Dagmar Abfalter

A Ranking of International Tourism and Hospitality Journals

Attempts to assess the quality of academic publications have been increasing lately. Due to the number of existing journals, it is hard to make a representative selection and to find criteria for determining quality. Hence, questions arise, including what sort of journals are more important in terms of reputation, readership frequency, and relevance to scientific research and practice. Recent studies on journal rankings have been carried out on the basis of both objective data (citation counts) and the quality perceptions of experts. This study attempts a rating of tourism and hospitality journals among the scientific community according to the journals’ readership frequency, scientific and practical relevance, overall reputation, and the importance of being published in the journals to the academic career of the respondents.

Cross-Border Destination Management Systems in the Alpine Region–The Role of Knowledge Networks on the Example of AlpNet

SUMMARY The Alps are the focus of a wide-ranging discussion. Researchers, scientists, politicians, inhabitants, and people who earn their living in the Alpine region are all confronted with difficult challenges. The main topics are the development in the fields of nature, landscape, tourism and leisure, traffic and transport, and its consequences for the Alps as a living space and economic area. About 30 years ago, a cooperation of tourism and political authorities in 11 countries, regions, provinces, and cantons of Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Austria has been established. Due to globalization and changing traveling patterns, people have become more and more aware that a new international cooperation of the Alpine tourism regions in the field of destination management and marketing is required. This is necessary in order to react to market changes accordingly. This acknowledgment is instead of small and more or less independent and self-sufficient organizations. It also includes the collaboration concerning one of the most important resources of our time-knowledge-and the establishment of a network where it can be consciously managed. The following paper shows the special qualities of networks, especially knowledge networks at the example of AlpNet. It consists of three parts. The first part deals with the change of Alpine tourism management and marketing, the second part discusses the necessities and challenges of a cross-border cooperation in tourism marketing with a special focus on networks and knowledge networks, and the third part presents the results of an empirical study explaining the problems and perspectives for developing knowledge networks of cross-border destination management in the Alpine region. As far as management and marketing of tourism destinations are concerned, it is shown what possibilities-yet what limits-may result in launching cross-border cooperation projects in the future. For decades cross-border cooperation was used for compensating existing competitive disadvantages on tourism markets. The example of the new project AlpNet shows how important cooperation and member-specific requirements are for tourism and other economic industries when it comes to the establishment of knowledge networks.

Corporate Culture As An Antecedent Of Successful Exploration And Exploitation

Organisational culture is a decisive factor for a firms innovativeness and performance. Our empirical model explores the relationship between organisational culture — based on the competing values model — as an antecedent of exploration and exploitation, innovation success and firm performance. It is tested on a sample of 232 CEOs of corporations in the US. Relationships between the constructs were analysed through path modelling, using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method, employing the SmartPLS software. The results reveal a strong influence of corporate culture on exploration and exploitation, innovation success and performance. More specifically, we find significant positive relationships between hierarchy culture and market culture and exploitation. A clan culture negatively impacts exploration. Only an adhocracy culture positively influences both exploitation and exploration. Exploration and exploitation are positively related to innovation success and firm performance. Theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and an agenda for further research are discussed.

Hybrid analysis of textual data

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insightful evidence of phenomena in organization and management theory. Textual data sets consist of two different elements, namely qualitative and quantitative aspects. Researchers often combine methods to harness both aspects. However, they frequently do this in a comparative, convergent, or sequential way. Design/methodology/approach – The paper illustrates and discusses a hybrid textual data analysis approach employing the qualitative software application GABEK-WinRelan in a case study of an Austrian retail bank. Findings – The paper argues that a hybrid analysis method, fully intertwining qualitative and quantitative analysis simultaneously on the same textual data set, can deliver new insight into more facets of a data set. Originality/value – A hybrid approach is not a universally applicable solution to approaching research and management problems. Rather, this paper aims at triggering and intensifying scientific discussion about stronger integratio...

Learning From the Best: Implications From Successful Companies for Higher Education Management

At the end of the first decade of the new millenium, the circumstances for both academic institutions and the marketplace could be easily described as adverse. A global financial crisis had increased pressure on the budgets of universities and on their actual as well as prospective students. Companies that had traditionally supported higher education were struggling with survival. In many cases, public money had been shortened or just distributed over an increasing number of recipients in the last years. In Austria and Germany, the university sector had also experienced a shift toward privatization of state universities and the foundation of private universities. By all means, competition for scarce resources in the academic environment—budgets, excellent staff, and students among others—had increased, forcing higher education institutions to become more market oriented. As in business, agility is demanded for universities if they want to win a competitive edge (Shattock 2000).

The influence of online social networks on performance of small and medium enterprises: an empirical investigation of the online business to business network XING

Social networks are considered a contributing factor in the growth and performance of companies, especially in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper examines how CEOs of SMEs perceive online social networks (OSNs) as beneficial for their companies. As CEOs strongly identify with their SME, the influence of the OSN on the SME is largely driven by the CEOs value perception of OSN utilisation. Results of a focus group discussion and survey among 181 owners and CEOs of Austrian SMEs, who are members of the OSN XING, revealed indeed that trust in the OSN and access to resources available only through OSN membership lead to satisfaction with the OSN. Although access to resources does not lead to growth itself, it is mediated by the perceived value of the OSN. Trust and perceived value of the OSN increase the intention of recommending the OSN to other business partners (i.e., word of mouth). These outcomes are largely mediated by company growth and the perceived value of OSN participation. Implications for the use of OSN are discussed from the customers (i.e., SMEs) perspective, as well as from the corporate OSN perspective.

