Relationship marketing in museums: influence of managers and mode of governance

ABSTRACT

On the bases of relationship marketing and social capital, this paper aims to explore whether museums’ external relationships depend on managers and internal relationships as well as on mode of governance. The empirical findings of a hierarchical regression analysis for a sample of 556 museums indicate that close relationships with the external environment require managerial social capital and a supportive culture that favours internal cohesion. Finally, public museums directly run by government entities remain too bureaucratic and lack incentives to promote internal cohesion as well as relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Implications for managers are discussed.     

Promoting Employee Flexibility Through HR Practices

Current competitive environments have created a growing interest in employee flexibility in firms. Recently researchers have differentiated between two facets of employee flexibility: behavior flexibility and skill flexibility. This study proposes a model of relationships between these two facets of employee flexibility and the extent to which HR practices influence them. This model is tested by estimating structural equation models on a sample of 226 commercial departments in Spanish companies. The results of the study show that the two facets of employee flexibility are interrelated, in that skill flexibility influences behavior flexibility. Furthermore, findings confirm the influence of job enrichment on employee flexibility and the significant effect of the internal fit among HR practices on employee flexibility. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

In search of demanded competencies: designing superior compensation systems

Employees' competencies are decisive components in a firm's competitiveness. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to assess whether differences in strategy influence employees' competencies and how the design of compensation systems may best take into account the competencies required by a firm. An analysis was conducted on a sample of manufacturing firms using structural equation models. The findings support the existence of generic competencies, such as results and customer orientation, which are found in both prospector and defender strategic contexts, while other competencies – such as innovation, technical expertise and adaptability – are specific to the prospector strategy. In relation to compensation, the results show that skill-based pay is more strongly associated with competencies such as innovation, technical expertise and adaptability, whereas performance-based compensation systems encourage result-based competency. Therefore, the design of a compensation system should be guided by the competencies required as part of a firm's strategy.     

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.     

Large economies and two-player games

We characterize the core and the competitive allocations of a continuum economy as strong Nash equilibria of an associated game with only two players.     

Chi-Square Tests Under Models Close to the Normal Distribution

Many test statistics follow a χ² distribution because a normal model is assumed as underlying distribution. In this paper we obtain good analytic approximations for the p-value and the critical value of χ² tests when the underlying distribution is close but different from the normal model. With these approximations we study the robustness of validity of χ² tests     

The influence of individual characteristics on getting involved in an entrepreneurial team: The contingent role of individualism

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - A traditional stereotype of the entrepreneur is that of a lone hero. However, many entrepreneurs engage in new businesses as members of...     

The trade balance and the terms of trade in a two-country two-sector OLG economy

We consider a two-country, two-sector OLG model. It is shown that the trade balance and the relative price of exports are always positively related when exports are labor intensive regardless of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption. A large response of savings to future prices becomes a sufficient condition for an inverse relation between these variables only if exports are capital intensive. In this case, a rise in the terms of trade can be followed by a trade balance decline if consumption goods are capital intensive and the income effect implied on savings is negative and large.     

川蔓藻的重要生态服务功能评述

川蔓藻是一种分布于全世界的沉水植物,对维持河口海岸湿地生态系统健康起着举足轻重的作用。但近几十年来川蔓藻正面临着人类活动带来的严重威胁,种群衰退严重。文章对川蔓藻海草床的重要生态服务功能进行了分析和评述,以期提高公众对川蔓藻重要性的认识,加强对川蔓藻的有效保护与管理。     

A KKM-result and an application for binary and non-binary choice functions

Summary. By generalizing the classical Knaster-Kuratowski-Mazurkiewicz Theorem, we obtain a result that provides sufficient conditions to ensure the non-emptiness of several kinds of choice functions. This result generalizes well-known results on the existence of maximal elements for binary relations (Bergstrom [4]; Walker [16]; Tian [15]), on the non-emptiness of non-binary choice functions (Nehring [12]; Llinares and Sánchez [9]) and on the non-emptiness of some classical solutions for tournaments (top cycle and uncovered set) on non-finite sets. Received: December 29, 1999; revised version: October 18, 2001