Mercedes Úbeda-García

Hotel Performance and Agglomeration of Tourist Districts

Marco-Lajara B., Claver-Cortés E., Úbeda-García M. and Zaragoza-Sáez P. C. Hotel performance and agglomeration of tourist districts. Regional Studies. This paper measures the impact on profitability of the geographical area where the vacation hotels of the Spanish Mediterranean are situated. It places a special emphasis on analysing the tourist districts existing in this coastal Spanish area and the extent to which the degree of business agglomeration at each destination affects hotel profit. Due to the characteristics of the service sector, and after a revision of the agglomeration literature, a ‘U’-shaped relationship is hypothesized between these two variables. With data of about 1869 hotels belonging to 113 tourist districts, results support the hypothesis and partially the theory of tourist districts.

Does training influence organisational performance?: Analysis of the Spanish hotel sector

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to identify which variables of training policy have a significant and positive impact on organisational performance. Design/methodology/approach – A targeted literature review was conducted to identify and collate a comprehensive range of human resource management and training conceptualisations/investigations. This was the basis for the approach to contrast hypotheses. The paper used a sample of Spanish companies and the method of analysis was regression. Findings – The results obtained in this paper do suggest that the training policy positively correlates with organisational performance, both using objective result measures (productivity and financial performance) and in the subjective measure of perceived financial performance and in intermediate result measures. Research limitations/implications – The study was confined to the analysis of a single Spanish region, and specifically referred to its hotel industry, which means that the results obtained must be situated w...

Training policy and organisational performance in the Spanish hotel industry

There is currently a general agreement about the importance of training as a tool to help companies in the development of sustainable competitive advantages based on their human resources. Staff qualification is not an option in the tourism industry; human capital training actually becomes a determining factor to be able to achieve a differential positioning within the sector. In Spain, where the tourism sector is a strategic element, it becomes essential to analyse the training policy applied by tourism enterprises with the aim of assessing its quality and effectiveness. The objective sought in this study is to identify the main factors related to training policy that have an impact on performance. The study carries out an empirical research into the effects that training practices cause on performance levels in the Spanish hotel industry using a sample of 110 hotels.

Business agglomeration in tourist districts and hotel performance

Purpose – The present paper aims to analyze how the performance of hotels located on the Spanish Mediterranean coast (peninsular and Balearic) and Canary coast is affected by the degree of business agglomeration in tourist districts. If agglomeration affects hotels positively, then the externalities generated in tourist districts will be relevant when locating an establishment. Otherwise, the reason why hotels group together geographically would be more related to the suitability of beaches as a tourist destination. The study also analyzes the impact that regions or autonomous communities have on hotel performance. Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses are tested by multiple linear regression in which hotel profitability acts as the dependent variable which can be explained by independent variables such as the greater or lesser agglomeration of tourist companies at the destination and the autonomous region where the hotel is located. Findings – The results show that hotels situated at destinations ...

Intellectual capital in family firms: human capital identification and measurement

Purpose – Based on the literature devoted to family firms and the intellectual capital-based view of the firm, the purpose of this paper is not only to identify the most important human capital intangibles owned by family firms but also to show a number of indicators that can help measure them. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case-study-based research approach was adopted taking as reference: 25 family firms belonging to different sectors; previous works existing in the literature; and the intellectus model. Findings – The present study identifies ten intangibles associated with the human capital of family firms and shows 60 indicators that can be used to measure them. It additionally provides empirical evidence and gives examples of these intangibles through the analysis of 25 international family firms. Research limitations/implications – The difficulty in collecting all the human capital intangibles of family firms; the problems associated with the creation of accurate indicators; and those...

The intellectual structure of human resource management research: a bibliometric study of the international journal of human resource management, 2000–2012

Abstract The purpose of this study is to analyze the existing literature on human resource management (HRM) from all the research papers published in The International Journal of Human Resource Management between 2000 and 2012. The authors apply bibliometric methods to identify the main research lines within this scientific field; in other words, its ‘intellectual structure’. Social network analysis is also used to perform a visualization of this structure. The results of the analysis allow us to define the different research lines or fronts which shape the intellectual structure of research on HRM.

Organizational ambidexterity: exploring the knowledge base

The present research work shows the results of an analysis about the existing literature on one of the ‘topics’ which is currently raising greater interest among scholars and researchers in the fields of strategic management and organization science, namely: organizational ambidexterity. More precisely, and seeking to identify and visualize the intellectual structure or knowledge base of the research developed in relation to this construct, a decision was made to analyze a total of 283 research papers which appeared after the publication in the journal California Management Review in the summer of 1996 of the seminal work by Tushman and O’Reilly III entitled ‘Ambidextrous Organizations: Managing Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change,’ where these authors suggested that organizations need to explore and exploit simultaneously if they want to be ambidextrous. As for the methodology applied, it was based on the utilization of bibliometric techniques—particularly citation analyses and author co-citation analyses and social networks analysis.

Territory impact on the performance of Spanish vacation hotels

Although Spain is among the worlds most visited tourist destinations, not all Spanish regions receive the same flow or number of tourists, and the type of visitor varies from one region to another. This paper analyses the structure of the tourism industry across the six most important tourist regions in Spain. Its main aim is to identify the most relevant factors for each of these regions, explaining the differences between them not only in terms of the number of tourists they receive but also in terms of tourist behaviour. The authors select two theoretical models empirically validated in previous studies: Porters Diamond model, which helps to explain why the tourism industry is more competitive in some Spanish regions than in others, and the theory of tourist districts, which clarifies why the tourism industry tends to develop in very specific geographical areas.

Toward Organizational Ambidexterity in the Hotel Industry The Role of Human Resources

A few years ago and coinciding with the dilemma posed by March about the contradictions involved in exploration and exploitation learning, we saw the emergence of the “Organizational Ambidexterity” (OA) concept as a metaphor to define organizations that are able to develop exploitation and exploration learning at the same time. Despite the efforts made to discern the OA antecedents and moderating factors, a number of aspects still remain to be studied on the map of research into this topic. One of them is the role that human resources can play in ambidextrous learning. Special attention has also been paid in the field of human resource management to the link between high performance work systems (HPWS) and performance. Recent studies highlight the need to make further progress in this direction but using some organizational capacity as a mediating variable between HPWSs and performance. This article uses OA as the mediator variable in this relationship. The main objectives of this research are (a) to determine whether the utilization of an HPWS exerts a positive influence on OA, (b) to know the extent to which HPWSs and OA contribute to organizational performance, and (c) to verify the potential mediating role played by OA on the HPWS performance relationship. The theoretical model and the hypotheses proposed were tested using a sample of 100 Spanish hotels.

Influence of intellectual capital upon knowledge creation in Spanish subsidiaries: an empirical study

Knowledge creation is one of the most important dynamic capabilities that firms can use to develop new assets, which can represent the basis for future innovations. Within a context of growing globalisation, the acquisition and creation of knowledge is one of the main objectives sought with international expansion. The consideration of intellectual capital within the knowledge creation process in subsidiaries offers an innovative way to undertake knowledge management practices in multinationals. Theoretical and empirical works can be found in the literature about intellectual capital. However, very few studies link intellectual capital to knowledge creation in multinationals. Seeking to fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model that includes the main intangibles belonging to structural and relational capital that can influence knowledge creation in Spanish subsidiaries of foreign multinational firms belonging to high-technology and knowledge-intensive sectors. Theoretical, empirical and managerial contributions result from this paper.