Passion meets Profession – erfolgreiche Führung von Fußballteams und Ballettensembles

Die Fuhrung von Expertenteams ist eine zentrale Herausforderung in Unternehmen ebenso wie im Sport- und Kunstbereich. Mitglieder von Expertenteams werden haufig als schwierig, temperamentvoll und egozentrisch charakterisiert. Zusatzlich erschwert wird die Fuhrungsaufgabe, wenn – wie im Fall von Fusballspielen und Ballettauffuhrungen – der Coach bzw. Choreograph wahrend des Leistungserstellungsprozesses nicht direkt eingreifen kann. Diese spezielle Situation wurde bisher in der Fuhrungsliteratur nicht aufgegriffen. Daher wurden 17 narrative Interviews gefuhrt und mit GABEK®-WinRelan® („GAnzheitliche BEwaltigung von Komplexitat“) analysiert. Mit Hilfe der Darstellung der Metastruktur der Interviews mit Choreographen und Fusballtrainern konnten wir die vorherrschenden Charakteristika, Aufgaben und Rollen in diesen Teams identifizieren und besser verstehen. Daruber hinaus konnten wir Einblicke in die Beziehungen zwischen Fuhrenden und Gefuhrten sowie Determinanten des Fuhrungserfolgs gewinnen, die Ruckschlusse auf generelle Fragen der Fuhrung von Expertenteams zulassen.

Der Einfluss authentischen Führungsverhaltens auf den wahrgenommenen Erfolg im Kulturbetrieb

Das Theater als Metapher fur unsere Arbeits- und Lebenswelten, fur die Organisation von Prozessen und Handlungsmustern ist hinlanglich bekannt (Goffman 1959; Pine/Gilmore 1999). Wahrend die Unterschiede zu klassischen Unternehmen so eklatant sind, dass sich das Kulturmanagement bzw. eine Kulturbetriebslehre als eigenstandige Disziplin der Wirtschaftswissenschaften etabliert hat (und die Metapher als Metapher Sinn macht), erlaubt die spezielle Organisation Theater spannende Einblicke in die Fuhrungsforschung auch jenseits des kunstlerischen Bereichs. Insbesondere die hohe Konzentration auf Ziele und Werte und ein Erfolgsbegriff jenseits reinen Profitdenkens machen den Kulturbetrieb zu einer– entgegen vieler anderer Eigenschaften – wiederum sehr zeitgemasen Organisationsform. Um eine starkere Fokussierung auf einige Bereiche zu ermoglichen konzentrieren sich die folgenden Ausfuhrungen auf den Bereich des Musiktheaters, sind jedoch in weitesten Teilen fur die meisten Kulturbetriebe gultig.

In Leaders We Trust – Der Einfluss transformationaler Führung auf Vertrauen, Unternehmenserfolg und Innovation

Die betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung beschaftigt sich nun seit mehr als 100 Jahren mit der Frage effektiver Fuhrung (Antonakis et al., 2004; Bass & Bass, 2008), dennoch hat das Thema nicht an Aktualitat verloren. Immer noch wissen wir zu wenig uber das Phanomen „Fuhrung“, wie die „Ressource Mensch“ nachhaltig und fur alle Beteiligten bzw. Stakeholder positiv eingesetzt werden kann und wie die sie umgebenden Rahmenbedingungen optimal gestaltet werden konnen. Dabei ruckt die Beziehung zwischen Fuhrenden und Gefuhrten immer wieder in den Mittelpunkt. Die Qualitat der Fuhrenden und des Managements sind zentral fur die Uberlebensfahigkeit von Organisationen (Bailom et al., 2006; Hinterhuber et al., 2012). Transformational Fuhrende stehen im Ruf, den Leistungsanspruch, den MitarbeiterInnen an sich selbst stellen, zu erhohen und dadurch zu Leistungen, die uber den Erwartungen liegen, zu motivieren (Bass, 1985).

Leitbilder auf dem Prüfstand

Leitbilder konnen in den unterschiedlichsten Organisationen und Institutionen vorgefunden werden. Teils werden sie bewusst definiert und eingesetzt, teils unbewusst gelebt. Ein „Leitbild“ stellt die Grundsatzplanung von Unternehmenswerten, Normen und Zielen dar (Schwarz 1996), gilt als „Spielregel“ oder wird gar als „Hausordnung“ im Unternehmen eingesetzt (Hinterhuber 2004). Fuhrungskrafte und Mitarbeiterinnen werden in entscheidendem Mase von Leitbildern gelenkt und beeinflusst. Das Leitbild soll den Idealzustand einer Organisation darstellen und fokussiert sich auf langerfristige strategische Entwicklungsrichtungen und Verhaltensnormen. Dadurch erlaubt und erleichtert das Leitbild die Orientierung im Unternehmen und die Identifikation mit den Werten und Zielen der Organisation.