hotels; and focuses on micro, low-quality or seasonal hotels.

Firms need to develop absorptive capacities to effectively source and exploit knowledge relevant to environmental behaviour for their own innovation activity. Business-to-business interactions can represent a significant route through which knowledge and resources about environmental innovations are transferred along the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms exploit business partnerships in order to build capacity for environmental innovation. In order to do so, it investigates two elements of B2B interactions – partner alignment and compatibility – and their influence on absorptive capacity-building.

This paper is based on a qualitative interview study of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) operating in the environmental goods and services sector and their clients involved in adopting environmental innovations. Matched pairs of engineering consulting firms and their clients – tourism accommodation establishments – were selected as a sampling frame in order to study the influence of partner alignment and compatibility on the exchange of environmentally relevant knowledge and competencies.

The findings show that the synergistic attributes of business partners influence absorptive capacity-building and give rise to different patterns of interaction of KIBS with their client. The B2B interactions investigated are characterised by alignment along multiple objectives about the relevance of environmental behaviour. Furthermore, the compatibility of the partners’ competences is a key determinant of environmental innovation outcome.

The study highlights the role of managers in identifying and selecting those business partnerships that accrue greater potential benefit for accessing resources and competencies for eco-innovation.

The study contributes to the literature on absorptive capacity and innovation by demonstrating how B2B interactions – in this study, the interaction of KIBS with their clients – influence the capacity of firms to adopt environmental innovations which is an area of study that deserves further attention.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interplay of skill-enhancing human resources (HR) practices, innovativeness and firm performance.

Data from 211 valid cases were gathered through an online survey and face-to-face interviews with Albanian tourism firms. Structural equation modeling was implemented to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results suggest that HR training has a positive influence on innovativeness, which in turn affects positively firm performance. Thus, there is a mediation effect of innovativeness in the link between training and performance.

The findings are in line with the strategic perspective on HR management, which suggests that HR practices are likely to indirectly affect firm performance. However, results should be interpreted with caution due to the cross-sectional nature of the data.

HR training practices may help tourism firms to increase their innovation orientation and ultimately improve their performance outcomes.

Investigating the mediation role of innovativeness on the relationship between skill-enhancing HR practices and firm performance within the tourism context is the core contribution.

技能增强型人力资源实践和企业绩效：创新的中介作用

此研究的目的是研究技能增强型人力资源（HR）做法, 创新性和公司绩效之间的相互作用。

通过一系列在线调查, 我们收集了211例阿尔巴尼亚旅游行业公司的面对面访谈, 组成有效分析数据。实施结构方程模型以验证所提出的假设。

研究结果表明人力资源培训对创新具有积极的意义。重要的是, 在培训和绩效之间, 创新具有重要的中介作用。

研究结果与人力资源管理的战略观点相当一致, 表明人力资源实践对企业绩效会带来间接的影响。但是, 由于数据具有跨行业性质, 所以在结果的分析上应当采取谨慎的态度。

人力资源的培训可以帮助旅游类的企业提高创新并最终改善其绩效成果。

该项目的核心贡献是研究创新对提高技能的人力资源与公司绩效之间的中介作用。

Prácticas de recursos humanos que mejoran las habilidades y desempeño de la empresa: el papel mediador de la innovación

El propósito de este estudio es investigar la interacción de las prácticas de recursos humanos (RRHH) que mejoran las habilidades, la innovación y el desempeño de la empresa.

Los datos de 211 casos válidos se recopilaron a través de una encuesta en línea y de entrevistas personales con empresas de turismo albanesas. Se implementó un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para probar las hipótesis propuestas.

Los resultados sugieren que la formación de RR.HH. tiene una influencia positiva en la innovación, la cual a su vez afecta positivamente al rendimiento de la empresa. Por tanto, existe un efecto mediador de la innovación en la relación entre formación y rendimiento.

Los hallazgos están en línea con la perspectiva estratégica sobre la gestión de RRHH, que sugiere que las prácticas de RRHH pueden afectar indirectamente el desempeño de la empresa. Sin embargo, los resultados deben interpretarse con precaución debido a la naturaleza transversal de los datos.

Las prácticas de formación de RRHH pueden ayudar a las empresas de turismo a aumentar su orientación hacia la innovación y, en última instancia, mejorar sus resultados.

Investigar el papel mediador de la innovación en la relación entre las prácticas de RRHH que mejoran las habilidades y el desempeño de la empresa dentro del contexto turístico es la contribución principal.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which growth-oriented small and micro-businesses (SMBs) are affected by regulations. Case studies from North-West England are used to investigate the relationship between attitudes and responses to regulation and the characteristics of business growth.

This research examines the relationship between regulation and growth using eight case studies of SMBs. The selected cases are proactive in seeking new market opportunities and innovative in terms of product development or business process.

Case studies confirm that owner-managers of SMBs experience high levels of regulatory burden. However, some growth-oriented businesses also recognise the advantages in being proactive in seeking regulatory knowledge. These advantages were particularly prevalent in cases where growth is driven by product innovation in relatively new product markets.

The study is based on a limited number of case studies in one region of England. Even so, interviews facilitate probing to increase understanding of the underlying reasons for attitudes towards regulation. The cases demonstrate that even very small businesses can use regulatory knowledge as a basis for business growth.

