Debates about competitiveness and productivity are practically unexplored with respect to tourism. This article posits a productivity-related measure—total tourism contribution to GDP per employee in ...tourism—in order to examine destination competiveness. Comprehensive results based on a destination competitiveness model are obtained by analyzing tourism-specific and wider economy-based competitiveness factors. These are represented by six destination competitiveness factors measured by 55 indicators for 139 destinations over the period 2007–2011. Study findings demonstrate that tourism-specific factors, such as Tourism Infrastructure and Destination Management, are the major competitiveness drivers in developing countries, while destination competitiveness in developed countries depends on the tourism-specific factor of Destination Management as well as on wider economic conditions such as General Infrastructure, Macro-Environment, and Business Environment. The study offers a novel approach in the operationalization and estimation of a theoretically grounded and empirically validated tourism competitiveness model and discusses the implications for tourism policy.
PurposeThe paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the drivers for the use of Industry 4.0 technologies by investigating (1) what motivates companies to consider using I4 technologies ...and (2) what enables (or hinders) the intention to use I4 technologies to translate into their actual use.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses survey data collected from a sample of export-oriented manufacturing companies with more than 10 employees. Final analysis is conducted on 124 companies.FindingsThe results show that companies are proactively approaching I4. Only efficiency motives and expected competitive advantage have a positive effect on the intention to use I4 technologies, which in turn positively influences their actual use. The external, legitimacy-based, motives do not play a significant role in explaining the intention to use. With respect to I4 technology enablers, employee competency positively moderates and availability of finance negatively moderates the relationship between intention to use and actual use.Research limitations/implicationsThe work extends the existing knowledge base on I4 technology drivers in companies that are not major global trendsetters but are heavily embedded in the value chains of companies from the most industrially developed economies. The study is limited to manufacturing companies in a small European economy and should be retested in other contexts.Practical implicationsThe study can help managers implement I4 technologies in their companies more successfully.Originality/valueWe take a novel research approach by proposing a framework that clearly distinguishes between motives and enablers for the use of I4 technologies.
Blockholdings in closely held corporations have been examined in the literature to understand the importance of the size and structure of minimal coalitions in a volatile macroeconomic environment. ...We show, theoretically and empirically, that three-member minimal controlling coalitions provide the best performance results because the portfolio of potential strategies of such coalitions can increase strategic choices in the boom-bust-recovery cycle, but coordination costs are not that high. We also show that “competition” between potential minimal controlling coalitions (of the same firm) with two or more members improves the firm’s performance. With respect to the characteristics of the institutional owners of one-member controlling coalitions, we found that firms controlled by foreigners and/or other non-financial firms and financial holdings performed better than the average firm. Our study indicates that the change of ownership structures in emerging countries is determined by the extant economic systems and through administrative interventions.
•The paper studies blockholdings in closely held corporations to explore the importance of the size and structure in a volatile macroeconomic environment.•The paper shows, that: Growing number of members of a minimal coalition is beneficent as long benefits of large number of minimal coalitions prevail over cost of coordination.•The ownerThe efficiency of foreigners, non-financial firms, financial holdings) is bigger than efficiency of rest of the firms within single ownership type of coalition.ship structure of roughly the same size outperforms other ownership structures within the standard of two or more members coalitions.•The efficiency of foreigners, non-financial firms, financial holdings) is bigger than efficiency of rest of the firms within single ownership type of coalition.•The study indicates that changes in profiles of owners in emerging countries are a combination of systemic effects and administrative interventions.
This study addresses the dearth of research on what enables firms' performance in the context of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). We investigate how I4.0 shapes the effects of firm investments over time and ...whether the effects of people and equipment depend on innovative management approaches. A longitudinal multi-sector study is conducted of 157 export-oriented, manufacturing firms in a European Union member state (Slovenia) over a 14-year period (in total, consisting of 1791 total observations). The findings suggest that firms which invest more in technology complement these costs by making investments in people, which over time leads to a higher firm performance. The I4.0 phase moderates this mediated relationship in that firms more advanced with respect to engaging in I4.0 tend to lower their human resources costs despite investing in technology while still showing a superior firm performance. This indicates the substitution effect of technology vis-à-vis human resources. The moderation of management innovation proved to be weaker, calling for a detailed look at its nuances across the studied levels. Taken together, our paper contributes in advancing the stream of research focused on internal factors and processes specifically related to firm investments and management processes, thereby leading to the outcomes of new technology use and capitalization. The findings highlight the link between I4.0 and technology management, and innovation, and complements the existing research on the link between management innovation and performance by contextualizing it within I4.0's new technology and socio-economic changes.
