Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality: Innovative Studies and Approaches 3031280520, 9783031280528

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Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management

Marco Valeri   Editor

Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality Innovative Studies and Approaches

Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management

This book series covers all topics relevant to the tourism, hospitality, and event industries. It includes destination management and related aspects of the travel and mobility industries as well as effects from developments in information and communication technologies. “Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management” embraces books both for professionals and scholars, and explicitly includes undergraduate and advanced texts for students. In this setting, the book series reflects the close connection between research, teaching, and practice in tourism research and tourism management and the related fields. This series is indexed in SCOPUS.

Marco Valeri Editor

Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality Innovative Studies and Approaches

Editor Marco Valeri Faculty of Economics Niccolò Cusano University Rome, Italy

ISSN 2510-4993 ISSN 2510-5000 (electronic) Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management ISBN 978-3-031-28052-8 ISBN 978-3-031-28053-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28053-5 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

The book Family Business in Tourism and Hospitality is the result of reflections involving research studies of different nationalities. The book contains 15 chapters written by 37 authors located in 12 different countries and affiliated with 19 different Universities. This book aims to provide a comprehensive collection of chapters including new insights for traditional paradigms, approaches, and methods, as well as more recent innovative studies in family business in tourism and hospitality. In tourism and hospitality, family business model is an important development opportunity, and it is an innovation driver for this industry development. In this context, the authors will investigate personal and family needs and preferences alongside the relationship between the family business model, growth and profit maximization, and the development of tourism businesses through innovation drivers. In tourism and hospitality, most enterprises are characterized by small size and family ownership. Between the family and the firm, an exclusive entrepreneurial culture develops, potentially making transgenerational entrepreneurship the main economic engine in the tourism sector. Influenced by the family conflicts, local culture, and commercial interests, the management of this type of business involving family members has become increasingly more complex over the years. This highlights that the development of a family business is influenced by three factors: the family, property, and the business system adopted. These characteristics of family business are connected to the family’s life stage and its culture. Human, social, and financial capital represent the natural resources owned by the family business. Human capital includes elements, such as reputation, skill, and intuition, which reflect the influence of the founder of the family business. The exploitation of resources in the family business approach is different from that in the non-family business approach. These exclusive resources reflect the fact that the family acts as owners; therefore, the intangible familiarity factor is the element that differentiates the family business from other non-family businesses and can represent a competitive advantage; however, at the same time, by having a suffocating effect, family-related skills and resources could inhibit growth. Regarding market performance, family businesses v

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have a number of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are represented by personal relationships with corporate stakeholders and strong social values, highlighting the positive relationship between family involvement and performance. In contrast, the disadvantages are often related to the nature of relationships often characterized by the lack of professionalism of family members and to the absence of a business strategy or a vision. Therefore, business development and family history are two related concepts that influence each other. A family business is governed by the objective of pursuing the vision of a business, which is owned by a dominant group and is under the control of family members, such that the business is sustainable across generations of the family. In a family business, the important elements are the following: the same family members’ exercise of control of the family business, the pre-eminence of family benefits, and the production of sustainable income for future generations. Furthermore, for the survival of the family business in tourism, innovation in response to a constantly changing environment is required, and shared products are offered by many actors. However, in the tourism sector, the owner often runs the business himself, or the business is run by a few close family members. Therefore, ownership and management are often coincident. Therefore, family involvement is very strong, and consequently, a strong innovative element is expected to emerge within family businesses. In addition, by implementing innovative strategies, tourism companies create a more sustainable environment, as they recognize innovation as an essential and promoting engine for sustainable development in tourism. In tourism and hospitality, compared to general management, innovation is a more complex dimension. In tourism, innovations consist of product, service, management, marketing, process, or institutional innovations. Innovation in tourism is more limited in family businesses than in non-family businesses. The factors that determine whether a family business will innovate are either economic factors, such as financial restrictions, or non-economic factors, such as risk aversion, the maintenance of traditional products, family conflict, and closure to external information by investors. In the same way, family businesses may give up on implementing sustainability practices, as their implementation often requires innovation and high risk. The heterogeneity of family businesses can be explained by socio-emotional and non-economic factors. Moreover, some studies show the decreasing propensity for innovation of family businesses. In other studies, once structures and processes are acquired and consolidated, family businesses reduce their ability to react to external changes. Generally, these companies are more hostile toward innovative processes precisely because they tend to maintain the status quo of the acquired elements. Other interesting aspects of family businesses concern their relation to the innovation and succession process. It is possible to argue that the involvement of the successor in a business can act as a “catalyst of change,” that is, as an opportunity to innovate. The book is structured into two parts. The first part focuses on entrepreneurial skills. This part collects chapters that analyze the essential skill sets that family business entrepreneurs can develop to increase their entrepreneurial success by

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finding new leadership opportunities, learning new skills that can transfer to their own business, and learning new approaches to manage teams, make decisions, and collaborate with managers. The second part focuses on management models. This part consists of chapters investigating the professional experiences of managers in a variety of family businesses located in several countries. The aim is to analyze how the family and business structures affect the visibility and growth of managerial positions. Rome, Italy

Marco Valeri

Contents

Part I

Entrepreneurial Skills

The Effectiveness of Government Programmes in the Family Business Accommodations in Port Dickson, Malaysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sharala Subramaniam, Jeetesh Kumar, and Marco Valeri Augmenting Family Businesses in Craft Tourism Through Entrepreneurial Skills Development Among Southern Africa Rural Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Godfrey Makandwa, Forbes Makudza, and Simbarashe Muparangi

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Innovation Driving Factors in Tourism Family Business: A Theoretical Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beatriz Adriana López-Chávez

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Main Competitive Factors in European Small and Medium-Sized Family Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Antonio E. Pérez Brito, Luís Lima Santos, and Laura G. Duarte Cáceres

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Change and Innovation in Small Family-Owned Hotels in the Pandemic Era: Α Delphi Research Method Study Approach . . . . . . . . . Christos Kakarougkas, Theodoros Stavrinoudis, and Psimoulis Moschos

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Linking Business Owner’s Market Capability and Mobile Marketing Adoption: Experience from Tanzania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alberto Gabriel Ndekwa

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The Role of Women Entrepreneurs on Family Businesses in Turkey . . . 109 Gül Erkol Bayram, Sinan Baran Bayar, and Ali Turan Bayram Factors Influencing the Adoption of Digital Marketing in the Family Business MSME’s Owned by Women Entrepreneurs During Covid-19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Norhidayah Azman and Ahmad Albattat ix

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Part II

Contents

Management Models

How to Innovate and Strengthen Management Accounting in a Family Restaurant Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Filipa Campos, Luís Lima Santos, and Conceição Gomes Innovative Approaches: Using DEMATEL Method in the Research of SMEs Operating in Tourism Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Ladislav Mura and Beata Stehlikova Opportunities and Challenges of the Homestay Family Business Concept in the Indian Tourism Sector: A Viewpoint Study . . . . . . . . . . 189 Suneel Kumar, Marco Valeri, Varinder Kumar, and Sanjeev Kumar Influence of SMEs’ Network Competencies on Tourism Industry Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Romed Kavenuke Social Media and Online Marketing Implication on Family Businesses Success: A Tourism Industry Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Ravinay Amit Chandra, Navneel Shalendra Prasad, Nikeel Nishkar Kumar, and Marica Mafi Stephens Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Subjective Well-Being (SWB) of Participation in Leisure, Nature-Based, and Family Activities . . . . . . 243 Jane Anak Abi, Ahmad Albattat, Wong Sek Herk, and Nurul Azreen Binti Khairulanuar Zaini The Experience of Staying in a Boutique Hotel in a Management and Educational Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Adam Samborski and Iwona Samborska

Contributors

Jane Anak Abi Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Ahmad Albattat Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Sinan Baran Bayar Department of Social Sciences, Kirklareli University, Kırklareli, Turkey Ali Turan Bayram Department of Tour Guiding, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Sinop University, Sinop, Turkey Gül Erkol Bayram Department of Tour Guiding, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Sinop University, Sinop, Turkey Filipa Campos CiTUR - Centre of Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal Ravinay Amit Chandra Department of Business and Economics, University of Fiji, Lautoka, Fiji Laura G. Duarte Cáceres Postgraduate and Research Unit, Autonomous University of Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico Conceição Gomes CiTUR - Centre of Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal Wong Sek Herk Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Christos Kakarougkas University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece Romed Kavenuke Accounting and Finance Department, Faculty of Business and Management Sciences (FBMS), Ruaha Catholic University (RUCU), Iringa, Tanzania xi

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Contributors

Jeetesh Kumar School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events, Centre For Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT), Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, Taylor’s University, Selangor, Malaysia Nikeel Kumar School of Accounting, Finance and Economics, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji Sanjeev Kumar Department of Commerce and Management, Career Point University Hamirpur, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India Suneel Kumar Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India Varinder Kumar Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, India Luís Lima Santos School of Tourism and Maritime Technology, CiTUR - Centre of Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal Beatriz Adriana López-Chávez Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico Godfrey Makandwa Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure Sciences Department, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences, Mutare, Zimbabwe Forbes Makudza Business Enterprise and Management Department, University of Zimbabwe, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe Psimoulis Moschos University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece Simbarashe Muparangi Applied Business Sciences Department, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences, Mutare, Zimbabwe Ladislav Mura Faculty of Commerce, Department of Tourism, University of Economics, Bratislava, Slovakia Alberto Gabriel Ndekwa Department of Management Science, Ruaha Catholic University, Iringa, Tanzania Azman Norhidayah Faculty of Business and Professional Studies, Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Antonio E. Pérez Brito Faculty of Accounting and Administration, Autonomous University of Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico CiTUR - Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal Navneel Shalendra Prasad School of Business and Economics, University of Fiji, Lautoka, Fiji Iwona Samborska University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland Adam Samborski University of Economics in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

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Marica Mafi Stehens School of Business and Management, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji Beáta Stehlíková Faculty of Economics and Business, Pan-European University, Bratislava, Slovakia Sharala Subramaniam School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, Taylor’s University, Selangor, Malaysia Stavrinoudis Theodoros University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece Marco Valeri Faculty of Economics, Niccolò Cusano University, Rome, Italy Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events, Taylor’s University, Selangor, Malaysia Nurul Azreen Binti Khairulanuar Zaini Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Part I

Entrepreneurial Skills

The Effectiveness of Government Programmes in the Family Business Accommodations in Port Dickson, Malaysia Sharala Subramaniam, Jeetesh Kumar, and Marco Valeri

1 Introduction Tourism refers to the activity of travelling to another place above 50 miles (83 km) from a place of residence for not more than 1 year for recreation or to fill leisure time. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), which is one of the affiliated bodies of the United Nations, tourism refers to service activities related to service activities to tourists. Tourism has become a popular leisure activity around the world. In 2004, over 763 million tourists worldwide (WTO 2005). Sustainable (sustainable) development has been adopted in all economic activities, including the services sector such as tourism. The concept of sustainable development was first introduced by the Brundtland Commission, also known as the “World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)”, in 1983. The Brundtland report entitled “Our Common Future”, published in 1987, became a general reference on sustainable

S. Subramaniam Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia e-mail: [email protected] J. Kumar (✉) Centre For Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT), Sustainable Tourism Impact Lab, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia e-mail: [email protected] M. Valeri Faculty of Economics, Niccolò Cusano University, Rome, Italy Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Valeri (ed.), Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality, Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28053-5_1

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development (Abdul Ghani and Aziah 2007). Thus, sustainable tourism carries the meaning of natural, cultural, and other tourism resources that are conserved for continued use in the future and at the same time still bring benefits to the society of today. Sustainable tourism is a tourism activity that continues to conserve, providing various facilities in areas with tourist attractions, whether related to the environment or culture. Tourists have their perceptions of sustainable tourism. Tourist perception describes a tourist’s experience of a tourist area visited. According to Morrison and King (2002), a tourist’s perception generally involves five senses of taste: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell to evaluate the hospitality and service of tourism products. The phrase perception is more than reality describes the diversity of tourist behaviours (Sousa et al. 2021). The description drawn by a tourist about a tourist centre is made based on his perception and experience. Often pleasurable experiences give birth to perceptions that go beyond reality (Deb et al. 2022; Abdullah et al. 2022). Similarly, when a tourist experiences something unpleasant while travelling, the perception is usually worse than reality. Although not an acceptable view, the perception of a tourist helps give an idea of the advantages or disadvantages of a tourist centre (Santos et al. 2021a). This is important in developing the tourism sector of a country like Malaysia. In Malaysia, the growth of the tourism sector can be considered slow. In the early 1970s, activities related to the tourism sector were placed under the Department of Tourism, Ministry of Trade and Industry Management. At that time, the tourism sector’s contribution was small and less focused. On August 10, 1972, the Malaysian government established the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) to develop the tourism sector further and increase its contribution to the national economy. Since its inception, TDC has become one of the critical agencies shaping the country’s socio-economic situation and, in turn, contributing to its economic development. As a result of the success achieved by the Malaysian Tourism Development Corporation, on May 20, 1987, a new ministry was established by the government, namely the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism. Directly Perbadanan Kemajuan Pelancongan Malaysia has been transferred from the Ministry of Trade and Industry to this new Ministry (Mohmadisa and Mohamad Suhaily 2010). In line with the development of the global tourism industry, in May 1992, the PKPM Act 1972 was repealed and replaced by the LPPM Act 1992 to strengthen the functions and scope of PKPM to be more relevant and competitive. The Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board has been established, better known for short Tourism Malaysia. The development and enforcement functions previously placed under the PKPM have now been abolished. This enables Tourism Malaysia to focus on marketing Malaysia programmes locally and internationally effectively. The Tourism Malaysia name is used widely to create a consistent corporate brand. This method was inspired by YB Dato Paduka Abdul Kadir bin Haji Sheikh Fadzir (now Tan Sri), the Chairman of LPPM and the Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism Malaysia. The tourism industry in the country was further strengthened through a cabinet reshuffle on March 27, 2004, which saw the creation of a specialised

The Effectiveness of Government Programmes in the Family. . .

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ministry known as the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia. From then on, the Tourism Malaysia Board (Tourism Malaysia) is now officially under the auspices of this ministry. Today, the tourism industry acts as a catalyst for growth and is one of the major contributors to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment opportunities. Tourism Malaysia informed that the country’s revenue rate from the tourism sector also dropped 85.3%. It reached only RM12.69 billion last year compared to RM86.14 billion in 2019. He said the average per capita expenditure for the tourism sector recorded by Malaysia last year was RM2928, a decrease of 11.3% compared to RM3300 in 2019. “The significant drop in foreign tourist arrivals to Malaysia is due to the closure of the country’s borders since March 18 last year, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic”, Tourism Malaysia said in a statement today. “Malaysia’s neighbouring countries in the ASEAN region also recorded a significant decline in the number of tourists, including Thailand (-83.2%), Singapore (85.7%), Vietnam (-78.7%) and Indonesia (-75%)”. However, he said, tourists from ASEAN countries or the short-haul market remained the main contributor to foreign tourist arrivals to Malaysia, involving 2.9 million or 68.1% of the total foreign tourists last year. Taking into account the tourism activities implemented in Malaysia today that must be linked to sustainable development, various efforts have been undertaken to preserve the country’s tourism products. Today, the principle of sustainable tourism is not only limited to the preservation and conservation of the environment and its resources, but also includes the management of human resources, culture, finance, and physical development (Santos et al. 2021b). Recently, it has been observed that a new dimension of sustainable development has emerged, namely the generationbased dimension. This is due to the increasing public appreciation of the benefits gained through sustainable development efforts (Chamhuri 2004). In connection with the above introduction, this article aims to analyse the pattern of tourists’ perceptions of sustainable tourism development in the Port Dickson district. The focus of the discussion of this article is given to the level of awareness of tourists on choosing family business accommodation for sustainable tourism development planning in the state.

2 Sustainable Tourism in Port Dickson District Some tourists come to the Port Dickson district because they want to visit various relics and historical heritage sites, whether local or foreign. At the same time, some other tourists visit the state because they want to shop. Therefore, various products on historical heritage and various facilities in the form of shopping malls have been developed. The effort is one of the essential strategies to promote tourism in the Port Dickson district. For promotional purposes, the state government and the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia will continue to help foster intelligent partnerships between the government, tourism organisations, and the private sector.

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Malaysia has formed global strategic alliances and regional cooperation at the international level to promote inter-country tourism through meetings and conferences. Various stakeholders, including travel and tour service providers, transportation service providers, MICE organisations, hotel operators and operators in tourist destinations, are encouraged to work together to provide convenience and comfort to tourists. In addition, with increased liberalisation in tourism services under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services, vigorous efforts will be made to promote Malaysia, particularly the Port Dickson district, as a significant destination and stopover destination among ASEAN countries and the Asia Pacific region (Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan 2006–2010). Apart from cooperation, efforts are also being made to increase access to the Port Dickson district (9th Malaysia Plan, 2006–2010). Accordingly, transportation services at the entrance, transportation network between the city and resorts, and access to communication services, especially Internet facilities, have been enhanced. Air, land, and sea transport infrastructure and facilities were upgraded to assist the growth of the tourism industry. Service improvements were also made, including the introduction of online visa applications. The preparation of multiple entry permits will continue to help smooth travel. This is because the Port Dickson district is known as one of the best tourist destinations in Malaysia with its unique cultural heritage. For promotional purposes, the state government has put up a slogan. The slogan of the Port Dickson district, “Visiting Port Dickson Means Visiting Malaysia”, has briefly described the tourism products presented to tourists, namely tourism themed on the historical and cultural heritage of the community. Port Dickson district’s multiracial and multicultural population also gives a difference, and this places the Port Dickson district as one of the top tourist destinations in the Asian Region. Heritage and cultural tourism activities in Port Dickson have now been overgrown. Apart from history and cultural heritage products, products based on natural resources such as beaches, Cape Rachado Lighthouse, Army Museum, PD Ostrich & Pets Show Farm, Teluk Kemang Observatory, Wan Loong Chinese Temple, Lukut Fort & Museum, and Port Dickson art gallery are also offered. In addition to accommodation in international standard hotels, food courts and quality restaurants were also built. However, the rapid development of tourism activities does not guarantee its level of sustainability. The supply of many and varied tourism products and services can affect the quality of the environment and the destruction of natural resources (Kumar et al. 2021). The issue of sustainable tourism activities in Port Dickson is also challenged because there is a tendency that most tourists who visit the state are only temporary. Not many repeat tourists, i.e. tourists who repeatedly visit this city. The Ministry of Tourism Malaysia aims to increase the number of repeat tourists. Tourists visiting Port Dickson are also unbalanced between local tourists and foreign tourists. To ensure the sustainability of tourism activities, apart from encouraging local tourists, the number of tourists from abroad also needs to be increased.

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3 Area and Method of Study This study was conducted around the city of Port Dickson, which is the area that houses most of the tourist centres in Negeri Sembilan. Cape Rachado Lighthouse, Army Museum, PD Ostrich & Pets Show Farm, Teluk Kemang Observatory, Wan Loong Chinese Temple, Lukut Fort & Museum, and Port Dickson art gallery. The data of this study were obtained from various primary and secondary sources. Primary data were collected through surveys supported by observations by researchers in the field. The survey was conducted on 300 domestic and foreign tourists at random. Survey forms were administered to respondents to obtain their perceptions of experience, product satisfaction, environmental status, and involvement of residents. Observation methods are used to obtain information on the behaviour of tourists at tourist sites, the condition and level of infrastructure provision and other tourist facilities, architectural patterns of heritage buildings, and cultural practices. Interviews with entrepreneurs and the local community were also conducted to get views on the tourism activities, their impact on local communities, and their problems. Secondary data were obtained from various sources, including those obtained through the Ministry of Tourism, Local Authorities website, and records and documents from tourism centre operators in the three places.

4 Findings and Discussion Background of tourists and reasons for travelling to Port Dickson is the origin of respondents who travel to Port Dickson. Based on the study findings, tourists from Port Dickson are the most tourists compared to tourists from other countries. The percentage of tourists from Port Dickson is 32.1%. Tourists who come to Port Dickson can be divided into domestic and foreign tourists. 93.6% of domestic tourists are tourists who come from states within Malaysia. Meanwhile, only 6.4% of foreign tourists are tourists who come from outside Malaysia. Apart from Port Dickson itself, where most visitors are, tourists in this country come from the states of Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, and Pahang, Perak, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, and Terengganu. Tourists abroad are from neighbouring countries, namely Singapore, the Netherlands, and Australia. For tourism activities such as migration, distance significantly affects the destination. The distance to the nearest destination will attract a large number of tourists. This explains why more domestic tourists than foreign tourists visit Port Dickson. Tourists’ motives for visiting tourist centres around Port Dickson. Most tourists choose Port Dickson as a holiday destination. This is because this area is a Heritage City famous for its various historical sites. This can be seen through the observations made because historical places such as the Stadthuys building and the Port Dickson focus on many tourists compared to other locations. Port Dickson is a state rich in

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historical sites. Therefore, the place is most suitable to visit to know the history (Swarbrooke 1995). Apart from visiting historical places, another part (41.4%) visited Port Dickson because they wanted to shop at department stores, especially those located around Bandar Seremban. Most of them are residents of Port Dickson itself.

