The social construction of the tourism degrowth discourse in the Balearic Islands

Abstract

In recent years, overtourism and tourism gentrification have been a central feature of public debate in the Balearic Islands, one of the most touristified regions on the planet. In this context, the discourse of tourism degrowth has thrived, being discussed across the political spectrum and even serving to legitimize a sustainable tourism plan and a new Tourism Act. This article provides a brief analysis of the debate around tourism degrowth in the 2014–2019 period and differentiates between two approaches. On the one hand, tourism degrowth has been used by socio-environmental platforms as a byword for detourisfication and the politicization of the hegemonic consensus on tourism. On the other, degrowth has been adopted as a green washing rhetoric in order to justify public policies aimed at tourist decongestion through deseasonalizing, while promoting tourism expansion. This work brings into focus the social construction of the tourism degrowth narrative by applying critical discourse analysis. We conclude that the debate over tourism degrowth is not just a discrepancy between different approaches to deal with overtourism, tourism pressure and gentrification. It is also a social struggle where the discourse over tourism degrowth has helped new democratic political subjects to coalesce and organize in civil society.     

The Role of Foreign Shareholders in Disciplining Financial Reporting

We investigate the role of foreign shareholders in improving the quality of accounting information provided by firms domiciled in countries with low de facto institutional quality. Using a sample of firms from four South European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) for which we observe detailed ownership evolutions over the period 2002–2007, we find that increases in foreign ownership lead to increases in financial reporting quality but only if the foreign shareholders are domiciled in countries with strong investor protection mechanisms. Further, we find that the improvement in financial reporting quality is more pronounced in the case of foreign institutional investors. Finally, our results hold before and after the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2005.     

Links between entrepreneurial culture,innovation, and performance: The moderating role of family firms

The relationships between corporate entrepreneurship, innovation and performance have been previously addressed by the literature. However, they have yielded mixed and often inconclusive results. The purpose of this paper is hence to empirically test a model that links entrepreneurial culture, innovation outcomes and business performance. In this model, the family nature of firms is subsequently included as a moderator variable. The empirical investigation is based on a sample of 145 family firms from the automotive components manufacturing sector in Spain. This study uses Partial Least Squares (PLS) path-modeling to test our research model and hypotheses. Our results reveal the increasing importance of fostering an entrepreneurial culture within family firms in order to yield innovation processes and performance.     

Determinants of the growth aspiration: a quantitative study of Venezuelan entrepreneurs

The article examines the determinants of the growth aspiration of Venezuelan entrepreneurs. We use the GEM database and build an econometric model based on a set of exogenous variables grouped into three large categories: contextual or environmental factors, individual factors and business variables. Given the Venezuelan specific characteristics, we place a particular focus on understanding the differences between entrepreneurs belonging or not to the BoP. The primary findings of this work are the identification of the variables that explain growth aspiration, namely, belonging to the BoP, gender, education, motivation and years of study and some additional variables where individual factors interact with the contextual factor BoP. The second finding is that there are significant differences for the entrepreneurs belonging and not belonging to the BoP, with a threshold where the entrepreneurs of the BoP become averse to continuing to aspire to growth. Practical and policy implications are elaborated with the results.     

Toward an understanding of online information processing in e-tourism: does national culture matter?

Tourism is undoubtedly among the industries that better reflect the effects of globalization, technological advances (i.e. the Internet) being one of the most relevant drivers. Given the current market saturation of this sector, a better understanding of how tourists from different cultures process online information and forge their attitudes and behavioral intentions is called for. Nevertheless, national culture may have a major influence on the effectiveness of online tourist marketing activities. This study contributes to the extant body of knowledge via the analysis of the influence of perceived risk on how tourists process the information while browsing a tourist destination website, form their attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the destination. The effect of national culture on such antecedents is examined via a cross-cultural research to compare Spanish and British cultures. A theoretical model is proposed to integrate the effect of perceived risk and variables regarding technology acceptance on tourist responses.     

Injury-related hospitalizations in 2002 and 2012 in a Mexican rural hospital: differences between indigenous and non-indigenous inpatients

Data are lacking on the extent and distribution of injuries in rural areas. This study aimed at comparing injury-related hospitalizations between 2002 and 2012 at a rural hospital of northern Mexico focusing on differences between indigenous (IP) and non-indigenous patients (NIP). A retrospective design based on the review of records of patients hospitalized with injury diagnoses was used. Information extracted included ethnicity, sex, age, hospital duration, surgical procedures, complications and discharge outcome. Injury data comprised of main diagnosis, mechanism and body part affected. Patterns were stratified by year and ethnicity. Logistic regression was used to determine the probability of being hospitalized for >1 day. Injury-related mortality increased from 0.4% in 2002 to 3.1% in 2012. The proportion of non-indigenous patients hospitalized also increased by 4.5%. Men accounted for two-thirds of all inpatients. Weapon involvement doubled from 16.6% to 33.6%. Almost half of the patients in 2012 were victims of interpersonal violence. Indigenous patients had a 2.7 higher adjusted odds ratios of being hospitalized for >1 day in 2002 (95% CI 1.2–5.7), though the gap was reduced to 1.9 (1.1–3.5) in 2012. While indigenous patients continue to be more disadvantaged than the non-indigenous, the gaps closed in 2012; the reasons behind these disparities need to be further investigated.     

Family SMEs' Internationalization: Disentangling the Influence of Familiness on Spanish Firms' Export Activity

This paper studies the relationships between family involvement and internationalization of family small and medium enterprises (SMEs), examining the effects exerted by the three main dimensions that comprise the concept of familiness: power, experience, and culture. Disentangling the influence of familiness dimensions lead us to discover the combined effects of family's governance, generation, and culture on SMEs' export activity. The results, using the F‐PEC scale over a sample of 500 Spanish firms, show that this multidimensional approach better identifies the determinants of the family SMEs' internationalization. Specifically, we find that the family experience and its culture orientation positively affect the firm's export activity, whereas family governance/management does not have any significant influence.