Salvador Roig Dobón

The influence of innovation orientation on the internationalisation of SMEs in the service sector

This article examines the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized service firms from an international entrepreneurship perspective. The results of the empirical research developed in Spain have shown that innovation orientation accelerates the time these companies take to internationalise and allows them to implement more activities and opt for high-control entry modes in foreign markets. The results suggest that two different models of internationalisation can be found within the services sector: firms either adopt a gradual process or attempt to benefit from a rapid transition period of internationalisation.This article examines the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized service firms from an international entrepreneurship perspective. The results of the empirical research developed in Spain have shown that innovation orientation accelerates the time these companies take to internationalise and allows them to implement more activities and opt for high-control entry modes in foreign markets. The results suggest that two different models of internationalisation can be found within the services sector: firms either adopt a gradual process or attempt to benefit from a rapid transition period of internationalisation.

Exploring alternative approaches in service industries: the role of entrepreneurship

Today, it is widely recognised that the success and vitality of the service sector are essential factors in measuring an economy’s progress, its quality, and its future expectations. It not only improves competitiveness in all national markets, but also indicates growth at a global level, consolidating competitiveness in advanced economies and assuring social welfare in less economically developed countries. The service sector is the only area that has continued to grow and create new employment over the past two decades on a worldwide scale, while industry and agriculture have suffered a decline in activity with a sharp drop in employment figures. The service sector plays a decisive role in economic development. Maybe not as the main contributor to GDP but as a driving force that facilitates the need for growth in other sectors. It is therefore important to study, on a more micro level, the various sub-sectors that, together, make up the service sector. In Europe, services have become a strategic sector of the European Union’s new Employment Policy (Mas-Verdú, 2007). European policy does not merely put emphasis on services as a means of stimulating the economy, but as a key factor in creating wealth. In the United States, service sectors, especially knowledge-intensive industries, have become the core strength of the economy. The service sector represents 80% of the activity in the USA while in Europe 65% of jobs are related to this sector. Service sector activity is constantly growing. In addition, entrepreneurship has been the topic of scholarship and research in a variety of academic fields, including, but not limited to, management and economics (Chorev & Anderson, 2006; Sciascia, Naldi, & Hunter, 2006). Much has been written from the viewpoint of aspects linked to entrepreneurship in many top international journals, and some journals have even been created with the aim of analysing entrepreneurship from different perspectives: business, economics, management, or regional development. For its part, the study of service industries is an already highly consolidated field of research in the world of management, marketing (Furrer & Sollberger, 2007), and business, though few written contributions interrelating both concepts and fields have been published. In this special issue, we intend to directly link both

Regional development and innovation: the role of services

This special issue examines the role of services within the relationship between regional development and innovation. The analysis described here clearly shows the importance of the institutional elements that go to make up each regional environment. These institutional elements are not only formal and informal but also include intermediary organisations and services, in particular, knowledge-intensive ones. Fostering services based on connection and transfer (technological centres etc.), constitutes a strategic line of action in regional innovation policy. These services have a dual purpose. They both enable interaction between agents located in the same area and promote connections between firms in networks outside the region.

Diversity and business performance: 50 years of research

This study has carried out a review of the literature appearing on diversity in the last 50 years. Research findings from this period reveal it is impossible to assume there is a pure and simple relationship between diversity and performance without considering a series of variables that affect this relationship. In this study, emphasis has been placed on the analysis of results arrived at through empirical investigation on the relation between the most studied dimensions of diversity and performance. The results presented are part of a more extensive research.

Government policies and services: an approach to the international context

This special issue analyses the relationship between services and industrial policy. Such a relationship covers a wide variety of aspects, going from measures designed to ensure the competential framework within which business activities are carried out, up to actions aimed at enabling structural change in service industries, with the incorporation of innovation as the essential factor for competitiveness. Two trends can currently be discerned. On the one hand, there is a growing tendency towards the decentralisation and specificity of public policy related to service industries. On the other, indirect actions aimed at strengthening the institutional context (technological infrastructures, consultancy services, etc.) in which productive activity occurs are presently receiving a good deal of attention from policy makers.

The Transmission of Knowledge by Means of Strategic Alliances: An Application in the Hotel Industry

ABSTRACT In this article, we study to what extent strategic alliances, such as joint ventures, are used as a means of transmitting knowledge among service companies, focusing on the hotel industry. And especially, we aim to analyse the advantages and disadvantages that joint ventures imply and measure their degree of utilization in this industry. We feel this to be a relevant topic, as the tourist sector is currently enjoying a boom and the leisure and entertainment fields are undergoing expansion. It is a sector that is learning new concepts and management techniques, and is now interacting with other sectors to extend its range of services and thus satisfy the expectations of increasingly demanding clients in an evermore-globalised world. In this study we have looked at current cases of joint ventures between hotel chains operating in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.