Birgit Pikkemaat

Towards the measurement of innovation - a pilot study in the small and medium sized hotel industry.

SUMMARY This paper discusses the importance of innovation as a key component of business strategy in tourism, as well as determinants of innovation processes in the small and medium sized hotel industry in alpine tourism destinations of Europe. Initially, the paper delivers a literature overview on innovations as prerequisites for competitive advantages. Furthermore, the authors shed more light on the measurement of innovation in the tourism industry. The empirical study has been carried out in alpine tourism destinations focusing on the assessment of innovation activities in small and medium sized (SMEs) hotels. Diverse functional areas of hotels have been analysed and the results show rather low degrees of innovation in all areas of the hotel value chain.

The Staging of Experiences in Wine Tourism

This article analyzes the potential of wine tourism to create experiences for the tourist. For this purpose the authors benefit from Scheurers (2003) and Mueller and Scheurers (2004) experience setting model. A literature review reveals research gaps in the field of experience-oriented wine tourism services and products and calls for more empirical investigations. Therefore, the empirical part of the article presents the case study of the South Tyrolean Wine Route in Italy and applies the experience setting model to assess the potential of experience-orientation of wine routes. The article concludes with tourism policy and management implications and derives questions for further research.

Innovation in Tourism

SUMMARY An overview of the importance and the concept of innovation is given prior to an illustration about important areas of innovation research in tourism. The ten papers of this special issue are briefly introduced and a final statement about the status of innovation research in tourism is presented.

Crisis Management in Alpine Winter Sports Resorts—The 1999 Avalanche Disaster in Tyrol

SUMMARY Alpine tourism destinations must be prepared for environmental hazards such as avalanche disasters. The maintenance of safety and security, and thus the management of crises have become a major issue in Alpine winter resorts. After a short literature review of crisis management models applicable for tourism destinations, the article demonstrates the disaster management process of Galtuer (Austria) in 1999, which suffered one of the severest avalanche disasters ever experienced in the Austrian Alps. The authors investigate security and emergency measures taken in this Alpine resort and discuss failures and success factors in disaster management. The paper reveals that destinations greatly improve their disaster management tools and procedures after having faced a crisis. The final part of the paper identifies key lessons and provides recommendations for future research.

Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises in Tyrol, Austria

This paper deals with innovation and its determinants in small and medium-sized hotel enterprises in alpine tourism. After analysing the alpine tourism market and the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises with regard to innovation, the author describes an empirical study to investigate further the determinants of innovation in small and medium-sized hotel enterprises in Austria. The results reveal that the size and categorization of hotels as well as cooperation and knowledge networks positively influence innovation activities.

Innovation through Cooperation in Destinations: First Results of an Empirical Study in Austria

ABSTRACT In the innovation literature different types of collaboration and cooperation have been advanced as being favourable for the innovation performance of enterprises. Nevertheless empirical studies on entrepreneurship in small and medium sized enterprises in alpine tourism show that the majority of small and medium sized tourism enterprises seem to shy away from any kind of cooperation even though the market forces them to improve their tourism products and services in the face of globalization and the maintenance of competitive advantage. This paper analyzes data on Austrias small and medium sized tourism enterprises collected in a pilot project concerned with the measurement of innovation in destinations through personal interviews. Statistical analyses reveal a positive relationship between enterprises engaged in collaboration and the level of innovation. These findings strongly support the importance of cooperation and networking for small and medium sized firms to increase the level of innovation.

The Importance of Cultural Distance in the Perception of Evaluation of Service Quality

ABSTRACT The paper deals with determinants in the cross-cultural setting of service encounters in tourism. The first part of the paper describes the theoretically expected influence of culture (cultural values) on the perception of expected and received service qualities. Based on a review of the literature cultural values are hypothesized to intervene in the formation of expectations and the perception of received service quality (satisfaction) across specific service quality related choice and/or decision and evaluation processes. Cases in point are particular dimensions of service quality encountered in tourism destinations, events and accommodation settings. The second part of the paper explores the usefulness and also the limitations of alternate cultural constructs found in the literature and used in the analysis of tourists service quality judgements. Finally in part three the cultural distance is suggested as a useful potential proxy for the influence of cultural values in tourism applications and is discussed alongside other cultural constructs traditionally employed in tourism analyses.

Innovation and service experiences in small tourism family firms

Purpose This paper aims to explore the pertinent issues of innovation and service experiences in family firms in the tourism industry, which are mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual paper, building on social identity theory, undertakes a thorough review of the relevant literature before developing propositions regarding innovation and service experiences for small family firms in the tourism industry. Findings Small tourism family firms are faced with deficits in strategic orientation and innovation, and cooperation seems to be a means to overcome size deficits in family-run businesses. Customers integrated into the service experience enhance innovative developments and foster innovation in small tourism firms. As a prerequisite, the service experience must be appropriately managed by collecting and evaluating relevant data on customers’ needs, expectations and satisfaction. An open-minded and consumer-focused market-driven strategy seems to be an advantage. Practical implications Future research should undertake empirical studies to validate and/or modify the propositions presented in this conceptual paper. Originality/value This is one of the few studies to have addressed the relationship between service experiences and innovation for family-run small businesses in the tourism industry.

Open Innovation: A Chance for the Innovation Management of Tourism Destinations?

Innovation management processes have been investigated for several service industries. In tourism the accommodation sector was analysed in depth, however there are only a few attempts to shed more light upon the innovation process in tourism destinations. This paper evaluates innovation processes and in particular the idea of open innovation at a destination level using qualitative data: 37 interviews with managers of tourism businesses and DMOs were conducted in Tyrolean destinations and analysed with regard to actions and attitudes towards open innovation processes within the destinations. Results demonstrate that DMOs can act as mediators to transfer external stimuli into the destination and are important initiators for collaborative innovation networks.

Dienstleistungsinnovationen durch neue Formen der Kundenintegration bei touristischen Dienstleistungen

Als Erfolgsfaktoren von Innovationen werden in der Literatur meist Unternehmertum, Human Resource Management und eine starke Marktorientierung diskutiert (Tidd et al. 2003; Klausegger/Salzgeber 2004). Obwohl auch im Tourismus eine starke Marktorientierung als Erfolgsfaktor von Innovationen empirisch bestatigt ist (Orfila-Sintes et al. 2005; Ottenbacher/Gnoth 2005; Pikkemaat/Peters 2005), findet eine konsequente Umsetzung im Sinne einer Kundenintegration im touristischen Dienstleistungsinnovationsprozess bislang wenig Beachtung. Eine Untersuchung des Marktforschungsinstitutes Fessel GfK spricht von einer durchschnittlichen 70 Prozentigen Floprate bei Innovationen (Fessel/GfK 2006). Denach scheitern etwa 53 Prozent aller Innovationen daran, dass der Kunde keinen Nutzen bei der Innovation sieht und 50 Prozent daran, dass dem Kunden ein Overpromising vermittelt wird. Als Ursache wird in dieser Studie neben der mangelnden Kundenorientierung vor allem der geringe Innovationsgrad angefuhrt.