The findings suggest that networking in order to engage with regulatory regimes can generate competitive advantages and open up new market opportunities for small businesses.

This research contributes towards the debate on the impact of regulations on the economy at the micro level and in doing so highlights important nuances in the relationship between business growth and the regulatory environment.

Performance measurement, especially at the enterprise level, requires intense consideration of experts and managers in organizations from both theoretical and practical aspects. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the overall organizational performance by developing a performance evaluation model, based on integrating two methodologies of balanced scorecard (BSC) – a multiple perspective plan for performance assessment – and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) – a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions.

The method was conducted in Isfahan Telecommunications Company (ITC), in 2013. In total, 27 managers of ITC were invited to participate. First, according to overall firm goals, key performance indicators (KPIs) were established with respect to four perspectives of BSC framework. Then pairwise comparisons were done, through standard AHP questionnaires, to determine the preference weights of each indicator and perspective and give precedence to them.

Organizational performance can be measured by the proposed model in a telecommunications industry. According to the adopted method, company KPIs, relative importance of BSC perspectives and performance evaluation of functional areas were identified.

This study provides guidance regarding strategies for improving organizational performance beyond the financial perspective.

Previous studies illustrate various applications of joint BSC and AHP. However, this study applies the integrated framework throughout an organization in a new application field and shows not only company’s features but also telecommunications industry features.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions on firm performance in the tourism sector. The goal is twofold: on the one hand, the paper aims to test whether EO dimensions are still significant determinants of performance after controlling for possible confounding factors; on the other hand, it aims to address the question of which EO dimension exerts the strongest effect on performance.

A survey was carried out in the Sardinian accommodation sector in 2012 and 224 questionnaires were collected. The multidimensional EO constructs were adopted.

The results show that innovativeness, proactiveness and autonomy were significantly associated with tourism firm performance, whereas risk-taking and competitiveness were not.

The results are limited to the Sardinian accommodation context. Self-reported data were used to measure firm performance. Further research works could replicate the analyses using objective firm performance not only in similar touristic destinations but also in other countries and incorporating other industries.

The study suggests educational and managerial implications. Entrepreneurs in the tourism sector should be encouraged to adopt an innovative, autonomous and proactive approach in managing their firms.

The study advances entrepreneurial knowledge in the tourism sector and in particular in the accommodation industry. The multidimensional EO approach has never been adopted among touristic firms. Furthermore, considering that EO research has been overlooked in the country of Italy, this study’s contribution is also providing evidence from an area that has received minimal attention to date.

The specific typology of local accommodation in Portugal has undergone a huge expansion accompanied by a proliferation in the number of firms and it is crucial that the firms associated with this boom can ensure their survival and remain in the market. The purpose of this paper is to specify an insolvency forecasting model and identify which financial indicators best contribute to forecasting insolvency in local accommodation firms.

At the methodological level, the financial data of firms in this sector were initially collected via the SABI database; then the probit model was estimated to perform the analysis of financial variables, with the aim of observing their behaviour and understanding which are crucial in predicting business insolvency.

Given the scarcity of studies in this specific typology of accommodation, the results of this paper are relevant and increase the knowledge for the sector. They also enable the identification of financial ratios that deserve greater attention from those responsible for firms in this sector, namely, profitability and liquidity ratios. In short, profitability ratios vary inversely with the probability of insolvency, so that firms with higher levels of net profitability, asset rotation or accumulated profitability have a lower probability of insolvency, with the opposite being true in terms of liquidity, where firms with higher current assets are more likely to become insolvent.

The novelty of this paper is focused on the urgent need for tourism accommodation stakeholders to prevent or anticipate insolvency and identify which financial indicators best contribute to forecasting insolvency. This research is fundamental, as many cities are considered major tourist destinations and where a high number of tourism businesses are concentrated.

This paper aims to better understand how business model innovation (BMI) occurs in the context of sustainable entrepreneurship, emphasizing the dialectical nature of entrepreneurial relationships. To do so, key interdependencies and reciprocal influences between internal/firm-specific and external/environmental factors underlying BMI for sustainability are analysed through co-evolutionary lenses.

A co-evolutionary framework is developed and applied to a longitudinal business model (BM) analysis of 15 Italian widespread hotels, which creatively use historic villages at risk of abandonment to establish their hotels.

Largely influenced by the interplay between internal and external factors, BMI of widespread hotels occurs through multilevel co-adaptations, which are recognised as virtuous by all stakeholders involved. Effective variations of the BM value elements are selected resulting in circular economy practices, which are retained for successful BMI, radical (first) and incremental (thereafter). Knowledge of specific local and multi-local conditions, time awareness and a future-oriented temporal perspective, by both entrepreneurs and policymakers, favour this dynamic.

Developing targeted policies and practices based on increased organisational knowledge supported by indicators can help in selecting and retaining successful variations of BMs appropriately in/with time with positive effects on firms' performance and sustainable development.

This study provides a novel co-evolutionary framework that explicitly links sustainable entrepreneurship and BM concepts in the accommodation sector. It further proposes a dynamic and holistic explanation of BMI for sustainability from which the crucial roles of the time-knowledge binomial and circular practices emerge.