An Investigation of the Current Practices of In-House Employee Training and Development within Hotels in Scotland

This article presents the results of an itlvestigation of in-house employee training and development practices within hotels in Scotland having 50 or more bedroonls front an operation/ management perspective. Issites pertaining to employee trainitzg and development practices are identified - reduction in st@ turnover; responsibility for staff traitzing and development, time constraints, variety of training methods and training frequency. III the context of training and development, with particular reference to issues ident, a number of recommendations are postulated.     

The emergence of multi-sided platform MNEs: Internalization theory and networks

The rise of the digital economy provides firms across the globe with unique business opportunities. Companies such as Facebook, Alibaba, and Uber are competing in a new multi-sided platform world; the primary focus of these firms, from their inception, is to provide digital infrastructure, information and technology—intangible assets that enable direct interaction or value creation across platforms by linking different user group and complementors, often at the international level. Building on data drawn from multinational multisided Platform corporations (MMPCs) operating in China, we combine insights from internalization theory and network effects in understanding the value creation of such firms. We explore the boundaries of these new “breed” of MNEs in exploiting firm-specific advantages (FSAs) and in creating new knowledge between headquarters and subsidiaries. The findings suggest that internalization theory needs to shift its focus from the ‘boundaries of the firm’ to the ‘boundaries of the local network’. By integrating their internal and external networks of knowledge in adapting their business models in host markets, this new breed of MNEs is more likely than the traditional one to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the new information age.     

Entrepreneurial co‐creation: societal impact through open innovation

New open innovation initiatives, such as accelerators, living labs, social innovation labs and open labs, involve for‐profit and not‐for‐profit actors working closely together to co‐create both business value and societal impacts. However, there is a lack of theoretical underpinning to understand how and why co‐creation by actors generate different types of social value in the concurrent pursuit of business and social value. Adopting an inductive case study approach, we find that different types of entrepreneurs who co‐exploit co‐identify opportunities for co‐creation, generate potentially competing social and business values. We develop four propositions relating to how and why profit orientation and key resource contributions of entrepreneurs co‐identifying an opportunity to co‐create decide the nature of social value generated. We discuss avenues for future research and practical implications, underlying the importance of developing entrepreneurialism as ways to generate different social impacts through open innovation approaches, such as co‐creation.     

Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis

This study explored the written online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand using qualitative content analysis. The Google search engine was used for narrative search. Multiple search terms including medical, health, wellness tourism; treatment abroad; medical or health travel; treatment, surgery, or plastic surgery; dental treatment or braces were used to obtain related blog posts, discussions, and forums via a purposeful sampling method. A total of 43 online narratives were included in this study. Themes were then created after an iterative analysis of the selected online comments or posts. The push factors that act as motivators were: cost (100%), attractions (81%), availability of facilitators (62%), physician’s background and expertise (58%), bandwagon effect (42%). The majority of the subjects (88%) stated that they were satisfied with the outcomes of their medical treatments received in Malaysia and Thailand.     

Towards new Triple Helix organisations? A comparative study of competence centres as knowledge,consensus and innovation spaces

This contribution explores new organisational forms facilitating Triple Helix relations. Analysts have pointed to the blurring of institutional boundaries and the emergence of hybrid organisations at the interface between university, industry and government. Starting out from the notion that Triple Helix organisations develop and maintain knowledge, consensus and innovation spaces, we explore four cases of competence centres that operate in this context. Comparing them, we identify Finnish SHOK centres as the most radical departure from more traditional forms of university–industry collaboration. These can be characterised as independent legal entities that are involved in integrating a large, possibly cluster‐level or technology‐focused network, defining the agenda for specific specialisation areas by engaging in all or most of the Triple Helix spaces. We argue they could be better positioned than existing intermediary organisations to deliver the Triple Helix concept.     

Modelling the domestic and foreign tourist arrivals to Tamil Nadu (India)

In recent years, due to the Indian Federal Government's and Tamil Nadu State Government's various initiatives and promotional activities, foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in Tamil Nadu are on the increase. This article aims to model the monthly tourist arrivals (foreign as well as domestic) in Tamil Nadu for monthly time series data during the period 1998 to 2002 using univariate time-series models. As both time series show strong seasonal patterns, we also investigate the possibility of seasonal unit roots in the domestic and foreign tourist arrivals series. The results show that significant growth in domestic and foreign arrivals takes place during the months December to January. Growth rate for domestic tourist arrivals is positive during April and May, but is negative for the foreign tourist arrivals during April and insignificant during May. Such information would be very useful to the Tamil Nadu government and the tourism industry in maximizing the usage of available tourist spot infrastructure and to provide high quality service.