Labros Sdrolias

Enterprises' locational decisions and interregional highways: an empiric investigation in Greec

The interaction between transportation infrastructures and land uses constitutes one of the most basic phenomena in urban and rural areas. The construction of a highway improves mobility and thus increases the density and value of land uses by creating the necessary conditions for the economic development of the regions that it crosses. In this article the contribution of enterprises located in areas near interregional highways to regional development is examined. Concretely, the contribution of these enterprises to the economic development of the regions in which they are established is investigated using multiple regression analysis and with the completion of questionnaires by enterprises located near interregional areas of the Athens–Thessaloniki national highways and near the cities of Lamia and Larissa.

Integrating Total Quality Management Philosophy in the Greek Tourism Sector

Tourism sector is currently facing challenges due to the fast paced environment, the changes that it needs to keep up with and the financial crisis as well. Within a highly demanding framework the needs for high standards and total quality management arises. Organizations that are related to tourism need to introduce a philosophy of sustainability by developing innovative practices that will enable them to reserve their competitive advantage. Therefore, total quality management can be a useful tool in improving their products and services by focusing in quality parameters.

The Role of Organizational Culture in the Greek Higher Tourism Quality

Organizational culture is considered to be important, if not essential, in all industries and businesses nowadays. Every company has its own unique personality, just like people do. This unique personality of an organization refers to its culture. In order to become more effective, organizations have realized how important is the role of their culture and the critical effects it has especially within the tourism industry. The quality of the services and products is affected to a high extent.

Tourism Consumer Behavior and Alternative Tourism: The Case of Agrotourism in Greece

The alternative tourism has a lot of segments according to the specific requirements of the customers, always in order to provide a designed customized leisure. (Ros Derrett, Cultural tourism, Paper presented to Momento, Queensland Merchandise Awards, Brisbane, Qld., 24 July, 2002) More and more travelers are being attracted by these types of tourism, and consequently this creates the development of new potential types of tourists. During the past years there has been a shift from mass tourism into special interest tourism. The reason behind this shift is related with changes on customers’ patterns. According to (Alebaki and Iakovidou in Enometrica 3:15–24, 2010; Iakovidou, Vlahou and Partalidou, 2001. Quality directions in rural tourism in Greece, Proceedings of the International Conference on “New Directions In Managing Rural Tourism And Leisure”, Euro Scotland, 5–8/9/2001) tourists seek to focus on turning away from mass tourism since they feel that this mode of tourism does not satisfy their needs for quality driven tourist activities. (Alebaki and Iakovidou in Enometrica 3:15–24, 2010) have also identified other factors which have to do with local communities. On many cases, (Alebaki and Iakovidou in Enometrica 3:15–24, 2010) have examined the case of agro-tourism in Greece where communities need to develop their economies in a way where tourism will not disrupt their natural resources. On many cases tourism has been accused of damaging the natural environment and social cohesion. For example, a visitor can go to an agrotourist unit which produced organic food. He will stay in the hotel found within the premises of the farm while he will have the chance to eat dinners made from organic products. He can also go for hiking, mountain biking, rafting or any other activity near the unit. This means that the consumers who are choosing this type of tourism have their own distinctive behavior. The aim of this paper is to examine this difference. According to (Tsartas, Sustainable tourism, Kritiki, Athens, 2010) this is a special interest group which was developed during last years. It is made from middle age and high or medium income consumers. For many years those consumers constituted the core of mass tourism but now they feel that tourism on overcrowded destinations does not satisfy them anymore. They seek for more quality driven solutions such as spa tourism, sea tourism, etc. On the other hand they will like to visit a sustainable destination, such as an agrotourist unit but they seek to spend their days in a quality driven agrotourist unit and not the average one. They can afford to pay a considerable amount of money for their holidays and if they are satisfy they will not hesitate to suggest the destination on their friends. It is a growing segment and on many countries it has become they segment of special interest tourism. Their key motive is that they can find in those destinations the tranquility and quality that they are looking for. The expected outcome is that consumers who select agrotourist activities also tend to have their own distinctive characteristics, which is vital for the development of Tourism in Greece to examine them.

Governmental, Entrepreneurial and Social Dysfunctions and Responsibilities in Terms of Tourism Development Strategy Implementation in Greece: Quo Vadis?