Firms' performance during exogenous crises depends on several factors, from strategic foresight, financial readiness, and a number of firm-specific as well as sectoral aspects, also including luck ...and government support. The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the 'crisis readiness' of firms, defined by factors like a proactive strategic approach, digitalisation, and financial constraints, as well as the reliance on or availability of government support, is responsible for the outcome during the COVID-19 crisis compared to the long-run contribution made by these factors. The empirical investigation uses a unique combination of firm-level balance sheet data and unique survey data concerning the strategic focus and implementation of Industry 4.0. While the literature suggests that digitalisation, a strategic proactive approach, and crisis readiness (itself depending on several factors) impacted the firms significantly during the COVID-19 crisis, the results show firm performance primarily depended on other (sectoral) aspects serving as a major exogenous factor impacting their performance. During the crisis, digitalisation was additionally mentioned as an important adjustment factor. However, using firm-level data we show that while companies were able to mitigate certain impacts of the supply and demand shocks triggered by COVID-19 using their internal resources and characteristics, including strategic elements, the biggest explanatory factor remains the sector involved. This leads to important managerial and policy recommendations, principally stressing the importance of proactivity and agility for firms' long-run performance, whereas in the short run the state must help mitigate the effects.
Our study focuses on examining the relationship between productivity (or productivity growth) and state aid allocation in Slovenia during the period of 1998 to 2012. The country itself represents ...almost an ideal case as the amount of subsidies being allocated in the relevant period decreased significantly after joining the EU. Our study builds on the theoretical model of Aghion et al. (2015) arguing that sectorial policy can enhance growth and efficiency if it is made competition-friendly. The main results show, that by increasing dispersion of subsidies within particular sectors by one standard deviation, the productivity growth increases by 0.03 percentage points on average, ceteris paribus. State aid has been especially important in the period of economic downturn (2009–2012). However we found evidence that firms receiving a higher portion of subsidies were less productive when compared with counterparts from the same sector receiving less or no subsidies. The
difference was the biggest during the period of economic downturn.
•We provide the first test of and find support for the Hoff–Stiglitz model of asset stripping during privatization.•We show the presence of asset stripping caused the more rather than less efficient ...firms to disappear.•We find support for endogenous exit of more productive and smaller firms.•We distinguish true start-ups from liquidated firms that re-appear as start-ups.•We show survival bias is important when estimating effects of privatization.
We provide the first test of and find support for the Hoff and Stiglitz (2004a,b) model predicting under what conditions mass privatizations are accompanied by asset stripping. We also test and do not find support for the main prediction of the Campos and Giovannoni (2006) model. In addition to testing the theory, we tackle an important policy-oriented issue of why a large number of efficient firms disappeared during mass privatization in the booming economy of Montenegro. Econometrically, we present the first study to look at firms that disappeared during a mass privatization transition, improving upon prior studies that focused only on existing firms and ignored survival bias. Our analysis suggests that asset stripping and firm disappearance were present, and that asset stripping was a likely reason for the loss of efficient firms. We show that because more productive firms were liquidated, it is important to model survival bias in the selection of firms remaining in samples when estimating the effects of privatization or other ownership changes. We also show that one needs to distinguish between true start-ups and liquidated firms that re-appear as start-ups. In the absence of the rule of law, many firms that appear to have disappeared were in fact appropriated by managers and politically connected individuals.
Drawing on the intangible resource-based view of the firm, we investigate the difference between high and low performing companies regarding their profile of core intangible resources. The results ...obtained indicate that on average better performing companies hold higher share of intangible capital on majority of analysed intangible resources and thus may have developed more core competences and capabilities needed for superior performance. The paper contributes to the previous literature as it highlights the existence of intangible resources within the population of firms with common characteristics, which favourably distinguish superior firms from less successful one. For the managers and policy makers gaining a clear understanding of core intangible resources with potential of sustainable competitive adventage that determine high performing firms and their tendency to invest in intangible assets can be of crucial importance as it offers some insights for policy design.
Destination competitiveness has attracted much attention from researchers over the past two decades. The Integrated Destination Competitiveness Model has been used to explore destination ...competitiveness in many contexts including Australia, Korea, Slovenia, and Serbia. Given its popularity
with tourism researchers and its application to destination competitiveness studies world-wide, it is appropriate to undertake a rigorous test of the destination competitiveness attributes identified in this model, their validity and indicator accessibility to researchers and practitioners.
Testing the 83 destination competitiveness attributes of this major model can inform researchers about the appropriateness of the model structure, the validity of the groupings of destination competitiveness attributes, and the relevance of different indicators to destination attributes. The
data used for testing are comprehensive, covering 139 countries worldwide in the period 2007 to 2011. The testing process confirms the value of the Integrated Model in understanding a destination's competitiveness indicators, the gains from which will be more informed policy making regarding
the type of tourism development most likely to enhance resident quality of economic and social life.
This paper outlines some of the environmental and economic implications of an additional CO2 tax of EUR 15/tCO2 in Slovenia in the period 2012-2030 in order to determine whether it yield a double ...dividend. Authors analyze (using E3ME model) different forms of revenue recycling by reducing the social security contributions of either the employers or the employees or by reducing the public deficit, in order to identify the optimal fiscal instrument for improving the environmental and economic welfare (double dividend). In this policy orientated paper authors argue that a reduction of employee social security contributions has more favourable effect than a reduction in employers' social security contributions.
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