4.1

Tourists’ Perceptions of the Conservation of the Physical Environment of Tourist Areas

Based on the statistic, 86.43% of tourists think the Port Dickson River is continuously conserved. Only 7.14% of respondents felt that the Port Dickson River was not preserved, and 6.43% were unaware and did not know about this (Kementerian Pelancongan Malaysia (2007), Statistik Kedatangan Pelancong). A similar opinion can be traced to the conservation of the shores of the Port Dickson River. The majority of tourists (68.57%) think that the environment on the shores of the Port Dickson River is well cared for and preserved on an ongoing basis through various cleaning measures, bank care, and the planting of ornamental trees. This is proven when the Seremban State Government implemented efforts to clean the Port Dickson River along 4.5 km. This care and conservation are essential to enable River Cruise activities. River Cruise is a popular tourism product in the area (Melaka JASN 2000). Observations also show that tourists who visit the place do not miss the opportunity to experience a boat ride down the beautiful Port Dickson River. Tourists are willing to wait in long lines for their turn to board the boat. Although most thought Port Dickson’s riverbanks and beaches were well maintained, 22.14% of tourists disagreed, while 9.29% others did not know. Based on the researcher’s observation, Port Dickson, such as Sungai Linggi, is generally maintained continuously. However, a small number of tourists, especially tourists from Singapore, feel that the condition of the beach is still not well maintained. This is because coastal areas have been reclaimed and are pretty dirty and narrow, with less vegetation and fewer facilities. In terms of overall cleanliness, tourists view Port Dickson as clean. This is because most respondents (84.3%) are of the same view, and only a small number of respondents (15.7%) state otherwise. The Port Dickson Municipal Council (MPPD) is a local authority that actively conducts clean-up operations in the city, especially in tourist areas. Researchers show that employees are always in strategic places around the city to monitor and maintain the area’s cleanliness. Garbage disposal facilities such as bins and garbage disposal systems, especially trucks equipped with garbage crushers, are in good condition. Tourist views on the care of In Cape Rachado Lighthouse, Army Museum, PD Ostrich & Pets Show Farm, Teluk Kemang Observatory, Wan Loong Chinese Temple, Lukut Fort & Museum, and Port Dickson art gallery. Tourists feel Port Dickson’s existing religious buildings, especially temples, are still well preserved.

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There are signs that sustainable conservation efforts are being made on the buildings. However, as many as 5.0% of tourist respondents felt that there were still abandoned religious buildings that did not seem to be preserved sustainably. The remaining 4.3% are tourists who do not know whether these religious buildings are sustainable. The results also show that the buildings in traditional business areas, ancient shop houses, are well preserved. 84.3% of visitors admitted that the old traditional shophouses in Port Dickson are still preserved sustainably. Meanwhile, 8.6% of tourist respondents felt that the shophouses were not preserved sustainably. They were followed by 7.1% of tourist respondents who do not know. Through the observation, the researcher found that this traditional shophouse at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Jalan Tukang Besi, and Jalan Hang Jebat still retains the characteristics of the old tradition, especially in terms of building shape, shop appearance, decoration and more significantly the function. The traders here are of the Chinese community, and they manage traditional businesses inherited from their ancestors as well as their parents. Among the businesses they do are tailors, shoemakers, coffin makers, and blacksmiths. For tourists who replied that they did not know about the existence of this traditional shophouse, it may be because they could not see it. After all, the location of this traditional shophouse is quite hidden, and tourists only know its existence if they go through these areas. Some of the shophouse buildings in the traditional alleys have been transformed into boutiques and hotels in addition to restaurants or eateries. Tourists believe that in line with its new function, the shop house, which was previously a grocery store and a residential house on the top floor, is more preserved. 61.4% of respondents agreed that traditional shophouses that have transformed their functions into hotels and boutiques appear more sustainable. Meanwhile, 17.1% of respondents denied this, followed by 21.4% who did not know. At the same time, 56.4% of respondents agreed that traditional shophouses converted into restaurants/eateries are preserved sustainably. As a result of the findings of this study, among the six buildings mentioned, the buildings that are preserved sustainably are religious buildings, namely temples and churches, as stated by 90.7% of respondents.

4.2

Maintenance of Basic Facilities

Basic facilities are an essential element of a tourist area. A reasonable provision and management of basic facilities can help the continuity of tourist arrivals to an area. Transportation that uses the road mode is easier to offer because it is widely used nowadays, and the cost of use is also cheap. So, roads are used more often than other means of transportation (Choy 2013). The study found that 60% of tourists agreed that the condition of the Port Dickson Monorail infrastructure is preserved sustainably. While 20% each answered no and do not know. The sustainability of the monorail system can be traced based on the absence of smoke emitted by the vehicle that can pollute the air.

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For improvement, many new roads in the tourist areas around Port Dickson have been built or upgraded. This is noticed by tourists who visit the area. 67.1% of respondents agreed that the newly built roads have sustainable features, while the other 32.9% disagreed or were unsure/knew. These new roads look good because the condition of the road structure is still good and not damaged. The existing transportation terminal in Port Dickson, namely in Port Dickson Sentral with the main route to Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, and other major cities in Peninsular Malaysia, is also good condition the system is running smoothly. The same goes for tourist routes to other tourist centres via the Port Dickson-KL Highway. Although many agree the number is relatively modest regarding public bus services. Only 55.5% of respondents agreed that public bus services are well provided and have sustainability characteristics. At the same time, the other 44.5% do not agree or do not know/are sure. Public transport, especially buses, contributes to sustainable tourism if it succeeds in reducing the use of private vehicles, thereby reducing the emission of carbon monoxide, which is smoke from vehicles.

4.3

Conservation of Traditional Cultural Heritage

Based on the observation, some traditional villages still exhibit traditional features that can be considered the historical heritage of Port Dickson. For example, the houses in Morten Village have traditional features with elongated roofs and tiled stone stairs. The people here are 100% ethnic Malays and still practice Malay customs and culture. The location of Kampung Morten is very strategic because it is right on the banks of the Port Dickson River. The view of this village at night is breathtaking because the lights are installed on every roof of the house. This adds to the beauty of the village. On top of that, many tourists (87.1%) agree that the traditional cultural heritage of Port Dickson is still preserved for tourism purposes. Only 12.9% stated otherwise. A total of 78.6% of respondents agreed that the tradition of Port Dickson is still preserved for tourism purposes. Only 21.5% disagreed or did not know. This traditional dance is usually the official entertainment of the state government, whether it is a domestic or foreign event. It is also displayed in large hotels and restaurants around Port Dickson. The same goes for other arts, especially traditional music. A total of 70.7% of respondents agreed that the traditional music of Negeri Sembilan is still preserved for tourism purposes. While 29.3% stated otherwise. The type of Tumbak Kalang is Negeri Sembilan’s original musical instrument consisting of Batang lesung (long wooden sticks), producing rhythmic sounds simultaneously. It is pretty challenging to see in other states, but in Negeri Sembilan, it is still played to this day. This Tumbak Kalang requires verse skills. No less popular is the traditional culture of the Puppet Show and batik art that is still preserved for tourism purposes. This was agreed by 71.4% of respondents, while the other 28.6% either disagreed or did not know/sure. According to Abdul Rahman (1997: 35), Baggio and Valeri (2020),

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Valeri and Baggio (2020), visitors will usually be glued to the performance of art culture, especially if presented in the form of light, dialogue, music, and drama.

4.4

Involvement of Local Communities

The involvement of local people is also an essential component of sustainable tourism for Port Dickson. The analysis of this study shows that 80% of respondents agree with the evidence of active involvement of local communities in tourism activities around Port Dickson. Only 20% are unsure or don’t know. The local community is actively involved in tourism activities as food entrepreneurs, tour guides, and homestay operators. The study also found that the average visitor described that the local community is highly courteous and friendly, so it is very pleasing to tourists. Locals are seen to accept the presence of tourists from a positive angle as the presence of tourists contributes to the improvement of their economy. This opinion is shared by many previous researchers, including Ibrahim (2002). However, a handful of locals are less proficient in communicating, especially in English, which makes it difficult for them to communicate with tourists. Overall, the local community is involved either directly as entrepreneurs and traders or indirectly as hosts who always welcome the presence of visitors to their state, greatly contributing to the development of tourism in the state. Their pride in the unique historical and traditional cultural heritage and their cooperation in maintaining the house’s architecture, the condition of the village, and the performance of dance art is quite crucial for preserving tourism activities in Port Dickson. Without their involvement, sustainable tourism activities in the state would not have been possible.

5 Conclusion This study found that most tourists choose Port Dickson as a holiday destination. Therefore, the heritage treasures here must be preserved to be sustainable. The facilities here need to be improved to make it easier for tourists to visit. Most tourists agree that the status of the physical environment around the tourist area in Port Dickson is sustainable. However, a few residents are disappointed with the government’s action. Heritage buildings such as Kota Lukut are generally preserved sustainably as they still retain the aesthetic value inherent in the building. According to the respondents, monorail infrastructure is sustainable because they see the sustainability angle from the environmental aspect. However, regarding social and economic aspects, it is not sustainable because it has technical problems while operating and has had to stop its use.

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The existing roads and bus transportation system need to be further improved to accommodate the increasing number of visitors to Port Dickson. This bus transportation should be comfortable so that tourists can reduce the use of private cars to reduce traffic congestion and vehicle smoke. Cultural traditions such as the Port Dickson beachside house printmaking need to be promoted and expanded beyond Port Dickson. This is because researchers found that visitors from outside are less familiar with this art unless they visit Port Dickson, stay in hotels and restaurants, and visit the area where it is displayed. The locals are also actively involved in tourism activities as many are traders, homestay operators, and tour guides. The friendliness of the residents, as well as their willingness to help tourists, is greatly appreciated. However, their communication in English needs to be further improved to attract international tourists. Cleanliness around Port Dickson is also good but needs to be improved in some areas because a few tourists are still dissatisfied with the current level of cleanliness. The Port Dickson Municipal Council (MPPD), the surrounding residents, and the tourists themselves must work together to maintain the cleanliness of the Port Dickson to maintain the excellent image of this city in the eyes of the world.

References Abdul Ghani KA, Aziah I (2007) Kesediaan memperkasa pendidikan pembangunan lestari oleh pengurus pendidikan sekolah: Satu kajian kes. Jurnal Pengurusan dan Kepimpinan Pendidikan 17(01):01–15 Abdul Rahman A (1997) Melaka bumi bersejarah. Dewan Budaya 19(7):34–35 Abdullah HO, Atshan N, Al-Abrrow H, Alnoor A, Valeri M, Erkol Bayram G (2022) The influence of leadership styles on sustainable organizational energy in the family business through modeling non-compensatory and nonlinear relationships. J Family Bus Manag. https://doi.org/10. 1108/JFBM-09-2022-0113 Baggio R, Valeri M (2020) Network science and sustainable performance of family businesses in tourism. J Family Bus Manag 12(2):200–213 Chamhuri S (2004) Pembangunan mapan strategi ‘menang-menang’untuk pembasmian kemiskinan dan pemuliharaan alam sekitar. Cetakan Ke-2. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi Choy EA (2013) Pembangunan pelancongan lestari di Melaka: Perspektif pelancong. Malay J Soc Space 11:12–23 Deb SK, Mohanty P, Valeri M (2022) Promoting family business in handicrafts through local tradition and culture: an innovative approach. J Family Bus Manag. https://doi.org/10.1108/ Jfbm-10-2021-0131 Ibrahim Y (2002) Dari samudera ke daratan: Transformasi sektor komuniti nelayan tradisi. Industrialisasi dan modenisasi di Malaysia dan Indonesia:125–136 Kementerian Pelancongan Malaysia (2007) Statistik Kedatangan Pelancong Kumar S, Valeri M, Shekhar (2021) Understanding the relationship among factors influencing rural tourism: a hierarchical approach. J Organ Change Manag 35(2):385–407 Melaka JASN (2000) Program pencegahan pencemaran dan peningkatan kualiti air sungai Melaka. Jabatan Alam Sekitar, Melaka Mohmadisa H, Mohamad Suhaily YCN (2010) Isu pembangunan pelancongan ekologi di Malaysia. In: Pembangunan dan alam sekitar di Malaysia. Penerbit UPSI, Tanjong Malim

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Morrison AJ, King BE (2002) Small tourism businesses and e-commerce: Victorian tourism online. Tour Hosp Res 4(2):104–115 Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan (2006–2010) Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan. Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Kuala Lumpur. Santos V, Ramos P, Sousa B, Almeida N, Valeri M (2021a) Factors influencing touristic consumer behavior. J Organ Change Manag. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-02-2021-0032 Santos V, Sousa B, Ramos P, Valeri M (2021b) Emotions and involvement in tourism settings. Curr Iss Tourism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1932769 Sousa B, Veloso C, Magalhães D, Walter C, Valeri M (2021) Encouraging consumer loyalty: the role of family business in hospitality. J Family Bus Manag. https://doi.org/10.1108/Jfbm-102021-0134 Swarbrooke J (1995) The development and management of visitor attractions. Heinemann Limited, Butterworth Valeri M, Baggio R (2020) Social network analysis: organisational implications in tourism management. Int J Organ Anal 29(2):342–353 WTO (2005) World Tourism Organization. www.worldtourism.org. Accessed 25 Dec 2021

Augmenting Family Businesses in Craft Tourism Through Entrepreneurial Skills Development Among Southern Africa Rural Women Godfrey Makandwa, Forbes Makudza, and Simbarashe Muparangi

1 Introduction Southern Africa rural communities are characterised by poverty and little development activities despite abundant tourism resources (natural and man-made). Saarinen and Rogerson (2015) opine that cultural tourism resources (traditions, customs, festivals, heritage, historic sites, and daily way of life) can be tapped to improve rural livelihoods. Saarinen (2016) acknowledges the potential for Southern African countries to develop family businesses in cultural tourism products in general and crafts tourism in particular. Studies on crafts tourism in Southern Africa focus on structural challenges faced by entrepreneurs (Rogerson 2010), craft markets (Saarinen 2016; Saayman et al. 2020), and craft routes (Rogerson and Rogerson 2011). The gendered dimension of family businesses and the entrepreneurship process that characterise the craft tourism market have thus been overlooked in literature (Valeri and Katsoni 2021). Although Camilleri and Valeri (2021) indicate that there is a growing interest among academia on research that is focused on small businesses in tourism and hospitality, there is a dearth of literature on how the craft entrepreneurs’ skills are shaped in family businesses, especially those that are managed by women. Scholarship reveals that craft tourism entrepreneurs require innovative and traditional skills; however, the study failed to illustrate how rural women in family businesses gain

G. Makandwa (*) Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure Sciences Department, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences, Mutare, Zimbabwe F. Makudza Business Enterprise and Management Department, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe S. Muparangi Applied Business Sciences Department, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences, Mutare, Zimbabwe © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Valeri (ed.), Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality, Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28053-5_2

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such skills (Makandwa et al. 2021; Muparangi and Makudza 2020; Abdullah et al. 2022). To close the aforementioned literature gap, this research unearths how entrepreneurs’ skills are developed and shaped by women in family businesses in Southern Africa rural communities. The study followed the assertion that entrepreneurship skills can be learnt and further developed (Chell 2013; Johnson et al. 2015). Thus, the study enjoys another unique contribution of extending the human capital theory to explain the acquisition and development of entrepreneurship skills among rural family businesses running craft tourism ventures in the established phase of the entrepreneurship process. Another exclusive contribution of this study is its ability to elevate female-managed craft family businesses thereby providing a voice for the marginalised rural women entrepreneurs. All this contributes to the already existing body of knowledge on craft tourism from both family business and feminine perspectives.

2 Literature Review 2.1

Craft Tourism

Crafts tourism relates to movement of tourists away from their usual place of residence in search of memorable and enriching experiences that result from interactions with indigenous way of living within the local environment (Rogerson and Rogerson 2011). It is an element of cultural tourism that represents sustainable tourism as local communities actively participate in the production and sale of crafts, and income earnings are spread into rural economies (Timothy and Nyaupane 2009). Rural tourism is understood as visits by tourist for recreational purposes on a farm or in rural areas and its environment (Kumar and Valeri 2021). Southern Africa countries are characterised with diverse traditions, ways of living, and each community has unique crafts as a part of local heritage and traditional artistry (Rogerson 2010). The crafts consist of home furnishings, curios, jewellery, and fashion accessories that are in the form of wood carvings, textiles, wire sculptures, basketry, and beadwork (Makandwa et al. 2022; Makhitha 2016). The purchase of these crafts represents an important shopping activity that tangibilises the tourists’ connections and experiences with the local community (Rogerson and Rogerson 2011). Globally, tourists spend 40% of their budget on purchasing craft-related products (Jain and Thakkar 2019), thereby making craft tourism an integral part of the mainstream tourism that enables local communities to earn income and empower rural women (Nyawo and Mubangizi 2015). Nonetheless, the craft tourism ventures in Southern Africa are informal, proprietary, and serve localised market (Makhitha 2016) which limits the benefits accrued by the local communities. A research that unmasks the development of the craft entrepreneurs’ skills facilitates the ventures’ growth, enables women to earn income, improves craft tourist experiences, and boosts rural economies (Jain and Thakkar 2019; Tripathi and Singh 2017).

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Family Business’ Entrepreneurial Skills and Rural Women Involvement

Globally, 70% of businesses are considered to be family businesses (Deb et al. 2022). Family business’ entrepreneurial skills are defined as the direct application of knowledge to complete family business’ tasks proficiently (Mamabolo and Myres 2020). They are multidimensional constructs that can be developed through training and practice and such nurturing of the family business’ entrepreneurial skills is crucial in boosting entrepreneurship outcomes (Aboobaker and Renjini 2020; Chell 2013; Johnson et al. 2015). The development of skills among women managing craft-tourism family ventures help them to utilise cultural tourism resources abundant in Southern Africa rural communities (Suich 2013). The entrepreneurship skills are acquired and applied throughout the entrepreneurship process thereby contributing to the overall family business’ performance as well as enhancing tourist experiences. Community-based tourism has facilitated the participation of rural populace in tourism activities and craft tourism entrepreneurship further promotes local families’ involvement (Runyowa 2017). Rural women have participated in tourism sectors by running informal ventures in familial sectors that include crafts and food (Panta and Thapa 2018) as they allow them to fulfil household obligations. This study analyses how women in craft-tourism family businesses in Zimbabwe’s Sengwe and South Africa’s Makuleke societies learn and improve their skills in entrepreneurship. The perception is that craft tourism business is a feasible venture which brings about economic rewards to rural communities amid declining agricultural output. Although the rural women have prior experience, the sustenance of tourism ventures is a culmination of the continuous development of entrepreneurship skills (Ahl et al. 2017). This results in improvements in productivity and ability to meet tourists demands (Sajjad et al. 2020). From this perspective, studies on entrepreneurship skills development have focused on formal education (Abraham et al. 2012; Akhmetshin 2019; Yliverronen et al. 2016), and Katre (2020) only considers selfdirected learning as one aspect that facilitates the development of skills among craft entrepreneurs. This brings the need to understand how rural women in family businesses acquire and develop entrepreneurial skills that they utilise to sustain their craft tourism ventures in the face of a myriad of challenges that characterise rural contexts. The human capital theory underpins this research based on the practical assumption that established craft entrepreneurs’ skill sets can be improved. Human capital consists of skills and knowledge that are acquired over time through education, tacit processes, and experience (Mamabolo and Myres 2020; Širec and Močnik 2012). Most studies (Aboobaker and Renjini 2020; Marvel et al. 2016; Meccheri and Pelloni 2006) have focused on the influence of human capital elements on performance of firms. Only Adom and Asare-yeboa (2016) have managed to link categories of entrepreneurship skills to human capital elements, albeit in the context of Ghana. This research specifically focuses on the development of entrepreneurship

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skills in family-owned craft tourism in Southern Africa, a geographical context that has been overlooked. In light of the foregoing, and guided by the human capital theory, the current study examines how education, tacit processes, and genetics influence the development and acquisition of entrepreneurship skills among rural women entrepreneurs involved in craft tourism.

2.2.1

Education

Akhmetshin (2019) indicates that entrepreneurship education can be acquired through either formal education or educational courses. Marshall and Samal (2006) note that entrepreneurs’ level of education, if well utilised can result in improved venture performance. The same sentiments were supported by Rosa (2019) who further argues that education of entrepreneurs has an impact on the performance of Ugandan manufacturing firms. Conversely, Tumwine et al. (2014) discovered that individuals with higher educational levels were promoting corporate entrepreneurship. However, the study failed to link individual entrepreneurial efficacy with education level and family business management. Although Boldureanu et al. (2020) acknowledge that education positively influences the acquisition and development of entrepreneurial skills, they conclude that consensus has not been reached on whether education stimulates entrepreneurship attitudes in family businesses. This research sought to understand the forms of education that facilitate the acquisition of skills among women spearheaded family businesses involved in craft tourism in rural contexts and characterised by high illiteracy levels. Rosa (2019) study on productivity and entrepreneurship of craftsmen discovered that education alone cannot result in entrepreneurial behaviour without entrepreneurial spirit. There ought to be an entrepreneurial spirit in order for education to have any significant effect. However, Amin (2018) interrogated the nature of education itself and concluded that education which is entrepreneurial in nature can result in risk-taking behaviour as well as opportunity taking. Hence, in this case, education was discovered to be directly related to entrepreneurial behaviour for family businesses. Marshall and Samal (2006) in Indonesia discovered that education level had much impact on entrepreneurial behaviour of urban dwellers as compared to rural dwellers. While Hahn et al. (2019) focussed on the influence of education level on entrepreneurial behaviour inside firms, there is need to isolate the influence of education on family’s entrepreneurial behaviour. Hence, this study focuses on education as an entrepreneurial skills acquisition and development variable on rural family businesses championed by women entrepreneurs in craft tourism ventures. The following research question was thus stated for analysis: RQ1: Does formal education influence entrepreneurial skills acquisition and development of rural women in craft-tourism family businesses?

