María de la Cruz del Río-Rama

Sustainability and Quality of Life in Smart Cities: Analysis of Scientific Production

Economic, social, and environmental sustainability of cities stands out from other important challenges that come from constant urban development at the global level. This fact attracts many researchers from different areas of knowledge that pretend to carry out the way cities will be managed in future. A study on the smart cities analyzes a tendency to settle urban centers and their adaptation for increasing the population growth following six central concepts that influence on a city’s behavior: Economy, mobility, governance, people, living, and environment. This way, the aim of the authors is to describe an actual stage of scientific researches on the smart cities focused on sustainability and life quality. Following this purpose, a comparative bibliometric study on publications indexed in WoS and Scopus databases has been done, analyzing correlations between growths, coverage, overlapping, dispersion, and concentration of articles. This way, a search strategy has been established with the aim to get a representative subset of documents to gather them in an ad doc database used afterwards to extract the results. Taking into account these final results, we can conclude that although WoS and Scopus databases differ in terms of range, data volume, and coverage policies, the documents and their analysis are similar in several aspects, Scopus database being the one that covers better our area of study, having a higher number of journals, articles, and authors.

Systematic bibliometric analysis on Kaizen in scientific journals

Purpose Since Masaaki Imai coined the term Kaizen in the mid-1980s, it has been seen as a key element for the competitiveness of Japanese companies, and it is currently a widely discussed philosophy and is applied in a wide range of organizations throughout the world. The purpose of this paper is to serve as guidance for researchers who are developing their studies in the field of the Kaizen philosophy, in order to improve their knowledge on the most relevant articles, the most productive authors or the key scientific journals that make up this subject. Design/methodology/approach In order to fulfill the proposed objective, a descriptive bibliometric study was carried out with the analysis of citations from 138 articles included in the multidisciplinary database Scopus (Elsevier) until 2016. For the search of documents, a tracking strategy was chosen that allowed for the development of the ad hoc database required to analyze each of the basic variables of the bibliometric indicators. Findings The results obtained show a growing interest of the scientific community in its study in the last decade, as shown by the significant increase in citations received by articles, despite the reduction in the number of papers published in the last two years. Research limitations/implications The main limitations are derived from the choice of a specific database, as well as the specific search equation. Originality/value The study presents an in-depth analysis of the current state of research regarding the Kaizen philosophy through its bibliometric study, providing useful information for academics and professionals by providing a series of significant indicators to measure the bibliographic material.

Entrepreneurship by Students in Tourism Degree Program. A Cross-Cultural Analysis

The main objective of the research is to analyze the entrepreneurial attitude of university students of the Tourism Degree in Spain and Portugal, as well as insight into how they perceive that the studies carried out have assisted them to increase their entrepreneurial profile. The methodology consists of a descriptive analysis of the data obtained through a questionnaire administered using statistical tests of comparison of means, T-Student and Contingency tables allowing to check the hypotheses and analyze the differences between the two countries. The results show that over 65 % of students surveyed intend to create their own business, being greater in Portugal with 85 % and considering that for Spanish students the most important personal attributes that they must have are assuming responsibility for the decisions taken and easily adapting to changes in the case of Portugal, considered essential to be autonomous and making working hours be precise. In terms of training, students consider the discipline of entrepreneurship important for their education and they say they should have more courses related to entrepreneurship.

Smart City and Tourism: An Analysis of Development of Caceres (Spain) as a Smart City

Smart city is a new model of a city based on the use of information and communications technologies (the ICT) with the aim to improve its economic, social and environmental sustainability. The aim of this study is to analyze the development of Caceres as a smart city, this being one of the first incorporations to the Spanish Net of Smart Cities, and to compare Caceres as a smart city with those five cities that, according to the report published by the International Data Corporation (IDC), have been the first smart cities in the ranking of the smart cities in Spain since 2012: Barcelona, Santander, Madrid, Malaga and Bilbao. This analysis can let us find out strong and weak points of Caceres as a smart city. The methodology of this study is based on a descriptive analysis of initiatives that have been carried out in each of these cities based on eight factors used for an elaboration of the International Data Corporation ranking. The analysis exposes that Caceres, despite standing out due to its project of Jetty Building or Smart Water Caceres, still shows several weak points in other areas, as smart mobility, smart services or smart information and communications technologies. A SWOT analysis has been done to end the study; it shows the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that have helped us to carry out a number of suggestions and recommendations that can help Caceres to progress as a smart city.

Quality management and customer results: the tourist accommodation sector in Spain

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the critical factors of quality and customer results and also investigate the structure of relationships between the critical factors of quality, in the context of the tourist accommodation sector in Spain. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model is proposed together with the hypotheses to be tested and the data obtained in 186 tourist accommodation businesses certified under the “Q for Tourism Quality” are analyzed, with the technique of structural equations models. Findings The results show that the antecedents of customer results are continuous improvement and quality policy/planning. Originality/value The practical implications of this paper focus on providing managers of enterprises of tourist accommodation with variables on which to perform in order to improve customer satisfaction; their leadership and commitment to quality are fundamental in the process of implementing the quality management system, which helps ensure that the company provides a quality service that influences customer satisfaction.

