Hotel Efficiency Analysis from the Customer’s Point of View in Romania: A Stochastic Production Frontier Approach

The purpose of this article is to measure the efficiency of hotel units in Romania from the customers’ point of view and to identify factors that explain the differences in efficiency between hotel units. A stochastic production frontier is estimated together with a technical inefficiency model using cross-sectional data from 622 hotel units in Romania. The results show that the average efficiency is high. However, there are significant differences between hotels in different regions and with different star ratings. The most influential factor affecting efficiency is the online visibility of a hotel unit on social media platforms and on travel planning sites. The study’s results offer insight for hotel decision-makers to be able to improve the perception of hotel efficiency by taking appropriate action to meet customer needs.     

The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship: the developing country context

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This is among the few studies to test the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE) at the city level in a developing country...     

International Corporate Governance and Finance: Legal,Cultural and Political Explanations

We investigate the disparity and the determinants of investor protection around the world and their impact on financial market development. More specifically, we build on Williamson's (2000) new institutional economic model to explain this disparity using legal, political and cultural variables. In 2006, the World Bank established an index to measure the disparity of investor protection regulations across 81 emerging and developed countries. Our results confirm that combining classifications based on legal systems, cultures and polities is important in explaining the disparity of investor protection and market capitalization around the world. In particular, we show that the classical regression analysis is not well suited to approach this question because it gives mitigated results. However, the mediation analysis is more cohesive with our conceptual model: we confirmed an indirect effect through a path analysis involving investor protection as a mediator of the relationship between legal systems and culture on the one hand and stock market capitalization on the other hand. Nevertheless, the polity factor was shown to have only a direct effect on stock market capitalization.     

The development of consumer protection in Saudi Arabia

The development of consumer protection in Saudi Arabia is of interest for a number of reasons. First, Saudi Arabia presents a unique combination of size, stage of development of the economy and wealth, coupled with strictness of Islamic observance. Second, consumer protection in the Saudi context has received very little attention from researchers. Despite the richness of Islamic teachings on the conduct of business and trade, very little has been written on consumer protection in Islamic societies other than discussions of financial markets and consumer credit and monopoly. This article briefly explores the background to the emergence of consumer protection in Saudi Arabia. Consumer credit and financial markets are excluded from the discussion. Islamic (Shari’ah) law is analysed as a basis for the regulation of consumer affairs; this system of law is then compared in its major outcomes for consumers with legal systems in advanced Western economies. The development of secular commercial law during recent times in Saudi Arabia is also considered as a parallel development to those in Shari’ah. Both strands of development are then set in the context of Saudi Arabia's 5‐year development plans and the changing position of consumer policy issues is tracked through successive plans. The institutional location of consumer policy within the Saudi government system is discussed before finally considering the changing nature of the Saudi consumer and the possible future for consumer protection in the country.     

Constructing a mediational model of small business growth

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mediational model of small business growth. It evaluates the links between human, social and financial capital of entrepreneurs, innovation and firm growth. Our goal through this model is to demonstrate that it is through the process of innovation these capitals are converted into growth. Based on an analysis of data from 228 Tunisian micro-enterprises, we concluded the mediation possibility of innovation on small business growth.