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Tacit Processes

A study by Tumwine et al. (2014) revealed that an individual’s experience if relevant to an organisation can lead to improved performance. Experienced employees were discovered to exhibit opportunistic behaviour. In terms of family businesses, Marshall and Samal (2006) discovered that most start-up entrepreneurs establish businesses in line with their previous family experiences and exposures. However, Amin (2018) noted that in most societies, women are not given opportunities to explore and attain working experience which can be used as a family entrepreneurial antecedent. This view was dismissed by Unger et al. (2011) who argued that experience does not only account to formal employment but exposure to various activities such as household work as well as day-to-day activities in a society. This assertion was also supported by Kuechle (2019) who figured out that traditionally, members of the society would impart skills on young family members and they would use these in future entrepreneurial endeavours. While the reviewed studies concur that tacit processes shape entrepreneurial skills, there is a need to find out if tacit processes can shape rural women family businesses’ entrepreneurship skills. The study therefore sought to answer the following research question: RQ2: Do tacit processes influence entrepreneurial skills acquisition and development of rural women in craft-tourism family businesses?

2.2.3

Genetics

Genetics relates to the biological factors that influence one’s ability to acquire and develop entrepreneurial skills (Nicolaou and Shane 2009). Kuechle (2019) discovered that genetics are correlated with entrepreneurial activities and influence individual differences like extraversion and internal locus of control. The study discovered that entrepreneurial efficacy is inheritable from family members and Dastan et al. (2016) discovered that between 37 and 42% of the variance in the tendency of people to engage in entrepreneurship was accounted for by genetic factors. The influence of genetics in as far as entrepreneurship is concerned was supported by Zhang et al. (2009) who noted that genes play crucial role in family entrepreneurial behaviour by influencing individual traits such as extraversion and neuroticism. Nicolaou and Shane (2009) argue that neuroticism can decrease the risk-taking propensity of individuals while extraversion shapes adaptations that increase the preferences for entrepreneurial exit. The level of innovation of entrepreneurs can be a genetic inheritance which can be explained by the innovativeness of other family members, especially parents and grandparents (Muparangi and Makudza 2020; Shekhar et al. 2021). Dastan et al. (2016) further discovered that extraversion mediated shared-environmental influences on men’s tendency to become entrepreneurs. Camilleri and Valeri (2021) also highlighted the role of

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resilience in family businesses as they strive to remain viable throughout generations. In light of the foregoing discussion, the study wanted to explore the role of genetics in family’s entrepreneurial development of rural women entrepreneurs managing craft-tourism family ventures. Therefore, the following research question was presented for exploration: RQ3: Do genetics influence entrepreneurial skills acquisition and development of rural women in craft-tourism family business?

2.3

Conceptualising Entrepreneurial Skills Acquisition and Development in Family Businesses

Efforts have been made to identify the elements of the human capital theory (Markley and Low 2012), list the entrepreneurship skills crucial for family venture success (Chell 2013; Johnson et al. 2015; Sadera et al. 2019), and identify contextual factors that influence family venture activities (Welter 2011). Nonetheless, the impact of human capital elements on the development of family entrepreneurship skills differs with regions and overtime at the same region. Previous researches that focused on the development of entrepreneurship skills in rural contexts (Adeyemo 2009; Tripathi and Singh 2017) overlooked the feminine dimension and the multiphase nature of the entrepreneurship process. Studies that focused on identifying entrepreneurship skills (Hatthakijphong and Ting 2019; Meyer and Synodinos 2019; Morgan et al. 2010; Phelan and Sharpley 2012; Pyysiäinen et al. 2006; Sadera et al. 2019; Sousa and Almeida 2015) did not acknowledge how family businesses acquired and developed entrepreneurial skills. More recent studies (Akhmetshin 2019; Boldureanu et al. 2020) focused on the development of entrepreneurship skills among students. From this perspective, previous studies neglected the niche area of entrepreneurial skills acquisition and development among rural family businesses managed by women, a gap which this study closes. The uniqueness of this research lies in explaining how elements of the human capital theory influence the development of rural entrepreneurship’s skills and sustain established craft-tourism family ventures. Such an analysis is done while acknowledging the impact of contextual factors on the acquisition and development of entrepreneurship skills (Mamabolo and Myres 2020) and venture activities that are pursued (Javadian and Singh 2012). In this case, rural women have been participating in tourism activities as sources of labour and livelihood for the family. The human capital elements that influence the development of entrepreneurship skills acquisition and development are summarised in Fig. 1. The associations in Fig. 1 depict the human capital elements that influence the acquisition and development of family entrepreneurship skills. The study posits that formal education, tacit processes, and genetics play a crucial role in the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills. The development of family entrepreneurial ventures and the

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Human Capital Elements

Education Tacit processes Genetics

Entrepreneurial skills acquisition & development -Family skills -Technical skills -Management skills

Fig. 1 The conceptual variables of the study

extent of influence among rural women are unknown. The acquisition of entrepreneurial skills enables family businesses to find ways to solve the challenges that they face and achieve positive venture outcomes; craft entrepreneurs are no exception. Apostolopoulos et al. (2018) revealed that the development of skills among rural family businesses has concentrated on agricultural activities and this study sought to reveal how family businesses involved in craft tourism, a service-oriented activity, have developed their skill sets.

3 Methods The study targeted family businesses led by women and were engaged in craft tourism. The Sengwe (Zimbabwe) and Makuleke (South Africa) communities were chosen because of the family business’ involvement in the Great Limpopo Trans-Frontier Park (GLTP), the largest trans-boundary conservation initiative in Southern Africa (Spenceley 2005). The GLTP has one of the most visited national parks, that is, the Kruger National Park, South Africa, and most tourists complement the nature visits with trips to local communities in search of authentic cultural experiences. This positions craft tourism and family business to receive direct income from the tourists through the sale of handicrafts (Rogerson and Rogerson 2011) while local craft production represents a significant component of sustainable tourism (Timothy and Nyaupane 2009). An exploratory research design was employed for this study as it provides insight experiences and perceptions of rural family businesses led by women. The participants were women entrepreneurs managing craft-tourism family businesses in the targeted communities. Participants were identified using the snowballing technique. A semi-structured interview guide translated to Shangaan (the dominant language) was used to collect data in both communities. The interview guide enabled the researchers to gather data relating to participants’ demographic profiles, venture characteristics, participants’ experiences that depict the development of entrepreneurial skills, and how the entrepreneurial skills were applied. The personal interviews were complemented with participant observation which helped to identify the

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application of the entrepreneurial skills either during product development or during interactions with tourists.

4 Findings 4.1

Demographic Attributes of Rural Women in Craft-Tourism Family Businesses

All the participants revealed that they have acquired only primary education and have never been formally employed elsewhere. Apart from crafting, the participants revealed that other sources of livelihoods include subsistence farming. Four participants received government grants in the Makuleke community, and eight participants indicated that they receive remittances from their husbands and/or children working in the cities. The average participants’ age was 45 years. 85% of the participants were married while 10% were widowed and 5% divorced.

4.2

Nature of Craft Tourism Ventures

All the participants indicated that they established their craft tourism ventures between 1998 and 2010. They attributed venture establishment during this period to assistance (technical, financial, and retailing) received from non-governmental organisations. None of the ventures are formally registered or belong to tourism associations. The dominant handicrafts produced by the women entrepreneurs in family businesses are beadwork (necklaces, bracelets, and souvenirs) and only two participants in the Sengwe community made ilala hats, decorated clay pots, and reed mats. Although the participants produce their handicrafts at their family homesteads, they sell them to tourists at the Makuleke Cultural Centre (MCC) for Makuleke family businesses; and model villages (Avuxeni village and Chiredzi Craft Centre) for the Sengwe family businesses. All the participants ‘employ’ not more than five people, mainly their children, friends, and relatives whose duties are limited to supportive roles that include sourcing raw materials, sale of crafts, and assisting with household tasks.

4.3

Entrepreneurship Skills Acquisition and Development

Guided by the conceptual model and research objectives, the study analysed the role of education, tacit processes, and genetics on entrepreneurship skills acquisition and development. The findings are presented in the following subsections.

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Education

The study’s findings revealed that all the participants acquired basic primary education. The elementary education they got enabled them to be partially literate as they can count monies for themselves and communicate partially with foreigners. All the participants revealed it was the attendance of short courses and workshops organised by non-governmental organisations that improved their oral communication skills, bookkeeping skills, and financial management skills. The study findings are in sync with Akhmetshin’s (2019) conclusions that short courses provide certain knowledge that facilitate the acquisition and development of entrepreneurial skills of small family businesses. One participant explained that they were taught how to record daily transactions, basic numeracy skills, and English oral communication skills in most of the workshops they attended. The entrepreneurs’ participation in training and workshop programmes thus improved their record keeping, numeracy, and oral communication skills. Such skills sustain craft tourism ventures. For example, improvements in English enable the entrepreneurs in family businesses to communicate with international tourists and domestic tourists not conversant with the Shangaan language. This supports Lashgarara et al.’s (2011) assertion that workshops and short courses improve entrepreneurship education. Evidence from the study revealed that participants obtained technical assistance from the non-governmental organisations during the formative years of their ventures (between 1998 and 2010). Such support concentrated on product development, communication skills, and numeracy skills. These skills are crucial during the early stages of family business establishment. Nonetheless, Mamabolo and Myres (2020) assert that entrepreneurship process is characterised by phases and each stage requires different entrepreneurial skill sets. In this instance, entrepreneurs in the established phase require more marketing skills to improve performance of their family businesses (Gieure et al. 2020; Jones and Coviello 2005). The participants lack the marketing skills as highlighted by the charging of uniform prices for the same product and for both domestic and international tourists, and lack of promotional activities. Furthermore, the market for the handicrafts has largely remained localised with the exception of 20% of the participants in the Sengwe community who participate in festivals and events organised within their district. The researchers attributed the lack of marketing skills and technological skills to the lack of academic education among the participants. On the other hand, access to formal education within the case communities improved over the years. This is evidenced by the completion of new schools (primary and secondary school, Makuleke community) and donations of bicycles to pupils travelling long distances in the Sengwe community (Hlengwa and Maruta 2019; Shehab 2011). The dominance of the old women (average age—43) in the craft tourism sector indicates that formal education has limited impact on the acquisition and development of entrepreneurship skills. The development of handicrafts is characterised by the application of traditional-knowledge systems (Panta

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and Thapa 2018). The educated young women shun this sector in pursuit of other economic opportunities. From this perspective, formal educational attainment results in both sectorial and physical mobility thus, negatively affecting the acquisition and development of entrepreneurship skills among young women. As such, Markley and Low (2012) indicate that the lack of development that characterises rural areas limits economic opportunities which precipitates mobility to urban areas. The designing of crafts and beadwork could be a pastime activity which the formally educated women could have participated in, if they were formally employed within the case communities.

4.3.2

Tacit Processes

Respondents indicated that some of their family business skills were improved by their previous experiences, observations, and imitations. The majority of the family businesses which were interviewed consented that beadwork is valuable to the Shangaan family businesses. That informs the need to teach girls on how to make necklaces from a tender age. One participant regarded crafting as a ‘family asset’ that cuts across their generations. In this case, the participants’ family experiences during their teenage years positively influenced the development of their technical skills. Another participant acknowledges accompanying her grandmother to purchase the beads and the training she received from a family friend influenced her ability to produce unique necklace designs. All the same, another participant revealed that her family could not afford to buy necklaces for herself, which prompted her to observe how skilled entrepreneurs made their necklaces. Thus, personal observations helped her to imitate and produce own necklaces and headbands. This supports Katre’s (2020) conclusions that craft tourism entrepreneurs improve their technical skills through self-evaluation of their daily experiences. Conversely, a related study by Rogerson and Rogerson (2011) concluded that the desire of family businesses to support their family members in challenging contexts lead them to take the responsibility of improving their skills. Craft-tourism family business is a form of community-based tourism that offers marginalised women with a means to earn income, uplift their sense of dignity and well-being (Timothy and Nyaupane 2009). The personal experiences of women in family businesses facilitated the development of technical skills which enable them to redesign their handicrafts to meet tourists’ expectations. The majority of the participants also acknowledged that they made use of business management skills they gained from other entrepreneurial initiatives. One participant in the Sengwe community who runs a food operations venture explained that her oral communication skills (ability to communicate in multiple indigenous languages) were a result of her daily interactions with customers at the food establishment. She applies the multilingual skills mainly during festivals when selling her crafts. This shows that the social interactions of women in family businesses positively influence the development of communication skills. Consequently, Toutain et al. (2017) explain that the process of developing

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entrepreneurship skills is a collective process that is shaped by interactions between the entrepreneur and the environment. In addition, the majority of the participants concur that their previous personal experiences also shaped the development of their planning skills. For instance, they make use of previous sales in preparation of future participation in the same events. Evidence from the study also shows that rural women in family businesses have prior experience. For example, they had prior experience in participating in festivals where the necklaces and bracelets were part and parcel of their dressing. The entrepreneurs apply such knowledge to improve tourist experiences as the craft displays and guests’ interactions are part of the craft tourism product. The internship and mentorship offered by the elderly women to teenagers feed the entrepreneurs’ learning and development of craft skills, which boost creativity and improvements of product designs. Two of the participants in the Sengwe community revealed that their participation in the Great Limpopo Cultural Festival, held annually in Chiredzi, broadened their networks. One participant in particular, boasts that she now has individuals in Chiredzi town who sell curios on her behalf. From this perspective, the participation of women in family businesses in events held at district level improved their social networking skills. Unlike wise, craft entrepreneurs in the Makuleke community’s social networks have been limited to family, and a few external agencies introduced to them by the Makuleke Community Property Association. This clearly illustrate that the participants’ experiences (attending events) influenced the development of their social networking skills. The entrepreneurs’ participation in the events has positively influenced the development of new markets. On the other hand, the researchers realised that the participants’ lack of exposure in national events influenced their ability to develop new products, new production methods, that is being innovative. Etiosa (2012) highlighted that hosting of events is one way of ensuring the exchange of entrepreneurship experiences and the entrepreneurs also get feedback on the tourists’ needs. This improves the family business’ technical skills as they redesign their handicrafts to meet the market demands. The competitive nature of craft displays made during events stimulates innovativeness and creativity among the entrepreneurs.

4.3.3

Genetics

The interactions with the participants revealed that there are some entrepreneurship skills that are inborn. The participants’ creativeness and innovativeness without formal education highlights that such entrepreneurship skills are a result of a particular individual’s genes. For example, one participant indicated that craft skills were their family’s trade which was passed on through generations to her. The researchers noted that the participants’ creativity included their ability to extend the beadwork (culturally regarded as part and parcel of women dressing), to meet tourists’ needs for souvenirs, and design handicrafts that enable the tourists to

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associate the products with the place (for example, designs that depict the South African flag). Although participants did not have formal education, that did not detract them from venturing into craft tourism which proves that their inner drive to run the crafttourism family ventures was an inborn trait. Thus, the craft tourism ventures’ success is a result of the respondents’ personal skills (creativity, innovation, inner drive, and self-confidence). Essentially, the researchers observed that the creation of crafts is a creative process involving the transformation of visual ideas into material forms that have aesthetic, decorative, utilitarian, and culturally attached values. All the same, not all craft entrepreneurs in the targeted communities are involved in tourism. Informal conservations revealed that some craft producers have stopped serving the tourism market, an indication that personality skills alone do not lead to family venture success. One participant reinforces this by asserting that she ‘employs’ her daughter to sell the crafts during exhibitions since she has good selling skills. As such craft-tourism family business is a social activity and genetic factors only complement contextual stimuli to engage in this activity (Nicolaou and Shane 2009). Evidence from the study support Javadian and Singh’s (2012) assertion that risktaking is an inherent trait of an entrepreneur’s personality. Most family business entrepreneurs attribute their ability to sustain their ventures to risk-taking skills. Some of the respondents indicated that they devoted all their household earnings (from agriculture and remittances) towards the purchase of beads in preparation of festivals (Sengwe) and anticipation of group tourists (Makuleke). Such financial risks have enabled them to meet the tourists’ demand for crafts both as souvenirs and curios that enhance their knowledge regarding the Shangani culture. Most of respondents also attributed their success to their ability to take advantage of the tourism market despite its unpredictability. In this case, the demand for craft products mainly by international tourists is unanticipated. One participant in the Makuleke community revealed that they receive the majority of group travellers from the lodges in the Makuleke Contractual Park and Kruger National Park. The lodges notify them of the tourists’ intended visit at very short notice. Despite such spontaneous demand and unpredictability of the tourism demand, the family business entrepreneurs continue to serve this market, an indication of reduced fear of failure. On the other hand, the entrepreneurs’ risk-taking abilities are influenced by culture. Notably, women who run family businesses in the Makuleke community revealed that they have to rely on the middlemen recommended by the traditional authority and cannot hold private conversations with male middlemen on such social media platforms as WhatsApp as their husbands might view them as promiscuous. In addition, participants in the Sengwe community attributed their failure to participate in national exhibitions to the fact that no one would take care of their children during their absence. These cultural barriers not only stifle the risk-taking abilities of the family businesses but impact the development of other entrepreneurial skills such as marketing, social networking, and communication skills.

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5 Limitations of the Study The study faced a limitation that it used the human capital theory elements in examining the acquisition and development of entrepreneurial skills of women in family businesses. Estrin et al. (2016) argue that the study of entrepreneurship is beyond rational calculations of the human capital theory. However, confining the study elements to the human capital theory enabled the study to be more specific. The researchers also considered the aspects of rurality and gender to complement the human capital theory in explaining how craft tourism entrepreneurs acquire and develop their entrepreneurial skills. The study only focused on the Sengwe and Makuleke communities and the generalisations of the study results to other Southern Africa communities are constrained by the differences in contextual factors that include government policies, community traditions, and geography. All the same, the concentrated nature of the case study facilitates in-depth probing of how rural women in family businesses acquire and develop their craft tourism skills. The bias towards the experiences and opinions of rural women entrepreneurs adds to craft tourism literature, the indigenous knowledge and narratives of the marginalised yet active economic group in the informal economy in rural contexts.

6 Conclusions and Limitations The female entrepreneurs in family businesses produced crafts of different sizes and designs, and the venture characteristics are also different. This led the researchers to conclude that differences in entrepreneurship outcome are a result of different combinations of skill sets inherent among female entrepreneurs. Dominant ways that have facilitated the development of technical skills were peer-to-peer mentorship, while management skills were improved through the entrepreneur’s participation in training workshops. Oral communication was improved by regular interaction with tourists. The researchers also concluded that the development of entrepreneurship skills among rural women entrepreneurs was mainly influenced by innate capacities, training, self-directed learning and experience. The low literacy levels that characterise the case communities coupled with the creative and artistic nature of the production of crafts have resulted in the development of family business’ skills using tacit processes. The technical aspects of the production of beadwork are viewed as traditional skills which facilitate their development using tacit processes. The study contributes to research on family business and craft tourism entrepreneurship by explaining the acquisition and development of entrepreneurship skills in rural contexts from a feminine dimension. An analysis of the female tourism entrepreneurship using both the human capital theory and categories of entrepreneurial skills highlights the need to acknowledge the impact of tacit processes in

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shaping entrepreneurial behaviour. Researchers noted that the development of entrepreneurship skills enables rural women in family businesses to find ways of dealing with structural challenges they face, meet tourist demands, and achieve desired venture outcomes. The improvements of the entrepreneurship skills enable family businesses to balance their artistic vision, cultural acceptance, and tourist demands. This can be considered as a problem-solving process and craft entrepreneurship skills represent know-how that is combined with knowledge and thinking. The development of entrepreneurship skills in women family businesses can further be analysed by future researchers using adult learning theories. There is also a need to examine the role of financial support and expertise that may further improve the family business’ entrepreneurship skills. The study also encourages future researchers to quantitatively test the results presented in this study so as to validate the robustness of the human capital theory in enhancing entrepreneurial skills acquisition and development. The researchers recommend the need to avail technical and financial assistance to the entrepreneurs that is aimed at improving their marketing skills. Such assistance includes training them on how to promote their products using social media platforms. Local authorities may also offer free advertising space on their websites, flyers, and banners for the craft producers to display their products.

