Purpose
The aim of this paper is to determine whether the effort invested by service companies in employee training has an impact on their economic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study ...centres on an intensive labor sector, where the perception of service quality depends on who renders this service. To overcome the habitual problems of transversal studies, the time effect has been considered by measuring data over a period of nine years, to give panel data treatment with fixed effects.
Findings
The prepared models give clear empirical support to the hypothesis that training activities are a positive influence on company performance.
Research limitations/implications
The results obtained contribute empirical evidence about a relationship that, hitherto, has not been satisfactorily demonstrated. However, there may be some limitations related to the use of a training indicator based on effort and not on results obtained, with low representation of what happens in the smaller companies that lack structured training policies, or with no differentiation between generic or more specific training.
Practical implications
The results obtained can contribute towards increased manager awareness that training should be treated as an investment and not considered as an expense.
Originality/value
The main contributions can be resumed in three points: a training measurement has been used, based on three dimensions, which presumes to be an improvement on the more frequent method of measuring this variable. A consistent methodology was used that previously was not applied in the analysis of this relationship, and clear empirical evidence has been obtained concerning a relationship that, frequently, is mentioned with theoretical arguments, but which needs more empirical evidence.
This research has endeavoured to build on earlier research on the relationship between a firm's technological resources and the direction of its diversification, by trying to confirm the endogeneity ...of this relationship and by addressing the influence of innovation on the choice of the mode of diversification. Based on a sample of Spanish firms, our results suggest that innovation drives diversification, but not the reverse. The second important finding of this research is the empirical confirmation that knowledge assets are not related to the diversification mode.
This paper studies the influence of firm size over degree of innovation in a service sector, specifically in engineering consulting and technology services in Spain. A multiple regression analysis ...was used to test hypothesis about firm size positive influence over degree of innovation in services. To avoid distortions in this main relationship, three control variables were introduced (degree of standardisation, degree of customisation, and number of firm's activities). Results seem to indicate that firm size, measured by turnover, is related positively with degree of innovation, independently of moderate influence of control variables.
This research aims to study two determinant factors of the ICT adoption and use in the Spanish micro-enterprise’s framework. Furthermore, this article analyses the combined influence of the age and ...the training experience of the entrepreneur according to the use of ICT in the company. Previous research has considered that the age of the entrepreneur has a negative effect while the level of education of the entrepreneur always have a positive effect in the use of ICT. However, any previous research has found the analysis of the combined effects of both variables together: the age and training, since the combined effects may be different from the effects of each variable separately. On this basis it has analysed a sample of 148 Spanish firms with fewer than 10 employees. The survey results seem to conclude that the specific training of entrepreneurs on issues related to ICT, (rather than the overall level of their training), moderates the negative effect caused by the increasing age the employer in the use of ICT.
This work studies the impact of technological innovation activities on the diversification strategy of the firm. This work contributes to the research on this field controlling for the endogeneity of ...the patenting and diversification decisions. Moreover, it improves previous research by measuring not only direct but also indirect diversification. On the basis of a sample of 983 industrial Spanish firms, the results show that innovation drives diversification, while diversification does not influence innovation decisions.
The literature concerned with the relationship between performance and information and communications technology (ICT) is usually focused on the ICT investments. This paper shows that it is the level ...of use of ICT within organisations, with preference as regards the expenses of ICT, which is responsible for the effect on performance. A general sample of 2255 Spanish companies has been used. Firms’ performance is measured as technical efficiency, which is determined by a data envelopment analysis (DEA), in which special attention is paid to the problem of the outliers. Finally, the analysis of the level of use of ICT is focused on a key area of the organisations, the supply chain, which affects the technical efficiency of the firms analysed. Results show that there is evidence of a positive effect of the use of ICT on technical efficiency. This effect is especially notable at intensive use levels in activities related to operations/manufacturing, purchasing or sales.
This paper aims to show how an app can be a very useful tool to improve learning through knowledge management among students and professors. We will show the results of the survey to students from ...four Spanish universities on the use of the app. The results show that for the students the app is useful to review, to bring the subject up to date, to remember, to learn, to know and to understand.
O rápido desenvolvimento de Sistemas de Gestão de Aprendizagem (Learning Management Systems, LMS) está a mudar
o caráter das relações de aprendizagem nas universidades. A tendência a implantar LMS ...como sistemas “adjuntos” aos
sistemas tradicionais de ensino foi objeto de escassa investigação, do ponto de vista dos educadores, pelo qual, a principal
contribuição deste artigo é propor um quadro de análise que integra as propostas de diversas teorias que se revelaram como
insuficientes na análise dos fatores determinantes de um uso efetivo dos LMS.
El rápido desarrollo de Sistemas de Gestión de Aprendizaje (Learning Management Systems, LMS) está
cambiando el carácter de las relaciones de aprendizaje en las universidades. La tendencia a implantar LMS
como sistemas “adjuntos” a los sistemas tradicionales de enseñanza ha sido objeto de escasa investigación desde
el punto de vista de los educadores, por lo que la principal contribución de este artículo es el proponer un marco
de análisis que integra las propuestas de diversas teorías que se han revelado como insuficientes en el análisis de
los factores determinantes de un uso efectivo de los LMS.
The rapid development of Learning Management Systems (LMS) is changing the nature of learning relationships in
universities. The tendency to implement LMS systems as “adjunct” to traditional teaching has been little research from
the point of view of educators, so that the main contribution of this paper is to propose an analytical framework that
integrates the proposals for various theories that have proved to be insufficient in the analysis of the determinants of an
effective use of LMS.
The rapid development of Learning Management Systems (LMS) is changing the nature of learning relationships in universities. The tendency to implement LMS systems as "adjunct" to traditional teaching ...has been little research from the point of view of educators. The main contribution of this paper is to propose an analytical framework that integrates the proposals for various theories that have proved to be insufficient in the analysis of the determinants of an effective use of LMS.
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