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.     

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.     

Information Gathering Externalities for a Multi‐Attribute Good

Most goods and services vary in numerous dimensions. Customers choose to acquire information to assess some characteristics and not others. Their choices affect firms' incentives to invest in quality and so lead to indirect externalities in consumers' choices. We characterize a model in which a monopolist invests in the quality of a product with two characteristics, and consumers are heterogeneous ex‐ante. Consumers do not internalize their influence on the firm's investment incentives when choosing which information to acquire. Cheaper information affects consumers' information gathering and thereby firm investment. This can paradoxically reduce consumer surplus, profits, and welfare.     

Financing constraints,firm dynamics,export decisions,and aggregate productivity

We present a dynamic model in which firms accumulate wealth to avoid bankruptcy and to overcome financing constraints that affect their fixed operational costs and the costs of becoming an exporter. Financing constraints not only affect firms directly when they are binding, but also indirectly, through precautionary saving and the selection of firms via entry and exit of the domestic and export markets. We calibrate the model and test some of its predictions using a rich dataset of Italian manufacturing firms for the period 1995–2003. Financing constraints reduce the aggregate productivity gains induced by trade liberalization by 25 percent by distorting the incentives of the most productive firms to self-select into exporting.     

Cointegration with structural changes between per capita product and income inequality in Mexico

The long-run relationship between per capita product and income inequality in Mexico is assessed for the period 1963–2010. The methodology consists of stochastic unit root techniques with structural changes. The integration and cointegration tests suggest that it is not possible to understand this link if the possibility of structural changes is not taken into account. Causality, running from per capita product to income inequality, and a negative and significant overall effect are estimated. However, after the regime shifts – mainly estimated to occur in the 1980s – the connection is no longer meaningful. This result seems to be linked to the slow growth of the Mexican economy after these structural breaks, affecting, in turn, the reductions in income inequality.     

Current account sustainability in Latin America

This paper examines the sustainability of the current account deficit in eighteen Latin American countries through the analysis of the stationarity properties of the current account balance. First, we apply traditional unit root tests and consider the possibility of structural breaks. Second, since the current account may have a nonlinear behaviour, we test for linearity in the data and analyse current account stationarity by means of a recently developed nonlinear unit root test. Results from linear and nonlinear unit root tests show that current account sustainability is supported for the majority of Latin American countries with the exception of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. For the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela the current account dynamics are best described by a stationary linear model, and by a stationary linear model with a mean shift in years 2003, 1982 and 1980 in Bolivia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, respectively. In the case of Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala, results show that the current account is best described by a mean-reverting nonlinear process.     

Employees' overestimation of functional and relational service quality: A gap analysis

This study extends previous research on gap analysis of service quality by including not only functional service quality but also relational benefits. To this end, a field study was carried out in 36 hotels and 35 restaurants. The samples consisted of 213 employees and 657 customers. A questionnaire format was used to measure both functional and relational service quality, as well as customers' loyalty. When comparing employee and customer perceptions, gaps potentially range from ‘overestimation’ (employees' perceptions are greater than customers' perceptions) to ‘underestimation’ (customers' perceptions are greater than employees' perceptions). In general, the results indicated that the employees surveyed overestimated the service quality they offer to customers, although gaps were greater for certain service attributes than for others. In addition, some gaps were more related to customer loyalty than others. The findings also showed that employees' overestimation of relational benefits plays a moderating role, increasing the negative relationship between employees' overestimation of functional service quality and customers' loyalty. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed further in this paper.     

Antecedents and consequences of external risk perception in franchising: evidence from the hospitality industry

In this article, we contribute to the understanding of the role that external risk perceptions play in decisions regarding the combination of company-owned and franchised units in the hospitality industry, and to knowledge of the impact of specific CEO characteristics on perceptions of environmental uncertainty. We examine the effects of tenure, an entrepreneurial nature and the innovative attitude of the CEO on the perception of external risk, and address the direct and indirect consequences of such perceptions of external risk on the configuration of the network of outlets. Our results show a significant relationship between the characteristics of the CEO and the perception of risk but, contrary to expectations, risk perception is associated with a lower degree of franchised outlets within the ownership mix.     

Objectives,Techniques and valuation of state-owned companies in privatization processes

This article aims to analyse the objectives and the techniques of privatization and the valuation methods applied in the state-owned company privatization processes in order to determine the coherence between the formal privatization objectives stated by governments and the techniques and the valuation methods chosen to carry out the sale of state-owned companies. From the results of an international survey carried out by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), we study the privatization practices in three groups of countries: the most developed OECD countries, Eastern European countries and developing countries. While the reasons that have motivated state-owned company privatizations all over the world are quite similar, the techniques of privatization used by these three groups are different with regard to the purpose of the privatization, the ways of carrying it out and the methods of fixing the sale price.