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Innovation Driving Factors in Tourism Family Business: A Theoretical Approach Beatriz Adriana López-Chávez

1 Introduction Tourism has adapted in different spheres, driven by changes in the new century’s economic, political, and social context, stimulated by innovations from abroad (Hjalager 2015). Currently, the industry is trying to overcome the crises and adversities that diverse exogenous factors present (Chemli et al. 2020; Toanoglou et al. 2022; Valeri 2022); therefore, studying innovation driving factors for tourism enterprises remains crucial. The innovation concept emerges in the theoretical literature of economic development focused on the industrial sector (Schumpeter 1934). However, the first contributions in the service sector appeared in the late 90s, which is why authors (Hjalager 2010; Carvhalo and Costa 2011) show the theoretical framework deficiency for its academic approach, and it is accentuated when it comes to innovation applied to the hospitality and tourism sector. According to the diverse contributions (Álvarez et al. 2008; Crossan and Apaydin 2010; Delgado et al. 2016; Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015; Weiermair 2004), tourism innovation is understood as the ability of tourism companies to adapt in changing environments through the adoption or production of added value both in the economic and social spheres, in the process and the result, in order to achieve sustainability over time and provide experiences to tourists. Thus, innovation is crucial for developing tourism destinations and companies (Hjalager 2010; Pikkemaat et al. 2019). However, according to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the sector has low innovative performance (UNWTO 2017). Since the companies are mostly small and medium family-owned, there is

B. A. López-Chávez (*) Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Avenida Leonismo Internacional Frac, Antiguo Aeropuerto, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, México e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Valeri (ed.), Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality, Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28053-5_3

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a lack organisational knowledge and training; and the product’s destination is fragmented due to the poor coordination among different supplier organisations. Some studies (Delgado et al. 2016; Gomezelj 2016; Pikkemaat et al. 2019) point out that innovation in tourism is a topic that has been increasing in recent years, with a great variety of topics emerging, although some topics lack attention, such as those focused on family-owned businesses (Arcese et al. 2020; Baggio and Valeri 2020; Camilleri and Valeri 2021; Shekhar et al. 2021; López-Chávez et al. 2021; Pikkemaat et al. 2019). Family businesses make up 80% and 90% of the world economy (González and Olivié 2018). In the tourism sector, their participation is prominent (Getz and Carlsen 2005; Hjalager 2002). Its composition differs from other companies in terms of participation in management and control and aspects of meaning related to the intention to remain long term through different generations (Chua et al. 1999; San Martín and Durán 2017). Integrating family and business systems in tourism has shown a different dynamic from other industries (Kallmuenzer and Peters 2018). For example, they can strengthen cooperation ties in destinations (Deb et al. 2022; Harms et al. 2015; Kallmuenzer and Peters 2018; Peters and Kallmuenzer 2015; Banki and Ismail 2015) and the positioning of companies through the generation of experiences in tourists (Pikkemaat and Zehrer 2016; Presas et al. 2011, 2014; Veloso et al. 2021). Nevertheless, more studies are necessary regarding innovation because the family component is another element that intervenes in this process (Kallmuenzer 2018), necessary for the long-term development of this type of organisation. The present document aims to carry out a theoretical approach to analyse the innovation driving factors of family-owned tourism companies as an innovative research method. Based on a literature review, the main subcategories that support the relationship between the categories proposed in this document are identified. The paper is structured in four sections. First, methodology explains how the systematic literature review is conducted; subsequently, a theoretical section describes contributions to theory and presents the institutionalism perspective as the integrative paradigm. After that, innovation driving factors of tourism familyowned organisations are exposed to identify their main subcategories and propose an analytical framework for their study. Finally, the conclusions set out some considerations for its application.

2 Methodology This paper follows an investigation synthesis method named systematic review, which identifies critical contributions to a discipline through an organised, clear, and impartial methodology (Tranfield et al. 2003). Tourism and hospitality are complex and relatively young field, where these methods are helpful in exposing knowledge advances and gaps (Ustunel et al. 2021).

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Fig. 1 PRISMA flowchart of the selection process

A systematic search was conducted in Scopus to analyse the innovation driving factors of the tourism business because it is one of the largest hosts of quality scientific content. The search terms were “innovation” AND “driver OR determinant” AND “tourism” the search objective included all types of tourism companies due to the low number of documents focused on drivers of innovation in familyowned businesses. The inclusion criteria were articles published from 2010 to 2022. Also, other essential documents were integrated before that rank of time. Figure 1 shows the PRISMA flowchart of the selection process. According to Moher et al. (2009), it is a helpful tool for systematic review in the identification and selection phase. Following the systematic review process, the next stage implies information classification and organisation to analyse and compare data. Document information such as author name, title, publication year, country, and methodology are identified, as well as the content of theoretical basis, sector or typology of tourism, findings, and categories. Finally, the qualitative synthesis is carried out in the last phase, where contributions and knowledge gaps are discussed.

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3 Theoretical Framework Among the theories used to study the innovation driving factors for tourism companies, some stand out for their contribution to the understanding of the phenomenon from a knowledge based-view (Nieves and Diaz-Meneses 2018; Nieves et al. 2014; Hoarau-Heemstra and Eide 2019), the resource based-view (Zach 2012; Asadi et al. 2020; Halawani et al. 2020), the strategic innovation theory (Pikkemaat et al. 2018; Grisseman et al. 2013), and the innovative behaviour (Najda-Janoszka and Kopera 2014; Orfila-Sintes and Mattsson 2009; Sundbo et al. 2007). Besides, for a family business, socioemotional wealth provides a frame to integrate emotional and social aspects (Kallmuenzer 2018). The knowledge-based view theory grew out of the resource-based view and proposes that knowledge provides a differentiating resource for competitive advantage (Nieves et al. 2014). Knowledge is embedded in the individual’s minds, organisational structures, routines, processes, and social relationships with external entities (Nieves and Diaz-Meneses 2018; Nieves et al. 2014). In these theories, the unique combination of inimitable resources determines success (Asadi et al. 2020). For example, the tourism industry’s resources can be physical, human, and organisational (Halawani et al. 2020). Strategic innovation theory is related to the innovative behaviour of tourism firms. Useful for study the innovation from the micro to the macro-level (Sundbo et al. 2007), strategic innovation postulates that market orientation, which includes market saturation, customer orientation, networks, and internal resources, determines firm innovation (Grisseman et al. 2013; Pikkemaat et al. 2018). Thus, the actor’s strategic behaviour and resources are fundamental for innovation development through key drivers. Both lines of theories are subscribed to a comprehensive paradigm. Innovation literature emerges in neoclassical economic theory focusing on actors’ rationality, business efficiency, and control. The family business studies in tourism have shown that not all entrepreneurs focus on economic growth (Andersson et al. 2002; Ollenburg and Buckley 2007; López-Chávez and Maldonado-Alcudia 2022; Peters and Kallmuenzer 2015) since other motivations related to social, emotions, and lifestyle aspects are crucial for its long-term vision. That is why the need to approach its study from a paradigm that considers economic, cultural, social, and other aspects arising from broad structures in interaction with the actor’s agency capacity in decision-making. This perspective is given by Institutionalism in its sociological aspect (Alvarado 2003; Giddens 2006; Meyer and Rowan 1977; Powel and Dimaggio 2001; Rivas 2003). According to Del Castillo (1996, cited in Alvarado 2003), Institutionalism observes how individuals establish behavioural processes and share their interpretations. It has various aspects such as economic, political, and social. Its fundamental postulate rejects the idea of neoclassical theory about rational decision-making to obtain the most significant possible benefit; in this sense, the behaviour and interactions of individuals are influenced by institutional forces derived from the cultural,

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economic, and political context. Thus, the economic man gives rise to the social man. Social Institutionalism has its roots in sociological theory; the authors (Powel and Dimaggio 2001) refer to Giddens and Bourdieu to talk about the theory of practical action, also taking up some questions from Parson’s theory, which is based on contributions to the understanding of the social world, of the relationship between the structures and the actor’s agency capacity. Rivas (2003) sustains that sociological Institutionalism emphasises structures, rules, and procedures that influence relationships, behaviours, stability and instability, and the production and reproduction of society. Meyer and Rowan (1977) say that institutionalisation involves dynamics in social interactions, obligations, or realities that come to take the status of rules in social thought and action. Thus, institutionalisation is the process by which daily actions acquire a status of a norm and are established as usual and unquestionable. Giddens (2006) speaks specifically of the duality of structure, referring to the existing relationship between actors and structure, which is both a means and a result of repeatedly organised practices. The structure is understood as the rules and resources organised recursively and characterised by the subject’s absence. The social systems in which the structure implicitly includes activities of human agents carried out in a time and space; structuring is the conditions that govern the continuity or transmutation of structures and, consequently, the reproduction of social systems (Giddens 2006). Thus, studying structuring analyses how structures’ rules and resources are produced and reproduced in actors’ interactions. For Giddens (2006), agents and structures are not separated. Thus, they do not form a dualism but represent a duality (Giddens 2006). In this sense, it explains that the structures and actors do not interact independently, nor that one is decisive over the other permanently, but instead that the actor has the possibility of generating changes, of building and rebuilding in their activities. Sociological Institutionalism has contributed to the analysis of organisational change. Among the most important discoveries, at the end of the last century, it has been found that the organisational dynamics are affected by external forces of the institutionalised environment; therefore, organisations see the need to develop structures and behaviours that allow them to overcome these forces. In addition, it has been recognised that organisations tend to deviate from their formal mission when carrying out structural changes to adapt to the institutional context. In this way, it is evidenced that the organisation has a symbolic dimension, expressed in the form of formal rules and procedures and informal institutions that are institutionalised and tend to be incompatible with organisational efficiency and the adequate performance of tasks (Alvarado 2003). Thus, sociological Institutionalism observes how the action is structured, and order is made possible through shared systems of rules that simultaneously limit the author’s capacity to optimise (Dimaggio and Powel 2001). Therefore, from this paradigm, it is possible to understand how and in what way people institute behaviours as usual, which may or may not contribute to the objectives, but they are

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establishing changes at the organisational level. In this sense, positive changes for the organisation can be identified as innovations. Under this line of thought, from an explicit perspective, organisational change, known as the vision of the institutionalisation of change (Barba 2001), is understood as a collective process based on innovative reflexivity within the framework of interorganisational relationships. In this vision, the external context is considered a central element, and it is not enough to improve internal procedures; what is sought is the participation and commitment of the group. For this, it is necessary to make structures more flexible, reduce the distance from power, and incorporate change as an institutional process to face environmental and competing organisations’ transformations (Barba 2001). According to the authors, there are forces in the environment of organisations that drive the need to make changes in them (Valeri 2021; Daft 2011). Such as technological advances, global economic integration, maturity of markets in developed countries, and the fall of socialist regimes. Consequently, organisations change their structures, forms, and culture; they manage and plan with information and improve quality programmes (Valeri 2021; Daft 2011). So, organisational change occurs when an organisation adopts a new idea or behaviour. Organisational changes can be seen as innovations (Daft 2011). From the institutional point of view, the coordination between the organisation’s behaviour at the individual level, and the influence of external factors, specifically in the innovation of the tourism sector (Sundbo et al. 2007). Tourism is a social practice that has gained significant relevance in the development of capitalism. Its economic preeminence is undeniable, and the diverse implications are both positive and negative at a cultural, political, and environmental level. Moreover, according to the authors, this activity’s complex interactions can influence their companies’ performance (Andreu et al. 2018). Organisations operating in this field interact with various factors beyond their internal limits. How are the market to which they are directed (tourists), the institutional framework that gives political and economic guidelines of the activity at different levels, and a set of industry actors such as competitors, intermediary agencies, and suppliers, among others that are related indirectly (Álvarez et al. 2008; Morales and Hernández 2011; Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015; Sundbo et al. 2007). Table 1 shows in the columns the two axes considered by the institutionalist vision of organisations and the elements observed within the tourist field from the second row. In other words, the overall structures with which organisations in the tourism field interact are national and international markets, travel intermediary agencies, transport, competitors, and business associations; in addition to the institutions and tourism policy; and information and communication technologies, which may contain specific organisations such as Morales and Hernández (2011) describe it in detail. Consequently, the institutionalist perspective for innovation in tourism organisations highlights the constant interaction between companies (Owners and family) management with economic, social, cultural, political, and technological elements of

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Table 1 The institutionalist vision in tourism organisations Institutionalism Structures Social Economic Cultural Political Technological and Natural environment Agency Actors

Tourism organisations International and national tourists Transport Travel agencies Competitors Business associations Tourism policy and institutions New technologies Business owners and family involvement

Source: Own elaboration based on authors (Álvarez et al. 2008; Morales and Hernández 2011; Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015; Sundbo et al. 2007)

tourism as a practice of contemporary society. That is, actor agencies collaborating in the company and external actors and structures characterise the sector.

4 Innovation Driving Factors in Tourism Family-Owned Organisations Innovation in tourism is taken up from the service sector because the product is the service’s process (Sundbo et al. 2007). Here, essential elements stand out, such as the market experiences, the creation of added value, management redirected towards new products, quality, and profitability (Álvarez et al. 2008; Delgado et al. 2016; Weiermair 2004). Under this vision, tourism innovation is a strategic tool to achieve long-term growth (Pikkemaat et al. 2019); therefore, it is one of the essential constituents influencing companies’ performance (Crossan and Apaydin 2010; Verreyne et al. 2019). However, the limited empirical knowledge of the innovation driving factors in the tourism sector is an obstacle to developing strategies (Divisekera and Nguyen 2018a; Nieves et al. 2014). Of the studies analysed, most of them focus on drivers for innovation (Arcese et al. 2020; Beshr and Hossan 2018; Divisekera and Nguyen 2018b; Elmo et al. 2020; Hoarau-Heemstra and Eide 2019; Jiménez-Zarco et al. 2011; Kallmuenzer 2018; Liu and Cheng 2018; Nordli 2018; Pikkemaat et al. 2018; Razumova et al. 2015; Tsai 2017) rather than determinants (Divisekera and Nguyen 2018a; Fraj et al. 2015; Asadi et al. 2020; Bergin-Seers et al. 2008). Although the studies do not specify the differences between determinants and drivers of innovation, for Liu and Cheng (2018), there is a difference between them. Driving forces promote organisation initiate innovation and are an essential element within the innovation process, while determinants are a group of supporting factors to ensure the innovation process succeeds (Liu and Cheng 2018).

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Table 2 Tourism innovation factors in family-owned organisations Dimension Exogenous factors

Factors Tourist demand Tourism industry Public and private institutions

Endogenous factors

Company’s characteristics Director’s characteristics Human capital Family Organisational culture

Authors Baggio and Valeri (2020), Kallmuenzer (2018), Liu and Nijkamp (2018), Liu and Cheng (2018), Backman et al. (2017), Hjalager (2010), Nieves et al. (2014), Pikkemaat et al. (2018), Divisekera and Nguyen (2018a), NajdaJanoszka and Kopera (2014), Álvarez et al. (2008), Valeri and Baggio (2021), Valeri (2016) Kallmuenzer (2018), Pikkemaat et al. (2018), Ottenbacher et al. (2006), Backman et al. (2017), Razumova et al. (2015), Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés (2015), Liu and Cheng (2018), Liu and Cheng (2018), Álvarez et al. (2008), Veloso et al. (2021)

Source: Own elaboration based on authors

The studies show multiple driving factors influencing innovation in tourism businesses. On external location, the environmental threats and opportunities of tourism challenge the internal firm’s operation, which can be faced through organisational culture oriented to learning (Fraj et al. 2015); human capital training and engagement (Divisekera and Nguyen 2018b; Grisseman et al. 2013; Kallmuenzer 2018; Ottenbacher et al. 2006); high levels of staff satisfaction (Razumova et al. 2015); work teams (Nordli 2018); knowledge management across internal actors from exterior agents, events, and inter-organisational collaboration (Divisekera and Nguyen 2018b; Kallmuenzer 2018; Nieves and Diaz-Meneses 2018; Nieves et al. 2014; Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015). For the family business, critical drivers of innovation are entrepreneurial behaviour and commitment in family members, long-term employees who contribute to process management and customer relations (Kallmuenzer 2018), the owner running the business (Orfila-Sintes and Mattsson 2009), and effective marketing communication (Ottenbacher et al. 2006) through corporate image and price (Veloso et al. 2021). According to the literature review, innovation drivers can be categorised into two large groups, those found outside the organisation, called exogenous factors, and those found within the organisation called endogenous. See Table 2. Exogenous factors give rise to the organisation’s context, from the local to the national level. For Álvarez Souza et al. (2008), the innovation capacity that public or private organisations can develop will depend on the environment where it is located. It includes the innovation system and the scale and scope of available resources (Backman et al. 2017). According to Nieves et al. (2014), introducing innovations in the hotel sector is closely related to knowledge beyond the organisation’s limits. In other words, hotel companies’ relationships with entities in their environment may affect their adoption of innovations. The entities, in this case, are the type of tourist demand, industry agents, and public and private institutions.

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Research shows that different tourism markets drive changes in the hospitality sector (Kallmuenzer 2018; Kumar et al. 2021; Liu and Nijkamp 2018; Liu and Cheng 2018). Furthermore, the international market has a positive effect on China’s regional innovation due to multicultural exchange (Liu and Nijkamp 2018); in addition to the type of relationship with the client through direct communication for the identification of needs, motives, preferences, and widespread consumption trends (Kallmuenzer 2018; Kumar et al. 2021; Liu and Cheng 2018). Another essential source is obtaining knowledge through collaboration and cooperation with diverse actors in the industry and public and private institutions (Kumar et al. 2021; Nieves et al. 2014; Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015; Valeri 2016; Valeri and Baggio 2021). Family businesses, in particular, stand out for their ability to collaborate in the destination through cooperation ties due to the sociocultural roots in this space (Harms et al. 2015; Peters and Kallmuenzer 2015). In addition, strategic behaviour with industry competitors through associativity supports decision-making. Endogenous factors are those internal to the organisation which condition its predisposition to innovate (Backman et al. 2017; Liu and Cheng 2018; NajdaJanoszka and Kopera 2014). These refer to the company’s size, age, ownership, top management characteristics, human capital, family involvement, and organisational culture. Some studies affirm that larger companies tend to innovate more due to internal resources and financial capital (Backman et al. 2017; Divisekera and Nguyen 2018a; Razumova et al. 2015; Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés 2015; Hjalager 2002; OrfiliaSintes and Mattsson 2009). Razumova et al. (2015) add that the innovations in the largest hotels are managed to improve the quality of service, and the medium and small ones focus on innovations with potential cost savings. Ottenbacher et al. (2006) and Backman et al. (2017) agree that family-owned hotels drive innovations, but not necessarily to a greater extent than non-family hotels, but rather that their approach and strategy must be implemented differently. The director’s characteristics include aspects of meaning and practice in decisionmaking by the person who directs the company, here the importance of objectives, motivations, and aspirations recognised, as well as the type of leadership and vision for innovating as drivers of business development (Liu and Cheng 2018; Álvarez et al. 2008; Getz and Carlsen 2005; Andersson et al. 2002; Getz and Petersen 2005; Abdullah et al. 2022). On the part of the family, it has been recognised as part of the internal actors that promote change (Kallmuenzer 2018), both young members (Peters and Buhalis 2004) and the rest of the collaborators who share blood ties with the business owners. Those are linked to decision-making and the rest of the innovation process. Regarding human capital, it refers to the knowledge, skills, and capacities of the employees of an organisation (Nieves et al. 2014; Nordli 2018). In addition to this, both formal and informal education and training of staff, both managerial and operational (Volberda et al. 2013), are vital in increasing their knowledge and promoting innovation (Pikkemaat et al. 2018; Backman et al. 2017; Peters and

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Table 3 Categorisation of tourism innovation factors Category Tourism innovation factors

Subcategory Exogenous

Dimensions Tourist demand

Endogenous

Tourist industry Public and private institutions Characteristics of the company Director characteristics Family Human capital Organisational culture

Units of analysis Relationship with client and tourist profile Strategic behaviour Collaboration with external entities Age, size, sector, ownership, management body. Leadership style Personal objectives Business innovation vision Role in decision-making Role in the innovation process Capacity and inclusion in the innovation process Adaptation of culture Family history Family essence in business

Source: Own elaboration based on authors

Buhalis 2004). Furthermore, other evidence points to the importance of the seniority of employees and their inclusion in the innovation process (Kallmuenzer 2018). Organisational culture is also linked to the innovation process (Esparza and García 2011; Fraj et al. 2015). Since culture is the product of the values, beliefs, and goals shared by the family that runs the business, this network of symbols is key to success (Esparza and García 2011) and the transgenerational adaptation tourism companies need (Ismail et al. 2018). Hall et al. (2001) affirm that beliefs and values are transmitted in the company through the generations, giving rise to patterns essential to understanding the entrepreneurial process in this type of company. Because mature companies tend to lose entrepreneurial capacity, this capacity must be renewed throughout their life cycle and between generational transitions to ensure that changes include innovations in diverse directions. According to the literature review, it is proposed in Table 3, a categorisation of factors and possible units of analysis to study the innovation factors in the tourism family business from the institutional paradigm. Due to the subjective characteristics of the unit of analysis, a qualitative approach is possible. However, it will also help in understanding the subjects of studied reality and how the external factors derived from the structures are inserted into the internal management of their organisations. Ethnographic, phenomenological, and case study methods contain valuable tools for this approach, such as in-depth interviews and participant and non-participant observation. This proposal is elaborated from the supply point of view since the owner’s family plays a fundamental role in the company’s development. Therefore, key

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Fig. 2 Innovation driving factors in tourism family business from Institutionalism. Source: Own elaboration based on authors

informants are the members of the owner’s family involved in the company, operational employees, and those on the management team. From Table 3, the following figure was developed (see Fig. 2), which is an approach to the analytical way to understand the interaction of innovation factors in tourism family business from an institutional perspective. Figure 2 shows the internal management of the family business considering the family, business, and ownership axis, which gives rise to endogenous innovation factors formed by the company’s characteristics and the management, organisational culture, human capital, and family involvement. In this context, management decisions are not free from their cultural, social, economic, and political environment, but rather, in tourist activity, the changes presented at the macro-level (economic, political, cultural, social, environmental, and technological). They also influence the tourist’s practice and consumption, how the industry’s services are produced, and the diverse formal and informal, public and private institutions, which generates a constant flow between the structures and the actors’ agency.