Greece is undoubtedly a country with a prominent tourism identity and a long –living tourism tradition. But while it is expected from its tourism sector that by the end of the next decade its total contribution to the country’s GDP and to employment in total will be huge, the weight that ought to have been given to it has not been awarded over time. The governmental strategies that were developed were circumstantial, fragmentary, lacking vision and prospect. On the other side, the local communities themselves as well as the tourist enterprises didn’t invest, as they should have, on quality, but merely on the opportunistic model of the three S “sun, sea, sand”, which, however, decayed through time lapse and cannot function anymore within the contemporary conditions of the international tourist market, where competition, mainly from the neighboring countries that offer an almost “similar” product, is intense and tough. Thus, today in the Greece of economic crisis, the need for taking all those strategic initiatives and actions so that this country manages to face the challenge of contemporary tourism, seems to be more imperative than ever before, since it will allow it to set its foot on a firm basis and stand out within a particularly complex and completely competitive setting, offering quality services and multiple differentiated choices that will satisfy the tourists’ desires and needs.

The Importance of Customer Relationship Management and Social Media in the Greek Wine Tourism Industry

During the last decades the wine industry in Greece has moved on to significant modernization. Thus, the wine produces have focused into the wine-tourism which seems to be a lucrative sector for wine producers. However, there is a necessity to construct a strong back-end which will be ready to serve the customers. For this reason the paper will examine the value of CRM and of social media on the wine tourism in Greece. The paper is a genuine one, since there has not been any similar research on this field. In addition to this, it is paper which will provide a sound knowledge on PR actioners over how to utilize them. The outcome of this literature review, indicates that CRM surely would benefit those firms, however it seems that the way that the operate—relying on traditional marketing methods, hence the use of social media may not be the ideal though word of mouth is important on this sector. Surely, this leaves a space for future research. This can be qualitative research where the wine makers will express their views and perceptions over the use of CRM and social media on their industry.

The Importance of Human Resource Management for the Development of Effective Corporate Culture in Hotel Units

This study attempts to shed light on the importance of human resources management for the development of effective corporate culture. In the beginning of the 20th century the foundation was set for the scientific approach of management theory. Theoretical researchers investigated the behavior managerial and executive staff, attempting to improve the scientific approach. From this point of view the actual mission of managerial and executive staff of hotel unit is to manage the corporate tasks in the most effective way, assisted by the corporate human resources in an optimum tourists service level. An approach of human resources management will be attempted taking into account the special characteristics of the hotel units sector as well as organizational issues. The methodology that will be followed is based on bibliographical research, the text analysis and the correlation of these results with the actual current status of the tourism sector. Research outcomes rise from the rank the need of undertaking measures for a quality upgrade in human resources management in the tourism sector, especially by the use of information and communication technologies, innovative processes and organizational restructures in order to improve effectiveness and quality of service. These findings contribute on the update and modern information for the current situation in the hotel units in this period of economic slowdown and the identification of causes due to the major deviations that often appear in the development of human resource.

The Role of Organizational Culture in Greek Higher Education Quality

The relationship between organizational culture and effectiveness is established in the literature. This study provides insight into the role of organizational culture viewed in the context of quality management in higher education in Greece. Considering the market forces of competition and socioeconomic conditions, the political context and students’ learning experiences and expectations, it is legitimate to apply the marketing paradigm in tertiary education. It appears that due to the impact of economic recession on higher education and the difficulty to accept and implement quality assurance practices in Greece, transformation of the existing organizational culture in higher education institutions is perceived to be the means for quality assurance systems to be accommodated in Greek higher education.

Personal Characteristics and Organizational Culture of Greek Banking Employees

The purpose of the study is to examine the Greek bank employees’ attitudes about the present organizational culture of the bank where they work and about their desired organizational cultures after 5 years. The sample consisted of 252 (51.7 %) males and 235 (48.3 %) females of different bank organizations. The results of the present study suggest that bank employees think present organizational culture as controlling while at the same time they would prefer more clan and adaptive types of culture in the organization. Also, ANOVA has shown that in terms of the attitudes about the present organizational culture only the variable of years of general experience as bank employees affect their attitudes, with employees with 1–10 years of experience grading the present culture as more hierarchical and less adaptive and participative. As far as desired organizational cultures are concerned men and women state different preferences, administrators would like it to be more hierarchical and new employees would like it more to promote participation and adaptation to the external environment and less orientated to the market.

Integrating Total Quality Management Philosophy in Greek Higher Educational Institutions

In the highly demanding contemporary environment, organizations, and more specifically higher education institutions, are expected to respond to constant changes and financial crises, by developing innovative practices and delivering quality products and services. As quality and innovation are perceived to be sources of competitive advantage, the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) is suggested. The TQM philosophy can be useful for Greek higher educational institutions, improving the quality of services provided.