Economia Colaborativa: Análise da Produção Científica em Revistas Acadêmicas

Resumo Propiciada pelas novas tecnologias e internet e acrescida pela crise surge a Economia Colaborativa, um movimento que permite a individuos utilizar e trocar servicos ou bens objetivando uma compensacao acordada entre as partes. O objetivo deste estudo e mostrar o estado atual da investigacao cientifica sobre Economia Colaborativa. A metodologia utilizada e uma analise bibliometrica de caracter descritivo e exploratorio dos artigos publicados em revistas indexadas a base de dados Scopus (Elsevier). Mediante uma procura avancada de termos foram identificados e analizados 165 documentos. Os resultados obtidos demonstram o crescente interesse da comunidade cientifica, principalmente nos paises anglo-saxoes (Estados Unidos e Reino Unido) pelo tema nos ultimos cinco anos, motivado por seu rapido crescimento e seus efeitos sobre diversos aspectos do modelo de vida atual. Encontrou-se um maior numero de publicacoes nas areas de ciencias sociais, informatica e empresa, administracao e contabilidade.

Benefits of Implementing a Quality Management System in Spanish Thalassotherapy Centres

According to 2011 records, there are 44 thalassotherapy centres in Spain. This chapter presents results from an empirical study of 31 of these centres. The objective of the study was to identify the benefits that thalassotherapy centres perceive they obtain from implementing a certified quality management system. Building on a comprehensive literature review, the empirical research method consisted of descriptive and factor analyses to identify benefits and determine their importance. Results reveal that the most important perceived benefits are a clear definition of processes and responsibilities within the organisation, quality services followed by improved productivity and better use of time and resources.

Holistic Learning Evidences in the Supervised Teaching Practice Reports

The curricular unit of Supervised Teaching Practice (STP), of the Master programme in Pre-School Teacher Education and of the Master programme in Pre-school and Primary School Teacher Education, is organized in two main phases: the teaching practice in the adequate education levels, and the development of a final report. The final report is a document each student writes and that reflects the course of the training, the critical and reflexive attitude assumed in response to the challenges that were faced, and the processes and performance of the professional routine experiences. The document should also include a research component concerning the teaching action developed by the student. The final report is, thus, an instrument that allows multiple dimensions of analysis. The work described in this chapter resulted from the study of 62 reports, developed between 2012 and 2015, with the objective of analysing the type of teaching-learning experiences, the content areas and the pedagogical approach developed by students. A quantitative and qualitative approach was followed, using text mining to complement the analysis, due to the large quantity of text. This was complemented with content analysis to interpret the resulting data. The results reveal that students describe and analyse teaching-learning experiences in different content areas, valuing differentiated pedagogical strategies and that the reflective processes are centred in the description of the practicum, without revealing a substantial critical thinking. The final report, regardless of the weaknesses, is a valuable instrument in the training process, because it allows the development of reflection and research tools about the education practice, essential for the professional development of future teachers.

Organizational Legitimacy: Study of Academic Publications in Scientific Journals

The purpose of this research is to develop a study to observe the evolution in the generation of knowledge in the thematic on organizational legitimacy and delimit the areas of knowledge from which scientific production developed so far has been addressed. A bibliometric study of quantitative-descriptive character was carried out of the bibliographic material that addresses the study of organizational legitimacy, considering the scientific article as a unit of analysis. The database object of analysis is developed from an advanced search for terms in the international database Scopus of Elsevier Science. As a result of the search terms, 300 articles were obtained which were collected and processed using Microsoft Office Excel software. The first article was published in 1975, but it is in 2013 and 2014 when a significant growth is observed in the number of publications. The United States and the United Kingdom are identified as the two countries with more affiliations of authors, authorship, and centers, although the most productive authors belong to Spain. This research work provides information to researchers on the current state which the research is in and defines the areas of knowledge from which the study of organizational legitimacy has been approached—information that allows the academic community to assess the degree of maturity of research in this thematic area, as well as those areas of knowledge or approaches which have not been sufficiently addressed by the scientific literature.

Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation for Sustainability. Bibliometric Analysis

The economic crisis has called the current economic models into question, emerging new ways of understanding the role that companies play in society. As the proliferation of academic articles shows, social innovation and entrepreneurship are currently playing a relevant role as an instrument for satisfying social needs from the business field, adding social utility to the technical and financial viability of companies. Due to the increasing interest in the social economy, the main objective of this chapter was to conduct a study of the scientific production related to innovation and social entrepreneurship, using for this purpose bibliometric techniques and the longitudinal statistical analysis of articles published in journals indexed in the multidisciplinary database Scopus (Elsevier) up to the year 2016. Thus, through an advanced search for terms, more than 1400 documents were obtained, of which 791 articles were selected to make up the ad-hoc database, which the analysis is based on. As a result, it is concluded that since 2006, there has been a considerable increase in the number of studies that address the social economy from different areas of knowledge, standing out from the rest Business, Management and Accounting, Social Sciences and Economics, Econometrics and Finance, studies which are published in a limited number of specialized journals by authors from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Spain or Canada.