5 Conclusions This article has argued that tourism is an economic activity and a social phenomenon that disrupts multiple aspects of its practice. Due to the nature of tourism, macrosocial changes outside organisations affect their performance; therefore, its

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theoretical approach can be carried out from an institutionalist paradigm, which observes how organisations change or remain stable over time by how the actors institute the structures of their external environment. A qualitative methodology could address the categories, dimensions, and units of analysis. Even if the knowledge of the structures is possible from a quantitative approach, it is argued that the qualitative methodology is advantageous to understanding both the objective and subjective elements holistically and giving voice to the actors, who can be delimited in a specific context and study area. Due to the amplitude and abstraction of the proposal, its applicability to diverse contexts is possible. However, it will also be necessary to consider the level of development of nations, the stage of the life cycle of destinations, and the companies themselves. Therefore, it is vital to temporarily delimit the units of analysis and contemplate the type of tourism that predominates in this environment, such as rural tourism, sun and sea tourism, ecotourism, and cultural tourism, among others common around the world. Among the research limitations, it is identified that this proposal is built from the perspective of supply, and although it contemplates its relationship with demand, it does not delve into this aspect. However, it should be noted that this proposal is valuable because it considers a type of organisation relevant to the world economy and has not been sufficiently studied in the tourism field. Here, it is exposed that analysing a specific reality through dimensions from an inclusive paradigmatic vision of structures and actors is possible. Future lines of research include developing the study from the demand perspective because it can provide valuable information that helps improve services by family businesses. Another line can focus on identifying how these factors contribute to the types of innovations developed by tourism organisations. In this way, it will be possible to reinforce those that promote more innovations or identify how to diversify innovations by strengthening the factors. Finally, after the qualitative study of a context, it will be possible to develop quantitative instruments that allow measurements and generalisations about family-type tourism organisations since the institutionalist vision allows flexibility in knowledge from different methodological frameworks.

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Powel W, Dimaggio P (2001) El nuevo institucionalismo en el análisis organizacional. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México Presas P, Guia J, Muñoz D (2011) Branding familiness in tourism family firms. J Brand Manag 18: 274–284. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2010.41 Presas P, Guia J, Muñoz D (2014) Customer’s perception of familiness in travel experiences. J Travel Tour Mark 31(2):147–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2014.873307 Razumova M, Lozano J, Rey-Maquieira J (2015) Drivers of environmental innovation in Majorcan hotels. J Sustain Tour. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2015.1062016 Rivas J (2003) El neoinstitucionalismo y la revalorización de las instituciones. Reflexión política 5(9):37–46. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/110/11000903.pdf San Martín J, Durán J (2017) Radiografía de la empresa familiar en México. UDLAP, Puebla, México. https://www.udlap.mx/empresasfamiliares/assets/files/ radiografiaEmpresaFamMex.pdf Schumpeter J (1934) The theory of economic development. Harvard University Press, Harvard, MA Shekhar, Gupta A, Valeri M (2021) Mapping research on family business in tourism and hospitality: a bibliometric analysis. J Family Bus Manag. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-10-2021-0121 Sundbo J, Orfilia-Sintes F, Sorensen F (2007) The innovative behaviour of tourism firms comparative studies of Denmark and Spain. Res Policy 36:88–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol. 2006.08.004 Toanoglou M, Chemli S, Valeri M (2022) The organisational impact of COVID-19 crisis on travel perceived risk across four continents. J Organ Chang Manag 35(2):293–307. https://doi.org/10. 1108/JOCM-12-2020-0369 Tranfield D, Denyer D, Smart P (2003) Towards a methodology for developing evidence informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. Br J Manag 14(3):207–222. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 Tsai S (2017) Driving holistic innovation to heighten hotel customer loyalty. Curr Issue Tour 20 (15):1604–1619. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2015.1043249 UNWTO (2017) United Nations for World Tourism Organization. La innovación en el turismo – Acercamiento entre teoría y práctica. OMT, Madrid Ustunel M, Celiker N, Guzeller C (2021) Systematic review of meta-analysis studies in the tourism and hospitality literature. Eur J Tour Res 27:2710. https://doi.org/10.54055/ejtr.v27i.2145 Valeri M (2016) Networking and cooperation practices in the Italian tourism business. J Tour Heritage Serv Market 2(1):30–35. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.376333 Valeri M (2021) Organizational studies. Implications for the strategic management. Springer, Switzerland Valeri M (ed) (2022) Tourism risk. Crisis and recovery management. Emerald Publishing, UK Valeri M, Baggio R (2021) Increasing the efficiency of knowledge transfer in an Italian tourism system: a network approach. Curr Issue Tour. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1937960 Veloso C, Magalhães D, Sousa BB, Walter CE, Valeri M (2021) Encouraging consumer loyalty: the role of family business in hospitality. J Family Bus Manag. , ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10. 1108/JFBM-10-2021-0134 Verreynne M, Williams A, Ritchie B, Gronum S, Betts K (2019) Innovation diversity and uncertainty in small and médium sized tourism firms. Tour Manag 72:257–269. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.11.019 Volberda H, Van Den Bosch F, Heij C (2013) Management innovation: management as fertile ground for innovation. Eur Manag Rev 10:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12007 Weiermair K (2004) Product improvement or innovation: what is the key to success in tourism?. Innovation and Growth in Tourism, OECD Conference in Lugano, 18–19 September, Switzerland Zach F (2012) Partners and innovation in American destination marketing organizations. J Travel Res 51(4):412–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287511426340

Main Competitive Factors in European Small and Medium-Sized Family Hotels Antonio E. Pérez Brito, Luís Lima Santos, and Laura G. Duarte Cáceres

1 Introduction The tourism industry continues to be one of the most important activity sectors contributing to the evolution of the world economy, with a significant contribution from the perspective of investment and economic growth in various regions of the world (Akadiri et al. 2017; Campos et al. 2022; Gârdan et al. 2020; López-Arceiz et al. 2017). The study of the competitiveness of family hotel SMEs operating in the tourism sector under crisis conditions has been approached only to a limited extent in the literature, and even less research has been done to identify the intimate mechanisms of competitiveness in the current economic and social crisis arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Du et al. 2014; Ramón-Molina et al. 2020; Škrinjarić 2019). In this context, efforts to analyse the perceptions of those who make decisions about the adaptation of family hotel SMEs to the challenges listed above acquire

A. E. Pérez Brito (✉) Faculty of Accounting and Administration, Autonomous University of Yucatán, Mérida, Mexico CiTUR – Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] L. L. Santos CiTUR – Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal School of Tourism and Maritime Technology, Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] L. G. Duarte Cáceres Postgraduate and Research Unit, Autonomous University of Yucatán, Mérida, Mexico e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Valeri (ed.), Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality, Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28053-5_4

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some relevance (Bianchi et al. 2019; Fonseca and Sánchez-Rivero 2019; Gârdan et al. 2020). One of the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe is the tourism industry. Researchers and economists from around the world confirm that the hospitality and leisure sectors are the industries on the continent that currently suffer the most immediate repercussions (Gursoy and Chi 2020). Tourism plays an important role in the economy of a country, as it strengthens local development, generates jobs, enhances the existing culture, and contributes to the generation of foreign exchange. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the value chain of the sector was affected, especially operators and travel agencies, airlines, and hotels (Benetti et al. 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global emergency. Although many economic sectors face difficulties resulting from the restrictive measures that are aimed to curb the spread of coronavirus, tourism is among the most affected sectors, not only because of the travel restrictions but also due to the fear of the viral infection (Efthimios et al. 2020). Likewise, Petrizzo Páez (2020) states that Europe is the continent most affected by SARS-CoV-2, both as a sender and receiver of tourists, which caused the hotel business to collapse completely because of the pandemic. Consequently, the amount of unemployment in the hospitality industry increased (Nicola et al. 2020). The negative impact of the coronavirus in the European hotel sector was especially noticeable through the fall in the months of April and May 2020, by almost 85% compared to the same month of the previous year in the occupancy rate and close to 90% in revenue per available room (RevPAR). In the case of the average daily rate (ADR), the decrease was around 30% (Statista 2022). The impact of hotel revenues mainly caused problems in small and medium-sized companies in the hotel sector in Portugal and Georgia, such as: paying commercial debts and bank loans, paying salaries to employees, paying various taxes to the state, and paying to comply with new regulations imposed by public health authorities. The previous information demonstrates how the COVID-19 pandemic has blocked the development of tourism as well as postponed growth trends and hotel opportunities (Metreveli et al. 2020). According to Forés et al. (2021), family businesses represent an important part of business worldwide; in some countries, they constitute 55–90% of businesses. For the above reason, they contribute to the growth of the economy worldwide, and their particularities make them an interesting type of business to study. At the same time, they reflect an organisational model that symbolises the spirit of private initiative and the entrepreneurial orientation of its owners. They exist in both developed and emerging economies today, as well as among SMEs and large corporations. Family businesses are no exception to this pattern in the international tourism arena, as such businesses dominate the hospitality and tourism industries. These authors, Forés et al. (2021), mention that family businesses are essential for the tourism sector worldwide, and identifying and explaining their competitive factors is essential in business research and strategic management. Hence, the importance of this topic justifies the inclusion of articles on family tourism businesses in business and administration magazines with the greatest impact worldwide.

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Among the main factors, innovation, finance, marketing, as well as sustainability issues in the planning and management of family tourism businesses are considered relevant. In this sense, competing in the tourism sector increasingly requires managers to develop strategies aimed at fostering innovation while minimising any negative impact of their products, services, and operations on the natural environment (Forés et al. 2021). However, few researchers consider addressing the current pandemic as a crisis that needs efficient management measures. There is a need for information and validated research on how family hotel SME owners in Europe and around the world can use competitive knowledge and skills to address the current stagnation in the performance of economies and the declining performance of the sector. There is a gap in research that charts a way forward that managers can use as a platform to reclaim and revive the hospitality industry after the pandemic. Investors in the hospitality industry need to understand the impacts of COVID-19, the steps they can take to address the current problems, and the post-COVID-19 period. Therefore, the importance of studying the factors that affect competitiveness in small and medium-sized hotel companies is important, as well as the need to know the current state of scientific production to identify how the different competitive factors in family hotels SMEs are integrated into the studies and their main contributions to knowledge in this field are highlighting the importance of how it is approached in these companies in Europe, to emphasise similarities and differences between the various international contexts.

2 Methodology The research process follows a systematic review, which aims to identify key scientific contributions to a specific topic and provides a methodical and transparent process to minimise bias (Tranfield et al. 2003). An example that is a valid and recurring scientific activity is the recent reviews on competitiveness in family hotel SMEs mentioned above, as well as in various fields such as tourism (Cong and Thu 2021; Gruenbichler et al. 2021; Markus and Rideg 2020), and European studies (Bocconcelli et al. 2018; Floričić 2016; Pavlatos 2015; Sołoducho-Pelc 2020). Tranfield et al. (2003) transferred the systematic review methodology used in medical science to the field of management. In accordance with the methodological characteristics of the model, the systematic review must be developed in three stages, which, in turn, involve ten phases in total. The first stage refers to the planning of the study, which implies identifying the topic, defining the keywords, the databases where the search will be carried out, and the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the studies. These actions correspond to the first three phases. For this review, international academic documents were included in the category of articles that presented results of theoretical or empirical research on the competitiveness of family SMEs in the hotel environment, considering works regardless of language. In the second search period, other scholarly outputs were added, such as

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dissertations, presentations, books, and book chapters. The search terms used include “Competitiveness factors + COVID-19 + Family Hotel SMEs” and all the combinations with their synonyms “tourism, lodgings and family hotels” and “family firms, companies, organisations and enterprises”, in singular and plural forms both in English and Spanish. The online databases selected to carry out the systematic review were ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, Dialnet, Emerald Publishing Group, Springer Link, Sage Journals, and Taylor & Francis due to their comprehensive thematic, chronological, and international coverage that guarantees quality content related to topics in the economic-administrative and tourism fields (Damian and Suárez-Barraza 2015; Delgado Cruz et al. 2016). Likewise, it was decided to conduct a search in thesis repositories, such as Trusted Digital Repositories (TDR), Recoleta, Dehesa, DartEurope, Open Gray, Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD), Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), and Repositorios Científicos de Asseso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP). The inclusion criteria were all academic documents that were addressed in the title, abstract, and/or keywords, either the search terms “hotels, COVID-19, competitive factors, European family SMEs” or their combination of synonyms, that were published between 2000 and 2020. This period was selected as we are interested in the twenty-first-century literature and to give continuity to our work (H. Tsai et al. 2009). The year 2020 was the completion date because the first five phases of the research (Tranfield et al. 2003) were carried out from January to May 2021. The second stage refers to conducting the review. Tranfield et al. (2003) performed the document search, study selection, and quality assessment in the four and five phases. An example of a search strategy for the years 2000–2020 in ScienceDirect is: In English (“Competitiveness Factors” AND “Family hotels”) AND (“SME” OR “SMEs” OR “Family European small and medium-sized company”). In Spanish (“Factores de competitividad” OR “hotel”) AND (“Pyme Familiar” OR “Pymes Familiares” OR “Pequeña y mediana empresa familiar europea”). Figure 1 shows the PRISMA flow diagram of the study selection process, which is a tool that helps authors improve systematic reviews in the study identification and selection phases (Moher et al. 2009; Page et al. 2021). A total of 1435 documents were identified in databases and repositories. Of these, 962 remained after eliminating duplicates and excluding those unrelated to the object of study. Subsequently, 120 papers did not comply with the quality evaluation due to a lack of methodology and theoretical contribution, and 568 could not be consulted because they were not open access. Thus, 274 documents make up the final sample for the literature analysis. Data extraction and synthesis (phases six and seven) are required to organise and classify the selected studies in a content matrix for analysis and comparison. Various bibliographic data of the family SME in the hotel industry were identified, such as the author’s name, year of publication, title, language, type of document, journal or institution, and country.

962 records duplicates removed

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274 of studies included in qualitative synthesis

Fig. 1 Flowchart of the study selection process. Source: Own elaboration

Also, to achieve the objective of this study, other strategic factors were identified, such as finances, marketing, human resources, business intelligence, the legal situation, strategic management, quality, and innovation. The synthesis of data corresponding to phase eight in this study was carried out in two exercises. First, the basic statistics of the studies were collected, and later, the studies were grouped into recurring topics to analyse the main contributions of the literature review. Among the main findings, 63% of the documents are scientific articles, 25% are book chapters, 7% are dissertations, 3% are abstracts, and the remaining 1% are case studies. A total of 85% of the documents were published as of 2007, as seen in Fig. 2. It is noteworthy that research on this topic has increased significantly since 2014. Therefore, the contributions analysed here can give continuity to H. Tsai et al. (2009). Scientific production is not segregated into a few journals; however, 107 different journals were counted for the 173 articles reviewed. A total of 35 journals contributed more than one article, found within Quartile 1 of Scimago Journal and Country Rank. The same goes for dissertations. It was not found that any university is promoting the study on this topic; each of the 19 theses comes from a different university. According to the tourist regions of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO 2020), 55% of the academic production is concentrated in Europe, followed by 32% in America, 8% in Asia and the Pacific, and 1% in Africa and the Middle East. Finally, 3% are the product of two or more regions called “inbetween regions”. By country distribution, those that are members of the European Union lead scientific production, contributing 94% of the studies, while those that are not

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members provide the complement. Regarding language, 69% of the publications are in English, 8% are in Spanish, 6% are in German, French, and Portuguese, 2% are in Croatian, and 1% are in Slovak, as well as the same percentage in Russian and Turkish. The local, regional, national, and international geographic scope of the study was identified. 72% of European studies are local, 20% have a regional scope, and the remaining 6% are international. The remaining 2% do not have a geographic scope as they are theoretical studies. According to the factors studied, 40% of the studies focused on the finance factor and innovation factors, 35% dealt with the marketing factor, 10% focused on strategic management, 7% related to human resources, 5% on quality, and 3% dealt with a legal situation. Regarding the methodology used, 82% are quantitative studies, 11% are mixed, and 7% are qualitative studies.

3 Literature Review The theoretical basis of most of the articles focuses on the use of substantive theory, which is the most practical level of the research abstraction framework (Dalle et al. 2005, p. 6). The substantive theory encompasses the specific concepts that will help to analyse reality, such as knowledge about competitive factors (strategic management, finance, human resources, quality, innovation, marketing and the legal framework, among others) and hotels (eco-hotels, motels, hotel boutiques, haciendas, hotel chains, and SMEs, among others). Some general theories that imply a higher level of abstraction and provide a broader view of the phenomenon were identified (Dalle et al. 2005, p. 7). The general frameworks focus on the action of competitive factors in small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Fig. 3 State of knowledge in competitiveness factors in family hotel SMEs in Europe. Source(s): Own elaboration

The main findings of the literature review were grouped into four main themes. That, through different subtopics, contributes to the fields of knowledge of competitiveness, marketing, innovation, and finance. The analysed research can be synthesised in Fig. 3, where the main topics and the corresponding subtopics are located, as well as the key topics in the competitiveness of family hotel SMEs. According to Padilla (2006), competitiveness in a company is associated with factors such as strategic management (Molina Ycaza and Sánchez-Riofrío 2016; Perea Quezada and Rivas Tovar 2006), finance (Argüelles Ma et al. 2017; Caicedo Barreth et al. 2019, 2020; Kallmuenzer and Peters 2018; Lima Santos et al. 2021b; Molina Germán et al. 2018; Molina Ycaza and Sánchez-Riofrío 2016; Perea Quezada and Rivas Tovar 2006), productivity (Argüelles Ma et al. 2017; Molina Germán et al. 2018; Molina Ycaza and Sánchez-Riofrío 2016; Perea Quezada and Rivas Tovar 2006), costs (Caicedo-Barreth et al. 2020; Kallmuenzer and Peters 2018; Lima Santos et al. 2019, 2021a), value added (Argüelles Ma et al. 2017; Molina Germán et al. 2018; Villacis Vargas 2018), marketing (Becerra-Vicario et al. 2020; Marulanda-Valencia and Restrepo-Montes 2020; Molina Germán et al. 2018; Ramírez-Hurtado and Berbel-Pineda 2015), the level of exports (Kallmuenzer and Peters 2018), innovation (Aarstad et al. 2015; Nieves et al. 2015; Pikkemaat et al. 2019), and the quality of the products (Molina Ycaza and Sánchez-Riofrío 2016; Perea Quezada and Rivas Tovar 2006; Villacis Vargas 2018), among others.

3.1

Competitiveness

Making tourism establishments competitive implies promoting changes in culture, from a vision restricted to clients due to loyalty to assuming management processes in which it is possible to understand potential clients and spaces of permanent knowledge in such a way that daily activities are dynamic and open. A company

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interested in expanding to international markets seeks to optimise resources, reduce costs, and improve productivity through business management. Family hotel SMEs become the basis for them to approach management from the aspect of competitive development and continuous improvement (Becerra-Vicario et al. 2020; Fernandez 2017; Molina Ycaza and Sánchez-Riofrío 2016; Perea Quezada and Rivas Tovar 2006). The competitiveness of companies is seen as the degree of interaction between customer group satisfaction and shareholder value through constant improvement of service quality and the ability to exploit potentials, implement changes, or respond through financial strength (Cong and Thu 2021). Family hotel SMEs differ in organisational structure, capital capacity, workforce, technology, ability to respond to the environment, management style and, most importantly, how they compete with other companies (Abosede et al. 2016). Although the hospitality sector has characteristics such as being influenced by seasonality, most companies are domestic businesses, meaning they are highly independent. Therefore, the competitiveness of small and medium-sized hotels is strongly influenced by the management skills of entrepreneurs (Fraj et al. 2015).

