It’s in the air: Aroma marketing and affective response in the hotel world

Smell is considered to be the sense that is most closely attached to emotional reactions. This makes scent in the hotel environment an important atmospheric variable to study, because fragrances are expected to increase the likelihood of producing an emotional reaction from consumers. Capitalizing on smell’s ability to cue memories and conjure up emotions, the purpose of this research is to examine the emotional states evoked by various hotel scents in a hotel business in Hong Kong that uses scent throughout its premises. More specifically, this study intends to make a connection between the emotional states evoked by the hotel scents and how hotel businesses can make use of their guests’ emotional responses. Scent marketing is an overlooked subject in hospitality and tourism research.     

International market selection strategies of manufacturing and services firms

This paper discusses the entrepreneurial landscape in Africa and locates a new generation of African entrepreneurs and their business networks within it. Unlike others in that landscape (i.e. micro- or small-scale informal sector vendors, and traditional or multinational large-scale formal sector firms), the ‘new generation’ entrepreneurs are business globalists who organized a system of business enterprise networks consisting of national, regional, and pan-African organizations. The study analyses interview data from 57 men and women network members from 10 countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). Some defining characteristics of these entrepreneurs are interactive social and business relationships, use of modern management methods and information technology, trust among fellow members, transparent business practices, advocacy on behalf of the private sector, and commitment to increasing intra-African commerce. Their mission is to improve the climate for private sector business in Africa and to promote regional economic integration. They pursue cross-national commercial ventures, maintain official observer status at established regional economic organizations, sign memoranda of understanding with multilateral agencies, establish venture capital funds, and help to change government policies. The paper identifies characteristics of the ‘new generation’ entrepreneurs, evaluates goals and achievements of their networks, and concludes that despite limitations, these entrepreneurs and their organizations have created intra- and cross-national networks that strengthen private-sector-led economic growth in Africa.     

Inbound Travelers' Selection Criteria for Hotel Spas in Hong Kong

With a growing number of travelers enjoying spa experiences, it is vital that hotels understand their preferences. As Hong Kong has a high visitor inflow and is in the preliminary stages of hotel spa development, an examination of the selection criteria used by inbound travelers when choosing hotel spas should provide Hong Kong hoteliers with the information needed to further develop and refine their facilities. This study examines the selection criteria that inbound travelers use to gain insight into how demographic factors and travel characteristics affect their spa-related decisions. A measuring instrument was developed based on in-depth interviews of spa industry professionals and secondary data. The results reveal that relaxation, pampering, and beautification were the main reasons that people visited hotel spas; with the three most important major selection dimensions being therapists, price, and product and treatment types. Of the 28 selection criteria studied, professional skills, product and service knowledge, sense of privacy, range of facilities, and product branding were the most important attributes. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed here.     

The Relationship Between Top Management Team–Outside Board Conflict and Outside Board Service Involvement in High‐Tech Start‐Ups

Corporate governance research has extensively studied the relationship between outside board characteristics and outside board involvement. We add to this literature by investigating the extent to which interactions between outside board members and the top management team (TMT) affect the functioning of the outside board. Building on conflict theory, our study shows that conflict between TMT and outside board is an important antecedent for outside board service involvement. Specifically, drawing from a hand‐collected data set of 70 high‐tech start‐ups in Belgium, we find that TMT–outside board task conflict is both directly and indirectly, that is, through TMT–outside board relationship conflict, related to outside board service involvement.     

Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Does an Entrepreneur’s Human Capital Matter?

Extending human capital approaches to entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur’s “inputs” relating to their general (i.e. education and work experience) and entrepreneurship-specific human capital profile (i.e. business ownership experience, managerial capabilities, entrepreneurial capabilities and technical capabilities) are presumed to be related to entrepreneurial “outputs” in the form of business opportunity identification and pursuit. Valid and reliable independent variables were gathered from a stratified random sample of 588 owners of private firms. Ordered logit analysis was used to test several theoretically derived hypotheses. With regard to the number of business opportunities identified and pursued, entrepreneurship-specific rather than general human capital variables “explained” more of the variance. Entrepreneurs reporting higher information search intensity identified significantly more business opportunities, but they did not pursue markedly more or less opportunities. The use of publications as a source of information was positively associated with the probability of identifying more opportunities, while information emanating from personal, professional and business networks was not. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.      

The extent and nature of opportunity identification by experienced entrepreneurs

Guided by insights from cognitive theories, this article explores the links between entrepreneurs' prior business ownership experience and their opportunity identification behavior. Hypotheses were tested using data from 630 entrepreneurs. Experienced entrepreneurs identified more opportunities and exploited more innovative opportunities with greater wealth creation potential. Entrepreneurs that had owned more than 4.5 businesses, however, identified fewer opportunities. The nature of prior business ownership experience also shaped opportunity identification behavior. An inverse U-shaped relationship was detected between the proportion of failed businesses relative to the number of businesses owned and the number of opportunities identified in a given period. Business failure experience was not associated with the innovativeness of exploited opportunities.     

Corporate entrepreneurship: Current research and future directions

In this paper, we suggest future research on the processes and knowledge-based resources in corporate entrepreneurship (CE), argue for the need to appreciate the heterogeneity of CE in relation to new contexts, and suggest appropriate strategies for such contexts. First, we highlight the key contributions of the papers in this special issue, with a particular focus on how they provide insights into structural and process contingencies, the role of management at multiple levels, and organizational and managerial capabilities. We then discuss the limits to the applicability of theories developed in other contexts to CE. Finally, we suggest some future research, with particular emphasis on the corporate governance mechanisms that foster CE and the requisite managerial roles and skills in instigating and supporting entrepreneurial activities at different levels of the organization.     

Fashion creation and diffusion: The institution of marketing

Abstract

In scholarly discussions, marketing tends to be imagined and (re)presented as a practice of organisations, involving a set of activities, whereby consumer desires are discovered and provided for through two-way communication. By studying the creation and diffusion of fashion, we observe that marketing is not simply a mechanism or set of activities but an institution of modern society that involves all social elements together with consumers and marketing organisations. Through a qualitative inquiry with both consumers and producers, we illustrate how these different elements exercise their roles and responsibilities for marketing to work as an institution. By this illustration, we also provide a perspective on how trickle-up, trickle-across, and trickle-down diffusions are simultaneously operative in fashion. Finally, we articulate the implications of recognising marketing as an institution that will help marketing scholars and practitioners in reorganising and re-strategising their purpose and role in society as modernity evolves.     

Decisions,Actions, and Performance: Do Novice,Serial, and Portfolio Entrepreneurs Differ?*

A conceptual framework is extended to take into account differences between inexperienced novice entrepreneurs (that is, individuals with no prior private business ownership experience) and experienced serial and portfolio entrepreneurs. Some policymakers and practitioners are considering whether resources could be more effectively utilized if they were targeted toward serial and portfolio entrepreneurs, rather than in the form of additional initiatives to increase the pool of “pure” nascent entrepreneurs and novice entrepreneurs. To inform this policy debate, similarities and differences between novice, serial, and portfolio entrepreneurs are highlighted with regard to their decisions, actions, performance, and aspirations. We detected that portfolio entrepreneurs were more likely to express dimensions of entrepreneurial behavior. A case for targeted support tailored to the aspirations and needs of novice, serial, and portfolio entrepreneurs is presented.