3.2

Family Hotel SMEs

Camilleri and Valeri (2021) point out that one of the main differences between family and non-family businesses is the additional value they add to profits. Among them, to mention a few, are the family legacy, trust, commitment, and reputation. According to these authors (Camilleri and Valeri 2021), the owners of family businesses are interested in engaging with different stakeholders, for example, competitors, who benefit from synergistic resources and capabilities which allow them to increase their economies of scale and scope and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. For these same authors, many companies are currently feeling the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. During this crisis, many businesses, including family businesses, faced severe liquidity shortages and ran out of cash after experiencing a considerable drop in commercial activities. In many cases, they have been resilient in reinforcing their purpose and values to ensure that their business remains intact. Mainly, they strived to safeguard their financial and emotional investments to preserve their legacy. However, the pandemic has allowed those family business owners who have better adapted to the new normal and who continue to operate their tourism or hotel businesses to be better able to lead said businesses in achieving more significant economic growth in this new way. Authors such as Ahmad et al. (2020) affirm that, in post-crisis recovery, the factors that influence the intention to visit tourist places are physical, sociopsychological, and economic. The findings demonstrate that physical factors are the main factors influencing tourists’ intention to visit. In addition, the image of the destination significantly affects the intention to visit and significantly mediates the

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relationship between the factors and the intention to visit. All this inevitably affects the organisational structure of the tourist destination. In a study carried out in Malaysia, they found that this country was the leader in emergency recovery in terms of the factors that affect the visit expectations of Asian and European travellers. The way Malaysia enforced a movement control order during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that a crisis management plan helps identify potential threats and prepares you to deliver meaningful responses. All the above is relevant for the people in charge of making decisions in family hotel SMEs. According to Baggio and Valeri (2020); Kumar et al. (2021), family tourism and hotel businesses are quite widespread in many countries. They are generally small in size and therefore have certain shortcomings related to strategic orientation, innovation, and cooperation. In addition, they stated that they often focus more on personal or family needs and preferences than on growth and profit maximisation. Considering these assertions, the importance of an effective and efficient set of relationships between similar companies (that is, a network) may be relevant for the survival and very existence of these companies. If networks succeed in boosting organisational performance, Baggio and Valeri (2020); Kumar et al. (2021), suggest that more “friendship” ties should be developed, even with business rivals, by encouraging them to become friends as well. Good sets of relationships and the efficient knowledge transfers from these relationships can also help overcome a recognised need for education and training for family hotel business owners to stay competitive in the marketplace. The results of efficient network analysis and the emotional implications that such structures have in the development of important processes, such as the transfer of information and knowledge or the resilience of a specific destination system, are of great relevance for all the actors involved and can be used as powerful means to influence attitudes and behaviours, driving them towards chosen goals, be they economic, social, or political (Valeri and Baggio 2020). The efficient transfer of information and knowledge plays a fundamental strategic role in a tourism system, especially in family hotel SMEs. Is for hotel SMEs especially important in these critical times where efficient collaboration practices and a smooth flow of ideas are essential to the performance and growth of the entire travel industry. The speed of knowledge diffusion can be accelerated because the centres have fast and close access to many actors in the network. However, high centralisation can prevent access to diversified and innovative knowledge sources since only a limited number of centres are allowed in the knowledge sources. Furthermore, centralised networks depend on a few organisations, and their failure or inefficiency can have an impact on the performance of the entire network. Depending on the goals and policies of the organisations, this can help plan and design appropriate strategies to change and decentralise the network structure or maintain and strengthen the current centralised structure (Gajdošík and Valeri 2022; Valeri and Baggio 2021).

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Finance

To survive, companies must continuously adapt to a turbulent business environment by developing different internal knowledge and skills, which affect their profitability (Dimitrić et al. 2019; Škuflić and Mlinarić 2015; Auken and Tseng 1993; Helleloid and Sheikholeslami 1996; Stowe et al. 1980; Bello and Sensini 2020). The relationship between investment and financing decisions indicates some standard practices in financial behaviours (Auken and Tseng 1993; Helleloid and Sheikholeslami 1996; Stowe et al. 1980). According to Vieira et al. (2016), in small and medium-sized European hotel companies, the use of financial information, specifically the balance sheet, is essential to management in this sector. Based on a study carried out in family hotel SMEs in Portugal, Vieira et al. (2016) establish that financial ratios and the analysis of indicators are directly related to the decision-making process. They also point out that studies carried out in different European countries have shown that financial analysis is one of the most important management tools for SMEs in the hospitality sector. In the current scenario of global competition, Lima Santos et al. (2020) point out that measuring the performance of hotels is increasingly important for managers, who, to make decisions, need indicators and management tools. The two most common operational indicators in hotel management are: total hotel revenue and revenue per available room. The goal of any hotel is to be as profitable as possible, so it must work to increase revenue and lower costs. According to Lima Santos et al. (2020), managers primarily seek to increase accommodation revenue; however, from a total revenue management perspective, revenue from other departments should also be considered. The total revenue per available room (TrevPAR) appears as a complete indicator that considers all sources of hotel income (Lado-Sestayo et al. 2017; Lima Santos et al. 2016, 2019). Concerning European family hotel SMEs, some authors have highlighted that these companies often cannot finance themselves and, therefore, resort to external sources of financing (Auken and Lema 2003). Furthermore, given financial constraints, the choice tends to fall on the new capital (Tyebjee and Bruno 1984). Other authors have suggested that these entities also use medium and long-term debt to finance current assets (Carter and Auken 1990). Hotel companies have an asset structure that often influences their financial performance. In fact, on the one hand, the possession of fixed assets determines the high volatility of the results. On the other hand, the same capital structure can facilitate loan granting, acting as collateral (Chen et al. 2014). Mueller and Sensini (2021), based on a study carried out in Italian family hotel SMEs, suggest that the most profitable companies prefer to use profits instead of debt to finance investments. They also identified that small and medium-sized companies with a high level of tangible fixed assets tend to be easier to access financing because they can provide creditors with greater guarantees and therefore reduce adverse selection problems and information asymmetry. Family hotel SMEs with higher income growth are more likely to finance growth with debt; likewise, they prefer short-term debt over medium and long-term debt, finally pointing out that young companies have greater difficulties accessing credit.

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Marketing

According to Krugman (1991), the competitive success of a company is based on its cost efficiency, innovations, technology, marketing activities, and other internal factors of the organisation. Customer loyalty as an element of marketing in family hotel SMEs, for Hill and Jones (1996), is a function of the company’s ability to satisfy their needs. In order to achieve this, it will be necessary to focus on the client, structure worker attitudes and mechanisms to bring clients to the organisation, as well as satisfy needs through personalisation of the service and response time. According to Stanton et al. (2000), “market positioning” is the proportion of total sales of a service during a certain period in a specific market captured by a company. Jeffrey et al. (2009) pointed out that marketing involves knowing the competition and creating pricing policies and customer satisfaction services. Blesa et al. (2009) point out that marketing strategies lead to the search for the delivery of a superior value to the client, thanks to the development of a greater capacity to perceive the market, to develop response and adaptation capacities to it through innovation and imitation capacities, and to interact with clients. In this way, marketing intelligence processes help to define an organisational competence that facilitates the competitive development of the company. Martínez Santa María et al. (2010) and Shehu and Mahmood (2014) say that market positioning, knowledge of the competition, and customer satisfaction have an additive nature so that the impact on competitiveness is the sum of each of them. Thus, marketing, which is part of the internal factors of a company, impacts organisational competitiveness as it is one of the many factors that are added to achieve it. Hassen and Singh (2020), from a European study, suggest that family hotel SMEs establish customer-centric strategies to ensure long-term business success. Also, companies should consider sharing information to survive in competitive business environments and achieve superior business performance. Gyulavári and Kenesei (2012) point out that a competitive firm or company offers services to consumers in such a way that they are willing to pay the price for those services that guarantee them a higher profit than the competition. Alhakimi and Mahmoud (2020), based on a study carried out in Croatia, state that family hotel SMEs must support innovative behaviour, generate new offers, and participate in proactive marketing. These entities must invest in new technologies and constantly seek to improve their processes and services. They must also establish a competitive posture by exploring the market to understand the strategies and activities of the competition, using price adjustments and introducing new or better offers (Szopiński and Staniewski 2016). Through proactivity, family hotel SMEs can improve by investigating market trends and customer needs, interests and satisfaction (Bocarando Lara et al. 2017).

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Innovation

The capacity for innovation is the implementation and creation of technology applied to new systems, policies, programmes, products, processes, and services for the organisation (Adomako 2018; Biemans and Griffin 2018; Liao et al. 2007). Several authors have defined innovation as a modification of products, processes, services, organisational systems, and marketing systems to create customer value (Mazur and Zaborek 2016; Møen et al. 2019; Ramadani et al. 2013; Weerawardena 2003). According to Domi et al. (2020), in a study carried out on family hotel SMEs, they discovered that those located in the United Kingdom tend to receive less financial support for the generation of innovation than SMEs in France, Germany, and Spain. According to Hongyun et al. (2019), in a study carried out on European hotel SMEs, empirical findings suggest that the development of a cutting-edge information technology infrastructure impacts quite considerably on the capacity of companies to work across various geographic and organisational boundaries and enables companies to possibly create a competitive advantage in today’s business environment. Family hotel SMEs, with the necessary investment, can create value for both the client and the company, either directly or indirectly, depending on the cultural context. In their study, these same authors identified that in Europe, in hotel SMEs, human skills, information technology infrastructure, and management style are fundamental to innovating in SMEs in this sector. The findings also reveal that cost and cultural factors have a negative but significant relationship with the adoption of innovation. In a tourism context, family hotel SMEs must mainly focus on innovation in both services and processes, driven by demand due to their nature of intensive service that depends on the quality of customer experiences and their satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Domi et al. 2020). For Wikhamn (2019), satisfied customers represent the reputation and image of the hotel and its position in the competition for customers, and it is a non-financial performance indicator. Furthermore, changes in consumption patterns among tourists force family hotel SMEs to improve their operations to remain competitive (Zehrer et al. 2014). In response, tourism SMEs should better understand clients’ needs and desires and act accordingly during each service encounter (H. Tsai 2009; K. Tsai and Yang 2014; O’Neill et al. 2010).

4 Discussion of Results The family hotel SMEs studied do not follow a methodology for promoting business growth and financing their activities. There is no perceived interest in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of strategies to achieve goals and objectives, which could generate instability in the long term. This coincides with what was obtained by H. Tsai et al. (2009) and Perea Quezada and Rivas Tovar (2006), who

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affirm that in family hotel SMEs, the administrator or owner is the one who provides the capital; however, the management is empirical; the infrastructure of the company is focused on meeting demand and not on planning; there is a lack of a vision and mission; there is no definition of objectives, goals, and defined strategies to achieve said objectives and goals. One of the main reasons for the closure of these companies corresponds to the impossibility of accessing the financial resources that family hotel SMEs require for their operation. Therefore, the financing problem is of great relevance for family hotel SMEs in Europe since, without access to financing sources and sufficient flows, the company cannot operate and is less likely to survive. The above coincides with what was mentioned by H. Tsai et al. (2009), who point out that family hotel SMEs will seek the most appropriate form of leverage, which is related to the “Pecking Order” theory developed by Myers and Majluf (1984), in which a hierarchy is established according to financing decisions, prioritising internal financing, followed by debt and finally a capital increase. It has been identified that the hotel business operates in an environment of extreme competitiveness on a global scale, and hotel managers make decisions in markets with peculiar characteristics. In this context, having management support tools is essential, which is why several operating ratios and indicators are used by the hotel industry, with an emphasis on RevPAR (accommodation). Income management deals with the supply and demand variables to maximise returns, acting on prices and available capacity. Unlike RevPAR, which considers only accommodation income, TRevPAR focuses on general hotel income, which coincides with what was indicated by Lado-Sestayo et al. (2017) and Lima Santos et al. (2016, 2017, 2020, 2021b). Regarding the marketing factor, the findings also confirm the importance of customer relationship management in the hospitality industry. In short, it is identified that hoteliers can successfully improve business profitability and business performance by redefining customer relationship management strategies through restructuring operations. Successful customer relationship management is expected to increase customer loyalty, retain profitable customers, and generate more revenue for hotels, hence their performance and overall survival. It should be clear that customer relationship management is more than a software tool for sales; it is a marketing business strategy that seeks customer satisfaction to achieve retention and loyalty, which coincides with what was indicated by Gyulavári and Kenesei (2012). Finally, in terms of innovation in family hotel SMEs in Europe, it is observed that the types of innovation adopted, to a greater extent, are related more to the service than to the process since the main motivation to carry out the innovations was to satisfy the needs imposed by demand. However, they are still not very relevant compared to the innovation processes of large companies. It was found that most of them made service innovations, either through changes to improve existing ones or by expanding their variety of services. In Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Italy, for process innovation, 90% of family hotel SMEs acquired goods, equipment, or furniture, while 55% made changes or improvements in the way that the company

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provides the hotel service. The above coincides with that established by Aarstad et al. (2015) and Nieves et al. (2015), who point out that family hotel SMEs, due to their size and economic capacity, lack the necessary resources to develop and implement innovative characteristics in their processes and services.

5 Conclusions The knowledge of competitiveness factors in family hotel SMEs is an emerging field; despite the importance of tourism in contemporary society and the importance of family hotel SMEs in the economic development of countries, only 274 scientific papers were based on thematic coverage data. However, one of the limitations of this study is the existence of more articles located in databases (such as Web of Science and Scopus) and repositories in other countries that were not included in the search due to limitations in accessing their content. The hotel industry has played an important role as an engine for growth and job creation in Europe. In general, the marketing activities of European family hotel SMEs are owner/ manager driven and defined in terms of tactics to attract new businesses, focusing on competition, customers, and the business environment. The core components of marketing are related to the activities that surround them and concentrate on clientfocused and market-focused variables and a unique proposition of value generation. The sector’s financial responsiveness to economic conditions supports job creation and economic growth but also makes it vulnerable to conditions and policies that proliferate in a recession. Measures taken in times of pandemic are likely to undermine the capacity of this sector to generate growth. Innovation is very important for an organisation; since it allows you to create the conditions to respond efficiently to the changes generated by the market and obtain sustainable competitive advantages in time. In developing countries, small and medium-sized companies are responsible for a large part of the added value, stimulating entrepreneurial activities, job creation, and increased exports. Finally, it is important to mention that the owners/managers of small and medium-sized companies can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by fostering a strong market orientation derived from participation in innovative practices, a key factor in profitability, long-term growth, and the survival of family hotel SMEs, particularly in the period of a crisis caused by uncontrolled events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interdisciplinary perspective complementing the study of competitive factors in family hotel SMEs, this chapter also presents results for marketing development, in terms of consumer behaviour, in specific contexts, as well as for hotel and tourism management, contributing to an increase in the literature related to guest loyalty and relationship management, contributing to the creation of a positive corporate image and increased guest satisfaction, and, therefore, to the competitiveness, profitability, and sustainability of the family hotel industry (Sousa et al. 2021).

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Tourism can also be influenced by monetary events such as stock market crashes or extreme variations in exchange rates. Each event has a different degree of weightage or dimension that influences the size and amount of information needed to manage it, e.g. the urgency and persistence of the disaster, the level of control, the extent of damage and loss, and finally, the effects on the people and stakeholders involved (Baggio and Valeri 2020). While it is essential to recognise that tourism is strictly connected with other sectors, it is certainly crucial to admit that, from the point of view of disaster planning, the tourism industry is particularly exposed to danger compared to other industries (Valeri 2021; Vasco et al. 2021).

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Change and Innovation in Small Family-Owned Hotels in the Pandemic Era: Α Delphi Research Method Study Approach Christos Kakarougkas, Theodoros Stavrinoudis, and Psimoulis Moschos

1 Introduction The contribution of small family-owned hotels in the development of tourist destinations is very important (Camilleri and Valeri 2021; Deb et al. 2022; Kallmuenzer and Peters 2018). This is because a particularly significant number of tourists prefer them for the personalized and unique hospitality experience, they offer (Santos et al. 2021; Svetlacic et al. 2020; Veloso et al. 2021). However, Basnyat and Sharma (2021) argued that the Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected small family-owned hotels, forcing them to change in order to survive. In a global basis hotels change the way they operate and develop innovation to attract the reluctant, due to the pandemic, customers (Chan et al. 2021; Seetharaman 2020). Following the above, Varnum and Grossmann (2017) argued that investigating how a business changes the way it operates is a rather complex issue. This is because according to Stavrinoudis and Kakarougkas (2017) any attempt of organizational change can follow three directions which have different and often conflicting characteristics: (a) the formal/revolutionary (Kakarougkas and Stavrinoudis 2021; Rosenbaum et al. 2018), (b) the informal/evolutionary (Cheishvili et al. 2017), and (c) the hybrid (Kakarougkas and Stavrinoudis 2021; Stouten et al. 2018). In the same vein Tang and Lam (2017) argue that in the hotel sector innovation development is a demanding process which should focus on meeting the changing needs of customers. Bharwani and Mathews (2016) distinguish hospitality innovation in Functional and Experiential, while Dzhandzhugazova et al. (2016) believe that innovation within a hotel should emphasize on the advancement of efficient procedures and added value products and services.

C. Kakarougkas (✉) · T. Stavrinoudis · P. Moschos University of the Aegean, Mitilini, Greece e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Valeri (ed.), Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality, Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28053-5_5

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Based on the above, this chapter aims, using the Delphi method, on the one hand, to investigate and evaluate the way small family-owned hotels change the way they operate and develop innovation and, on the other hand, to propose specific strategic actions that will help the management of small family-owned hotels to respond positively to the challenges posed by the pandemic. The Delphi method was chosen as, according to Conlin and Rice (2019), it is the most suitable for the analysis of complex issues but also for strategic decision-making in tourism. The present research has reached conclusions that have high utility and originality both on a scientific and practical level. At the scientific level, the originality of this research is in the knowledge gap that bridges (Miles 2017), since in the past various research have investigated the effect of COVID-19 on hotel companies and have proposed strategies to address it (Chan et al. 2021; Gursoy and Chi 2020; Toanoglou et al. 2021). Although none of them, have assessed the impact of the pandemic on the way that small family-owned hotels change the way they operate and develop innovation (Shekhar et al. 2021). On a practical level, the research results will help small familyowned hotels managers to develop strategic-level policies that will enhance their competitiveness in the era after Covid-19.

2 Literature Review 2.1

The Directions of Change

Varnum and Grossmann (2017) suggest that changing the way a business operates is a complex issue, which can be both a process and a skill (Galli 2018). Multiple and often conflicting theories and approaches have been developed as to how a change in the operation of a hotel can be caused and achieved (Kakarougkas 2012; Stavrinoudis and Kakarougkas 2017), which can be grouped in three directions. The first direction is the formal/revolutionary one where the cause that triggers the start of change is a shock or crisis that supports the development of the idea that the existing way of doing business is no longer effective (Burnes and Bargal 2017; Deborah 2018). This results in the reaction of the management, which attempts as the sole responsible for planning and implementing the way the enterprise operates, to immediately impose a major change (revolutionary) on the whole hotel enterprise through a specific action plan with the contribution of senior executives, experts, and specialists in a short period of time (Kakarougkas and Stavrinoudis 2021; Rosenbaum et al. 2018). On the contrary, in the informal/evolutionary direction of change, change is triggered by the conflict of interests of different groups or individuals, competition, the pursuit of a desired and positive future or vision, the need for survival and the evolutionary course of groups, enterprises, and organizations (Cheishvili et al. 2017; Toves et al. 2016). As a result, the operation of a hotel is constantly evolving through an open and continuous process where the initiatives of change are shared between employers and employees, individuals and groups and include a series of

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small-scale, local changes that have minor results in a short time, but in the long run, they can significantly change the enterprise (Kakarougkas and Stavrinoudis 2021; Mak and Chang 2019; Toves et al. 2016). Offering educational and training opportunities is often a way towards informal/evolutionary direction change (Stavrinoudis and Psimoulis 2017). The third direction of change is the hybrid which includes a combination of elements of both formal/revolutionary and informal/evolutionary change, seeking to keep each organization—enterprise in a consistent state of transformation (Al-Ali et al. 2017; Hassan 2018; Kakarougkas and Stavrinoudis 2021; Stouten et al. 2018). More specifically, the hybrid direction of change is based on an application method and program that is focused on the formal/revolutionary direction of change but keeping qualitative elements from the informal/evolutionary direction of change. As a result, the hybrid direction of change can achieve significant changes in the way a hotel operates in both the short and long term (Kakarougkas 2012; Stavrinoudis and Kakarougkas 2017). This leads to the formulation of the first research question: Q1: What effect does the spread of COVID-19 have on how small family-owned hotels change the way they operate?

2.2

The Development of Innovation

Innovation is essential for both the viability and competitiveness of hotels and is found to the extent that these enterprises can respond quickly and flexibly to various developments in their external environment (Dzhandzhugazova et al. 2016; Fraj et al. 2015), especially in times of crisis like this of the Covid-19 pandemic (Zopiatis and Theocharous 2018). Tang and Lam (2017) argue that in the hotel sector innovation is important to focus on meeting the changing needs of customers. In line with this, Bharwani and Mathews (2016) report that customer-centric innovation in hospitality is separated into two general types: Functional and Experiential. Functional innovation includes the development of innovative products and services, while experiential innovation includes the unique services and value-added products that each hotel can offer to its customers. At the same wavelength, Dzhandzhugazova et al. (2016) believe that innovation in hotels should be developed mainly on two levels: process innovation and product innovation. Procedural innovation concerns the reorganization of hotel operations and the adoption of innovations (e.g., new technologies). Product innovation involves launching new products, finding new sources of supply, and developing new production methods (Dzhandzhugazova et al. 2016). Horng et al. (2018) emphasizing sustainable innovation of hotel services, argue that the degree of innovation development within a hotel depends on three groups of elements (a) sustainable innovation that includes elements such as: saving resources, exploiting new technologies, developing employee creativity, etc. (b) the organization that includes elements such as: organizational strategy and capacity, available

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resources, organizational environment, etc. and (c) the diffusion of innovation which includes elements such as: competitive advantage, complexity, observability of innovation, etc. Zopiatis and Theocharous (2018) believe that to achieve the above and to develop innovation in a hotel, human resources must be strengthened. In this regard, Hassi (2019) suggested that the empowerment of innovation in a hotel depends on its management, which should strengthen employee participation in decision-making and reduce bureaucratic constraints. The previous led to the formulation of the following research question: Q2: What effect does the spread of COVID-19 have on how small family-owned hotels develop innovation?

3 Methodology The unprecedented negative impact of the spread of Covid-19 on the global hotel sector have been confirmed by multiple published studies (Baum and Hai 2020; Hao et al. 2020; Alonso et al. 2020), but none, using the Delphi method. The Delphi method was chosen because it is considered the most appropriate for investigating a complex problem of which little is known (McPherson et al. 2018). It was also chosen because Conlin and Rice (2019) and Konu (2015) consider it the most suitable for making strategic decisions in the field of tourism.

3.1

Survey Design and Implementation

The Delphi method is a qualitative research approach that invites a panel of at least fifteen experts to submit their views on a complex topic (Barrios et al. 2021). The submission of the opinions of the participating experts is carried out usually through questionnaires in at least three research rounds with clearly defined time frames (Humphrey-Murto and de Wit 2019; McPherson et al. 2018). At the end of each research round, the responses of the participating experts are consolidated to convey the consensus of the team (Remington and Kitterlin-Lynch 2018). The design of the questionnaire of each round is based on the outcome of the previous research round, while the experts to participate in a research round must have completed the questionnaire of the previous one (Asselin and Harper 2014; Humphrey-Murto and de Wit 2019; McPherson et al. 2018). Based on the above, this research with the help of an electronic form, email, and social networks, in three separate research rounds, explored the views of Greek experts consisting of recognized for their knowledge and experience academics and professionals, hotel managers and executives of the hospitality industry. The first research round started on 27/05/2020 and ended on 22/06/2020, 24 valid questionnaires collected from a total of 55. In the first research round the central

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research question explained to the experts and qualitative data were drawn from a two-section questionnaire that aimed to investigate the way that the Greek small family-owned hotels changed the way they operated and developed innovation before the outbreak of the pandemic. To draw conclusions, the response of each participant analyzed by the method of content analysis (Lindgren et al. 2020) from which specific keywords derived. The resulting keywords were grouped based on conceptual relevance and their number (frequency of occurrence) measured per group (McPherson et al. 2018). A total of 39 keywords recorded representing elements that described the way that Greek small family-owned hotels change the way they operate and develop innovation before the pandemic. Only keywords with a frequency of two or more were included in the second questionnaire, i.e., 16 out of 39. In the second research round, that started on 29/06/2020 and ended on 13/07/ 2020, 20 valid questionnaires were collected from a total of 24 questionnaires sent to the experts who completed the first research round. In the second round, the main findings of the first research round presented to the experts and quantitative data were obtained on the degree of magnification of reduction of the elements recorded in the first round due to the effects of Covid-19 transmission. The questionnaire of the second round was based on the outcome of the first and consisted of two sections framed by a set of 16 variables in the form of a Likert scale. Descriptive statistics were used to draw conclusions, which is the most appropriate for the analysis of quantitative data in the Delphi method (Hasson et al. 2000). In the third research round that started on 24/07/2020 and ended on 13/08/2020, 15 questionnaires were collected from the total of 20 sent to the experts who completed the second round. In the third round, the main outcomes of the second round were presented and quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a two-section questionnaire based on the results of the second round. Each section included three closed-ended Likert scale questions that asked experts to rate whether the outcomes of the second round of the research were: a minor or major development, a very negative or very positive development, and a significant threat or opportunity. In addition, each questionnaire section included four open-ended questions, the first three asked the experts to justify their response to the closed-ended questions, while the fourth asked them to explain which strategic decisions must be taken from now on to address the impact of the Covid-19 spread on the way that the Greek small family-owned hotels change the way they operate and develop innovation. The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data collected in the third research cycle completed with the combined use of content analysis and descriptive statistics (Hasson et al. 2000; McPherson et al. 2018).

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4 Results 4.1

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Way Greek Small Family-Owned Hotels Change the Way They Operate

The results of the first research round on the variables: Fear of change and rejection of change/Stagnation and Pursuit of small changes/Restriction of change, presented in Table 1, showed that the Greek small family-owned hotels before the COVID-19 era had a strongly negative attitude towards change. The outcome of the second round of research show that the experts agree that the Greek small family-owned hotels remain strongly wary of change, since the variable: Fear of change and non-acceptance of change/Stagnation, showed a relative strengthening while the variable: Pursuit of small changes/Restriction of change, remained constant. However, the parallel strengthening of the variable: Acceptance of change and Adaptability/Flexibility, leads to the conclusion that due to Covid-19 Greek small family-owned hotels are slowly evolving into enterprises that accept change and seek to acquire adaptability and flexibility. The results of the variables: Minimum adaptation to employee needs, Intense adaptation to customer needs, Intense adaptation to competition challenges and Minimal adaptation to customer needs, lead to the conclusion that the primary motivation for change is the adaptation to the customers’ needs, and the secondary motivation for change is the adaption to the challenges of the competition, while the adaption to the human resources’ needs remains the weakest motivation for change, because it is slightly weakened due to the spread of Covid-19. The experts claim that the above developments are particularly important and positive, while they believe that the spread of Covid-19 has pushed the Greek small family-owned hotels to transform from enterprises that sought stagnation and stability into more flexible organizations that can adapt and survive in the new reality, in the needs of the customers and in the challenges of national and international competition, free from the previous way of thinking. At the same time, they agree that the above is an opportunity for the Greek small family-owned hotels, as they can lead to the improvement of the provided product, to the strengthening of the value of the human resources but also to the development and implementation of new models and management procedures. The participating experts argued that to enhance the competitiveness of the small family-owned hotels on the way they change their operation in the era after Covid-19, at the level of strategic decisions, there must be acceptance of the need to change and strengthen it through strategic planning by the companies themselves and by the State. In this context, emphasis should be placed on innovation, on the recognition, development, and utilization of the value of human resources, on the implementation of measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and on the differentiation of the existing clientele in terms of both quality and quantity.

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Table 1 The effect of Covid-19 on the way Greek small family-owned hotels change the way they operate

Variables I1.1

First round of research outcome (keywords recording) Frequency 12

Second round of research outcome (1-intense reduction, 3-neither reduced/nor magnified, 5-intense magnification) Mean Median Mode 3.20 3 3

Fear of change and rejection of change/ stagnation I1.2 Minimal adap11 2.75 3 3 tation to the human resources’ needs 9 3.45 4 4 I1.3 Acceptance of change and adaptability/ flexibility I1.4 Intense adapta- 9 4.00 4 4 tion to customers’ needs I1.5 Strong adapta- 9 3.75 4 4 tion to the challenges of competition I1.6 Pursuing small 7 3.00 3 4 changes/ restricting change 3 2.00 2 1a I1.7 Minimal adaptation to customers’ needs Third round of research outcome Above evolution: 1-minor, 5-major 4.46 5.00 5.00 Justification (frequency) • Adaptation (19): new reality, customer needs, competition challenges, measures to tackle coronavirus spread, external environment, positioning in national and international competition. • Survival (3). • Flexibility of thinking (2). • Developing a new approach (2). Above evolution: 1-very negative, 5-very positive 4.15 5.00 5.00 Justification (frequency) • Flexibility and susceptibility to change (6): future changes, way of thinking. • Gain ground against the competition (2). • Customization (2): customer needs, competition challenges.

(continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Second round of research outcome First round of (1-intense reduction, research 3-neither reduced/nor outcome magnified, 5-intense (keywords recording) magnification) Frequency Mean Median Mode Variables Above evolution: 1-significant threat, 5-significant opportunity 4.00 4.00 4.00 Justification (frequency) • Differentiation from the old model of tourism (4): improvement of services, treatment of distortions • Human resources (4): growth, value empowerment, cost increase • Implementation of new procedures (3): more efficient operation. • Development of new management models (2). Strategic decisions that will • Accepting the need to change and strengthen it (4). enhance the competitiveness • Recognition and utilization of the value of human resources of the small family-owned (4). hotels in the era after Covid- • Strategic planning of companies and the state (3). 19 • Implementation of measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus (3). • Human resources development (2). • Qualitative and quantitative diversification of the clientele (2). • Emphasis on innovation (2). Note: aMultiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown, Bold: Marks variables that are magnified, Italic: Marks variables that are reduced

4.2

The Effect of COVID-19 on the Way Greek Small Family-Owned Hotels Develop Innovation

The outcome of the first research round (Table 2) showed that in the pre-Covid-19 era the Greek small family-owned hotels could be characterized as conservative enterprises that avoided innovation as they operated with: Unchanging working methods, Avoided risk, Paid little attention to innovation, Rarely used new technologies and developed new products. The results of the second research round showed that the Greek small family-owned hotels due to COVID-19 have become more open to innovation. This conclusion is supported (a) by the strengthening of the element Intense use of new technologies in combination with the weakening of the element Minimal use of new technologies, (b) the strengthening of the element Development of new products with the weakening of the element: Rare development of new products. The above conclusion is also supported by the weakening of the dominant before the Covid-19 era element Unchanged working methods. But at the same time the outcome of the second round of research show that the Greek small familyowned hotels are not fully prepared to move away from the aforementioned pattern of unchanged working methods that prevailed before the spread of Covid-19 since the elements: Risk avoidance/Evolutionary change and Avoidance of profit risk were

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Table 2 The impact of COVID-19 on the way Greek small family-owned hotels develop innovation

Variables I2.1

First round of research outcome (keywords recording) Frequency 17

Second round of research outcome (1-intense reduction, 3-neither reduced/nor magnified, 5-intense magnification) Mean Median Mode 2.45 2 1

Unchanged working methods I2.2 Minimal 14 3.05 3 3 encouragement of employee creativity I2.3 Risk avoid12 3.40 4 4 ance/evolutionary change I2.4 Minimal focus 11 2.50 2 2 on innovation I2.5 Minimal use of 8 2.00 2 1a new technologies 6 2.40 2 2 I2.6 Rare development of new products I2.7 Intense use of 6 3.70 4 5 new technologies I2.8 Frequent 5 3.20 3.5 4 development of new products I2.9 Avoidance of 4 3.30 3 3a profit risk Third round of research outcome Above evolution: 1-minor, 5-major 3.77 4.00 3.00 Justification (frequency) • Hotels and innovation (8): positive attitude towards innovation but do not want to take risks, only when there is immediate profit, increases competitiveness, innovation at the lowest cost and the crisis has strengthened innovation. • Hotel industry and innovation (4): Acceptance of the need for continuous adaptation to the competitive environment and condition of development. • Hotel product and innovation (2): strengthens differentiation but can also negatively affect it e.g., robots offer impersonal hospitality. (continued)

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Table 2 (continued) Second round of research outcome (1-intense reduction, 3-neither reduced/nor magnified, 5-intense magnification) Mean Median Mode Variables Above evolution: 1-very negative, 5-very positive 3.85 4.00 3.00a Justification (frequency) • Hotels and innovation (8): positive in innovation but do not want to take risks, only when there is direct profit, increases competitiveness, innovation at the lowest cost and the crisis has strengthened innovation. • Hotel industry and innovation (5): Understanding the need for continuous adaptation to the competitive environment and the condition for development. • Hotel product and innovation (2): strengthens differentiation but can also negatively affect it e.g., robots offer impersonal hospitality. • Human resources and innovation (2): Development of executive creativity and staff training are required. Above evolution: 1-significant threat, 5-significant opportunity 4.00 4.00 4.00 Justification (frequency) • Hotels and innovation (6): positive in innovation but do not want to take risks, only when there is immediate profit, increases competitiveness, innovation at the lowest cost, phobia of small businesses due to cost, innovation, and new technologies in all areas of operation and response in crisis. • Hotel industry and innovation (4): Understanding the need for continuous adaptation to the competitive environment, a condition for development and an opportunity for an overall upgrade of the industry. • Hotel product and innovation (3): strengthens differentiation but can also negatively affect it e.g., robots offer impersonal hospitality. • Human resources and innovation (2): Enhancing the creativity of executives and enhancing the development and involvement in the management of creative front-line employees. Strategic decisions that will • Human resources (9): Empowerment, value recognition, enhance the competitiveness training on the benefits and usefulness of innovation and staff of the small family-owned encouragement and incentives for the use of new technologies. hotels in the era after Covid- • Hotels should be managed exclusively by professionals (4). 19 • Government intervention in favor of innovation (3): providing incentives to companies in favor of innovation. First round of research outcome (keywords recording) Frequency

Note: aMultiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown, Bold: Marks variables that are magnified, Italic: Marks variables that are reduced

further strengthened due to Covid-19, while the element Minimal encouragement of employee creativity remained unchanged compared to the pre-Covid-19 era.

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The results of the third research round (Table 2) lead to the conclusion that the participating experts consider the above developments marginally important, marginally positive and as an opportunity for Greek small family-owned hotels. This finding is based on the view that the management of small family-owned hotels, while now realizing the value of innovation in their development, are not yet ready to invest in it because on the one hand they do not want to take risks and on the other hand they seek immediate profit. This finding is also linked to the view that while innovation generally has a positive effect on business performance, in the case of small family-owned hotels innovation based on the overuse of new technologies rather than employee creativity can adversely affect the product offered. The participating experts argue that in order to enhance the competitiveness of the small family-owned hotels on the way they develop innovation in the era after Covid-19, the following strategic decisions should be taken: (a) human resources should be educated on the benefits and usefulness of innovation and encouraged through incentives to use new technologies; (b) small family-owned hotels should be managed exclusively by professionals and (c) the State should offer incentives that will enhance innovation.

5 Discussion of Findings 5.1

Evaluation of How Small Family-Owned Hotels Change the Way They Operate in the Covid-19 Era

The results of the first two rounds of the survey showed a contradiction in the way the management of small family-owned hotels face the change in the way they operate, since on the one hand they are avoiding change and do not accept it, while on the other they welcome it and want it, because they aim to adapt primarily to the needs of their customers, secondary to the challenges of the competition and little to the needs of their human resources. This finding, in addition to the surprise it creates due to the contradiction it highlights, also comes in partial agreement with the results of the research of Chan et al. (2021) and Seetharaman (2020), who argued that hotel companies worldwide sought large-scale changes in the way they operate to meet the needs of those reluctant to travel due to Covid-19. The participating experts consider that the above finding, although a contradiction, is particularly important and positive, as it is an opportunity that will trigger changes in the way small familyowned hotels operate. This conclusion is in line with previous research, recognizing that any change in the way a business operates is very difficult to achieve as it requires the development of complex business processes and capabilities (Galli 2018; Varnum and Grossmann 2017), which can be imprinted in the three separate directions of change (Kakarougkas 2012; Stavrinoudis and Kakarougkas 2017). Subsequently, the results of the research indicated that small family-owned hotels have turned to the hybrid direction of change (Al-Ali et al. 2017; Hassan 2018; Kakarougkas 2012; Stavrinoudis and Kakarougkas 2017; Kakarougkas and

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Stavrinoudis 2021; Stouten et al. 2018) in order to change their mode of operation due to the spread of Covid-19, since elements are borrowed simultaneously from both other directions the formal/revolutionary and the informal/evolutionary. More specifically, experts argue that the cause that triggers the initiation of change in small family-owned hotels is based primarily on the informal/evolutionary direction of change (Cheishvili et al. 2017; Toves et al. 2016) embodied in the need for constant adaptation to the new reality that Covid-19 imposed in customer needs, competition challenges, etc., and secondary to the formal/revolutionary direction of change (Burnes and Bargal 2017; Deborah 2018; Kakarougkas and Stavrinoudis 2021; Rosenbaum et al. 2018) embodied in the need for survival. In relation to the implementation of change, evidence such as the pursuit of new management models and operating procedures demonstrates that small family-owned hotels management emphasize the formal/revolutionary direction of change, to the detriment of the informal/evolutionary direction embodied solely in the element of human resources empowerment. Nonetheless, the management of small family-owned hotels avoids the informal/evolutionary direction of change because human resources empowerment, is considered a source of cost. Finally, the management of small family-owned hotels seek to achieve significant changes in the mode of operation, in both the short and long term (e.g., in the way of thinking and in the way of adapting to the needs of the customers and the challenges of the competition, in the application of new procedures and new models of management etc.). For that reason, it can be concluded that they are focusing exclusively on the hybrid direction of change. In order to strengthen the will to change the way of operation, experts argue that the management of small family-owned hotels should implement policies that will turn in the hybrid direction of change and will strengthen: (a) the acceptance of the need for change (b) the recognition of the value, development, and utilization of human resources, (c) the importance of strategic planning of both companies and the State, (d) the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, (e) the development of new markets (clientele) qualitatively and quantitatively and (f) the development of innovation.

5.2

Evaluation of How Small Family-Owned Hotels Develop Innovation in the Covid-19 Era

The results of the first two research rounds showed that a contradiction can be identified in the way small family-owned hotels develop innovation, which is analogous to the one previously recorded in relation to the way family-owned hotels change the way they operate in the Covid-19 era. More specifically, the research indicated that on the one hand the management of small family-owned hotels seek and welcome innovation through the development of new products and the adoption of new technologies, but on the other hand they appear to be reluctant to move away from the tried and tested way, because of the risk that this entails in terms of loss of profits and because they do not want to leave the creativity of their human resources

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free. This finding comes in partial agreement with previous research, as of Dzhandzhugazova et al. (2016), Fraj et al. (2015), Tang and Lam (2017) and Zopiatis and Theocharous (2018), which showed that hotel management in times of crisis develop innovation in the field of customer service to entice customers that are hesitant to use hotel services due to the crisis. The above leads to the conclusion that the management of small family-owned hotels, while recognizing the value of innovation, are hesitant to move away from their time-tested operating standards. Therefore, this hesitation can be an obstacle in the development of new products and in the offering of better services to their customers (especially in times of crisis). Because of this finding, experts are moderately optimistic about how small family-owned hotels pursued the development of innovation in the Covid-19 era. Specifically, they consider that due to the spread of Covid-19 small family-owned hotels were forced to develop Functional Innovations and Experiential Innovations (Bharwani and Mathews 2016) in the form of new and differentiated products and services. But they believe that this development of innovation is severely curtailed by the refusal of small family-owned hotels managers to move away from the old way of operating their hotels, because they fear that the overuse of new technologies could have a negative impact in their operation and because they avoid the empowerment of human resources. These findings demonstrate a clear and substantial inability of small family-owned hotels to develop innovation, which is in line with the findings of Hassi (2019), Horng et al. (2018) and Zopiatis and Theocharous (2018) who consider the application of new technologies in daily operation and enhancing the creativity of human resources, two particularly important prerequisites to develop innovation in an effective way. Experts believe that to further develop innovation and reduce the barriers that limit it, small family-owned hotels management need to focus strongly on policies that will strengthen the human resources, train them to be able to perceive the value of the new technologies and will motivate them to use it. They also argue that to develop innovation in small family-owned hotels, the management should be assigned exclusively to trained professionals. Finally, State support through funding is particularly important for the development of innovation as it helps to address a structural weakness associated with limited funding.

6 Scientific and Practical Contribution This chapter covers a scientific knowledge gap, as the impact of COVID-19 on the way that small family-owned hotels change the way they operate and develop innovation has not been explored (Shekhar et al. 2021). On a practical level, conclusions and practical advice emerged which can be used by small familyowned hotels, to develop strategic-level policies that will enhance their competitiveness in the post Covid-19 era, and by the State to develop national policies to support small and medium-sized hotel entrepreneurship.

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7 Limitations and Future Research The Delphi methodology led to the investigation of the views of a group of experts who have extensive experience in the hospitality industry. This is an advantage of the present research but at the same time it is also a limitation, since only the views of academics and hotel executives have been considered, excluding the views of frontline employees. Future research could therefore investigate the impact of the spread of COVID-19 on the way that small family-owned hotels change the way they operate and develop innovation, based on exploring the views of a representative and random sample of front-line employees so that a better understanding of the phenomenon can be achieved. At the same time, further investigation of the in-house parameters of small family-owned hotels that hinder change and the shift to innovation would be of scientific and practical interest.

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Miles DA (2017, August) A taxonomy of research gaps: identifying and defining the seven research gaps. In: Doctoral Student Workshop: Finding Research Gaps-Research Methods and Strategies, Dallas, TX, pp 1–15 Remington J, Kitterlin-Lynch M (2018) Still pounding on the glass ceiling: a study of female leaders in hospitality, travel, and tourism management. J Hum Resour Hosp Tour 17(1):22–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2017.1328259 Rosenbaum D, More E, Steane P (2018) Planned organisational change management: forward to the past? An exploratory literature review. J Organ Chang Manag 31(2):286–303. https://doi. org/10.1108/JOCM-06-2015-0089 Santos V, Ramos P, Sousa B, Almeida N, Valeri M (2021) Factors influencing touristic consumer behaviour. J Organ Chang Manag 35(3):409–429. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-022021-0032 Seetharaman P (2020) Business models shifts: impact of Covid-19. Int J Inf Manag 54:102173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102173 Shekhar S, Gupta A, Valeri M (2021) Mapping research on family business in tourism and hospitality: a bibliometric analysis. J Fam Bus Manag. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-102021-0121 Stavrinoudis T, Kakarougkas C (2017) A theoretical model of weighting and evaluating the elements defining the change of organizational culture. In: 3rd International Conference Tourism, Culture, Heritage in a Smart Economy. Athens, Greece, 19–21 May 2016. Springer, Cham, pp 221–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47732-9_16 Stavrinoudis T, Psimoulis M (2017) How do education and training policies determine customer satisfaction and hotels’ performance? Eur J Tour Res 17:176–189. http://ejtr.vumk.eu/index. php/volume17/504-v17177 Stouten J, Rousseau DM, De Cremer D (2018) Successful organizational change: integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures. Acad Manag Ann 12(2):752–788. https://doi. org/10.5465/annals.2016.0095 Svetlacic R, Primorac D, Siladev JL (2020) Small family hotels in destination branding function. In: da Costa EP, do Rosario Anjos M, Przygoda M (eds) Book of Proceedings, 52nd International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development Economic and Social Development, Porto, 16–17 April 2020, pp 345–357. https://www.esd-conference.com/upload/book_ of_proceedings/Book_of_Proceedings_esdPorto2020_Online.pdf Tang CMF, Lam D (2017) The role of extraversion and agreeableness traits on Gen Y’s attitudes and willingness to pay for green hotels. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 29(1):607–623. https://doi. org/10.1108/IJCHM-02-2016-0048 Toanoglou M, Chemli S, Valeri M (2021) The organizational impact of COVID-19 crisis on travel perceived risk across four continents. J Organ Chang Manag 35(2):293–307. https://doi.org/10. 1108/JOCM-12-2020-0369 Toves PR, Graf L, Gould DA (2016) Innovative use of force field analysis: factors influencing technology-enabled change. J Behav Appl Manag 17(2):1183 Varnum ME, Grossmann I (2017) Cultural change: the how and the why. Perspect Psychol Sci 12(6):956–972. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617699971 Veloso CM, Magalhães D, Sousa BB, Walter CE, Valeri M (2021) Encouraging consumer loyalty: the role of family business in hospitality. J Fam Bus Manag. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-102021-0134 Zopiatis A, Theocharous AL (2018) PRAXIS: the determining element of innovation behavior in the hospitality industry. J Hosp Tour Manag 35:9–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2017.12. 004

Linking Business Owner’s Market Capability and Mobile Marketing Adoption: Experience from Tanzania Alberto Gabriel Ndekwa

1 Introduction Worldwide, it is well acknowledged that adoption of marketing innovation is a key strategy to increase business performance and address dangers facing small and medium-sized companies (Cuevas-Vargas et al. 2021). Although it is fundamental to recognize that tourism is strictly connected with other sectors, it is undoubtedly crucial to admit that, from a disaster planning point of view, tourism industry is particularly exposed to danger, if compared to other industries (Valeri 2022a, b). Scholars such Owoseni and Twinomurinzi (2019) have pointed out that market innovation through recent ICT innovation is an enabler of companies to enhance their performance in the market and increase their capacities to sustain from danger exposed to them. They added that recent innovation of mobile technology tends to provide stable system of information transfer within tourism system. This idea is supported by argument made by Valeri and Baggio (2021) who found and argue that efficient transferring information and knowledge play a fundamental strategic role in a tourism system. On the other hand, Chille et al. (2021) acknowledged that the emergence of mobile technology has facilitated the increase in business opportunities and customers’ linkage without the consideration of time and place even during COVID-19 business crisis. This was also supported by Valeri (2022a, b) who found the need of an efficient healthcare tourism policy and engineering management solutions so as to promote a sustainable tourism. Mobile marketing is evidenced to serve the purpose to provide an efficient health care and enable business operation during COVID-19 business crises for business sustainability (Ndekwa 2021). The author added that mobile marketing acted as a management solution during the pandemic business crisis as it allowed business to continue operation even during lockdown. While mobile marketing is recognized as enabler of marketing activities A. G. Ndekwa (✉) Department of Management Science, Ruaha Catholic University, Iringa, Tanzania © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Valeri (ed.), Family Businesses in Tourism and Hospitality, Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28053-5_6

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in all sectors, scholars have argued that mobile marketing is an enabler for marketing operation of family-owned business in tourism sector (Firmino et al. 2019; Ndekwa and Katunzi 2016). Notably example, Firmino et al. (2019) pointed out that mobile technology has changed the way tourists travel, plan, and experience their holidays. They have added that, the high penetration rate of mobile phones has resulted in the increasing use of handheld devices to deliver advertisements for products and services. Further, Mapunda (2021) pointed out that mobile market provides opportunities for business enterprises to attract new customers and reach the existing ones more effectively. On the other hand, Florido-Benítez (2016) advocated that, the consolidation of mobile devices as communication tools has facilitated the creation of a new marketing channel. Chille et al. (2021) related that mobile devices which were mainly for getting information have drastically changed into becoming the medium where customers can get the products or services, where businesses can sell, distribute, and advertise their products or services. Hence, mobile marketing acceptance and adoption is regarded as a strategy to enable family business to perform better in marketing. Realizing the importance of mobile marketing adoption in tourism sector, a number of initiatives have been done in both developed and developing world. Like other countries, the Government of Tanzania has formulated the ICT policy to enable the adoption of recent technology among users where business owners of family business are inclusive (URT 2017). In spite of the importance of mobile marketing in transformation of family business in tourism, scholars have found that owners of business are very slow in adopting mobile marketing. Abbasi et al. (2022) found and concluded low adoption rate of social media marketing among owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. On the other hand, Bhatiasevi and Naglis (2020) found that the adoption and usage of business intelligence among owners of SMEs in Thailand is very low. Again, Eneizan et al. (2019) found and concluded that the acceptance level for mobile marketing remains low among business in Jordan. Further, Mapunda (2021) indicated that the mobile marketing adoption rate is very low among owners of SMEs in African countries. Despite this low uptake of mobile marketing evidence in the literature, scholars have put very low effort to assess why owners are not taking up the mobile marketing. Even those few scholars who have examined the influence of owner’s capability on adoption of technology; most have come up with conflicting findings and conclusion. For example, the proposed dynamic capability theory which argues that human capability has influencing in pushing businesses to adopt competitive technological advantages. Mimosette and Paul (2015) found similar results that owner’s market capability has significant influence of mobile marketing adoption in Cameroon while Musa et al. (2016) found insignificant influence of owner’s capability on mobile marketing adoption among family business in Malaysia. Therefore, it is not clear whether owner’s market capability has significant influence on adoption of mobile marketing or not. Further there has not been a universally recognized system of indicators for the development of owner’s capability to

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adoption of mobile marketing among family business in tourism context. For example, Eze et al. (2020) used level of knowledge capability to measure owner’s market capability in studying its influence on adoption of digital marketing in Nigeria while Eze et al. (2021) found indicators such as integration capacity, expansion capacity, collective capability, and collaborative experience are linkd to the owner’s capability. Furthermore Musa et al. (2016) used technical knowledge availability of owners to study the influence of owner’s market capability on adoption of mobile marketing in Malaysia. Eze et al. (2019) used use indicator variables such as adaptive and expandability capability in a study of Mobile marketing technology adoption. Hence, it is not clear which indicator variables are used to measure owner’s market capability. Valeri (2021) shows how technological progress has sparked profound changes in the economic, social, and technological context, making organizations constantly evolving structures. This means that technological progress such as innovation of mobile marketing needs to be aligned with organization aspect through proper variable which is leading to innovation. This study filled the gap by analyzing the influence of owner’s market capability on adoption of mobile marketing in Tanzania.

2 Literature Review 2.1

Conceptual Definition of the Terms

Market Capability Many definitions exist for marketing capability. Inan and Kop (2018) have defined marketing capability as the ability of an organization to understand and fulfill customers’ needs at the right time, right place, and right cost. In different perspective, Inan and Kop (2018) defined marketing capability as a firm’s skills and competences relating to market information gathering, sharing, and dissemination throughout the organization; launching successful new products, and customer relationship and supplier relationship development. Further, Lagat and Frankwick (2017) defined marketing capability as integrative processes designed to apply the collective knowledge, skills, and resources of the firm to the market-related needs of the business, enabling the business to add value to its goods and services and meet competitive demands. In this chapter, marketing capabilities consist of a complex combination of the human resources or assets, market assets, and organizational assets of a firm. Capabilities are effect complex bundles of knowledge, skills, and abilities embedded within firm owners. These capabilities involve complex coordinated patterns of skills and knowledge that, over time, become embedded as organizational routines.

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Theoretical Literature Review

Dynamic capability is a theory of competitive advantage that evaluate the capability of the firm to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competencies to address rapidly changing environments (Jerker and Powell 2015). These capabilities involve complex coordinated patterns of skills and knowledge that, over time, become embedded as organizational routines and culture. The capability-based theory suggests that a firm can achieve competitive advantage through distinctive capabilities possessed by the firm and that the firm must constantly re-invest to maintain and expand existing capabilities in order to inhibit imitabilities.

2.3

Empirical Literature Review on the Influence of Owner’s Market Capability on Mobile Marketing Adoption

Worldwide, Wardaya et al. (2019) carried out a study on mediating effects of digital marketing on dynamic capability and firm performance among SMEs in Indonesia. Findings revealed that dynamic capability has a positive direct influence on digital marketing capability. On the other hand, Inan and Kop (2018) carried out a study on Marketing Capability Development in Micro Manufacturing Enterprises in Turkey. Findings showed that empowerment, operational excellence, strategy development and implementation, and collaboration capabilities could enhance marketing capability in micro manufacturing enterprises. In Africa, Mapunda (2021) carried out a study on mobile marketing adoption by small and medium enterprises in African countries. Findings showed that IT skills, knowledge, and education of owners and employee have significant influence on adoption of recent mobile marketing. Rostami (2015) carried out a study on examining the relationship between marketing capability and innovation adoption. Findings using correlation analysis revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between marketing capability and innovation.

2.4

Conceptual Framework

This conceptual framework is constructed using two constructs, namely owner’s market capability being the independent variable and mobile marketing adoption as the dependent variable (Fig. 1).

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Owner’s Market Capability

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Mobile Marketing Adoption

Fig. 1 Conceptual frameworks. Source: Constructed by author using Literature Review (2022)

3 Methods 3.1

Research Paradigm

Positivism paradigm was used to understand the reality and acquire knowledge on mobile marketing adoption. Turyahikayo (2021) pointed out that positivism paradigm asserts that reality and knowledge acquisition of a phenomena can be observed empirically and theoretically. He further added that reality and knowledge acquisition can be explained with statistical logical analysis. In this chapter, empirical evidences and theories were used for deeper understanding on reality and in guiding knowledge acquisition about mobile marketing adoption among family business in tourism sector. Furthermore, positivism paradigm was used to generate statistical data and in the hypothesis testing on the influence of owner’s market capability on adoption of mobile marketing.

3.2

Research Approach

Quantitative approach was used to test hypothesis on the influence of owner’s market capability on mobile market adoption. As argued by Zyphur and Pierides (2019) that quantitative approach is designed to determine a significant relationship between two variables. They added that quantitative approach tends to assess the strength of relationship and significant influence of one variable on the other variable. Even in this study, it aims to assess the significant influence of owner’s market capability on mobile market adoption among family business in tourism sector. Hence, quantitative approach was justified to be suitable in this study for statistical analysis of hypothesis testing.

3.3

Study Area

The study was conducted in Arusha and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Arusha region was selected due to concentration of tourism activities which has influenced number of family business. On the other hand, Da es Salaam was selected due to the fact that this area is a strategic hub of tourist in Tanzania. Further, Dar es Salaam has many tourism attraction and recreation center which has influenced family business in

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tourism sector. Therefore, collecting data from this population helped to come up with valid evidence.

3.4

Targeted Population

The population of this study was owners of family business in tourism sector in Tanzania. This population was considered important because most of business owners were affected by decision of shifting to online mobile methods to address market challenges. As argued by Camiller and Valeri (2021) that the owners of family firms have the ability to influence the vision of their business and to formulate long-term goals. Hence, this population of owners of family business was considered to be potential in studying the influence of owner’s market capability on adoption of mobile marketing in tourism sector.

3.5

Sample Size and Sampling Procedure

In this study, the sample size for quantitative phase was determined by infinite population due to the fact that the population of family business in tourism sector is not well known and documented. Sample size for infinite population in this study is determined according to Gray (2009) and as presented in the formula below: S = Z2 × P ×

ð1 - P Þ , M2

where • S = sample size for infinite population • Z = Z score which is determined based on the confidence level (for 95% confidence level Z score is 1.960) • P = population proportion (assumed as 50% or 0.5) • M = Margin of error (the margin of error is taken as 5% or 0.05) Therefore, the sample size is computed as = (1.96)2 * 0.5 * ((1 - 0.5)/ 0.052) = 3.8416 * 0.5 = 1.92088(0.5/0.0025) Therefore, the sample size = 392 respondents Hence, the sample size for quantitative data was 392 respondents. After sample calculation, simple random sampling technique was used to pick sample of those owners of family business for data collection in a quantitative phase. The suitability of simple random sampling is observed as it offers chance for each respondents to be included in the study from the total population (Gruijters and Peters 2022).

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Validity and Reliability

Content Validity In this chapter, content validity was ensured by conducting a pilot study before the main survey in order to ensure that all content targeted to be included in the questionnaire are observed by few respondents and are included before the actual data collection (O’Neill 2022). This means that the pilot study assisted to refine and strengthen the questionnaire to include contextual issue. Triangulation was used; the use of triangulation methods has served to offset the weakness of using one method of data collection tool. As argued by Kim et al. (2018) that triangulation of data collection tools serves to capture data which cover large position of the field which might not be captured by one method of data collection tool. Construct Validity On the other hand, construct validity was also conducted to ensure that those unobserved variables which do not fit well from the model are all eliminated from the model. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to ensure that all indicators are aligned to their construct as presented in Sect. 2.1. While exploratory factor analysis does not include the use of measurement error, confirmatory analysis was conducted to account measurement errors as presented in Sect. 2.1. Hence, all indicator variables are aligned to their underlined construct as presented in Table 3 Rotated Component Matrixa in Sect. 2.1 and in Fig. 2 in Sect. 2.1. The use of exploratory factor analysis is well evidenced in a number of prior studies as it offers suitable chance to remove poor fit indicator variables and retain only indicator variables which are performing in the model (Philippi 2021; Tarka 2018). Predictive Validity Predictive validity assesses whether the study model has scored the recommended score by prior studies or not. Predictive validity for exploratory factor analysis was assessed during data analysis using KMO, Bartlett’s test, and total variance of the model. The results are presented in Tables 2 and 3. which evidence that the study model has scored the KMO greater than 0.6 and Bartlett’s test p-value of 0.00 which all follow under the recommended score recommended by Abu-Alhaija (2019). For confirmatory factor analysis, the predictive validity is presented using comparative fit index (CFI), goodness fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness fit index (AGFI), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSEA) as presented in Fig. 2 in Sect. 2.1. All model fit index above are found to indicate model fit as recommended by Tarka (2018).

3.7

Data Collection Tools

In this particular chapter, a structured questionnaire was used to collect data which are suitable for statistical analysis. Einola and Alvesson (2021) advocated that for positivism studies, questionnaires are considered useful as they offer chance to collect highly structured data suitable for statistical analysis. While the current

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.32 1

e1

MC1 .93

DF=8 CMIN=20.067 CMIN/DF=20.067/DF CFI=.988 GFI=.983 AGFI=.956 RMSEA=.062 .30

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STANDARDIZED MEA SUMENT MODEL AD:Mobile Marketing Adoption AD1:Online Transcation AD4:Online Advertisment AD6:Online Booking Services MC:Owner’s Market Capability MC1:Collaboration Capabilities MC5:IT Knowledge MC6:Experiance

Fig. 2 Measurement model

study was dominated by questionnaire, documentary review technique was also employed in this study to strengthen and give evidence of the data gathered in a study. As argued by Saunders et al. (2012) that documentary review method supports the viewpoints or arguments of an academic work, and also it brings up some issues not noted by other techniques. The current study used documentary review method of data collection to provide more evidence of the findings from the questionnaire and in providing more interpretation of the data collected using questionnaire.

3.8

Data Analysis

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used as a multivariate data analysis technique for arranging a large amount of complex information, that is observed and unobserved variables into a simplified visible form. As argued by Hox and Bechger (2012) that the use of multivariate data analysis in research helps a researcher to arrange a large amount of complex information into a simplified visible form. The current study had a complex model composed of complex structure of constructs and their underlying indicator variables collected from a large sample, hence the use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was considered important. Besides these characteristics covering all multivariate data analysis techniques such as regression method, Hoe (2008) argued that SEM surpasses traditional regression

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models by including multiple independent and dependent variables with multiple indicators variable to test associated hypothesizes about relationships among observed and latent variables. The current study model was designed to capture both observed and latent varibles to explain the influence of owner’s market capability on adoption of mobile marketing. This kind of conceptual framework setting is aligned with the use of SEM and has put SEM to be a very powerful data analysis technique in the current study.

4 Findings 4.1

Demographic Characteristics of Family Business

In terms of demographic characteristics of family business, it aimed to understand the nature and characteristics of the respondents and of the firms approached for data collection. It reports the descriptive results which helped the researchers to be informed about the fundamentals of the business owners under study and to build insights about mobile marketing in supporting the final analysis of data collected. The respondents’ distribution was an important part because it provided a picture of those who participated in the study and helped to indicate the proportion and representation of each unique characteristic of the group of respondents which could affect the outcomes of the research. This study did considered the respondent ownership gender, owner’s experience, and education levels of the respondents as depicted in Table 1. Table 1 indicated that there was at least equal representation of gender, owner’s experience and education level in the process of data collection.

4.2

Model Validation and Validity Test

Model validation aims to consider if the proposed conceptual framework were indeed consistent with actual data. This is because the conceptual framework was developed without data, therefore, it is not clear if the construct is aligned with their underlined measure after data collection. To enable alignment between constructs and their measures, factor analysis of both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis was used as described in Sect. 2.1 below.

4.2.1

Construct Validity

Exploratory factor analysis was used in order to ensure that constructs are aligned with their indicator variables. This is because at the start of any study, the researcher mixes hypothesized, empirical, and theoretical measures of a construct from a

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Table 1 Demographic characteristics Variable Ownership gender Owner’s experience

Education

Total

Measurement Male Female Less than five years Five to ten years Above ten years Primary education Secondary education Certificate/Diploma Bachelor’s degree Postgraduate education

Frequency 219 173 176 98 118 80 103 54 83 73 392

Percent 55.9 44.1 44.9 25.0 30.1 20.4 26.3 13.8 20.9 18.6 100

Source: Field Data (2021)

different setting without data. Babyak and Green (2010) advocate that, in a situation where there is incongruence between the researcher, theory, and data, a poor model fit will always result. As such, researchers use exploratory factor analysis to identify a set of unobserved factors that reconstruct the complexity of the observed data in an essential form (Henson and Roberts 2006). Matsunaga (2010) looks at EFA as a tool intended to help to generate a new theory by exploring latent factors that best account for the variations and interrelationships of the manifest variables. It is used to estimate the unknown structure of the data. In this study, the researcher built the conceptual framework by integrating construct and indicator variables from different empirical literature and expertise view without data. To help to harmonize the data with the researcher’s hypotheses, empirical and theoretical dimensions of constructs, exploratory factor analysis was used to provide a diagnostic tool to evaluate whether the collected data are in line with the theoretically expected pattern, or structure of the target construct and thereby to determine if the measures used have indeed measured what they are purported to measure. In performing the exploratory factor analysis, the principal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to assess the underlying structure for the thirteen (13) items, where seven items belonged to owner’s market capability while six items belonged to mobile marketing adoption. In selecting factors to retain, four criteria were adopted, namely eigen values, scree test (i.e., scree plot), theoretical assumption of two constructs, and each constructs should have at least two items. Yong and Pearce (2013) recommended the use of a combination of criteria to help to offsite the weakness of using one criterion. In this case, two constructs were extracted based on those four criteria which explain 50% of the cummulative variance. The two constructs had eigen values >1 which has met Kaiser’s criterion which suggests retaining all factors that are above the eigen value of 1 (Kaiser 1960). Using a scree test (see Graph 1 at appendix V) all factors above the break/cutoff point on scree graph were retained and those below

Linking Business Owner’s Market Capability and Mobile Marketing Adoption:. . . Table 2 Selected exploratory factor analysis output of dropped items

Factor MC: Owner’s Market Capability AD: Mobile Marketing Adoption

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Item removed MC2, MC7 AD2, AD3, AD5

the break/cutoff point were dropped as recommended by Cattell (1978). Furthermore, two constructs were produced and all produced constructs were aligned with conceptual framework as recommended by Yong and Pearce (2013). Finally, all retained factors had at least two indicators as Yong and Pearce (2013) suggested to retain factors that had at least three items. After discovering that the four factors have met the criteria and now are qualified to be retained, further analysis of indicator variables was done in order to see if this indicator really fits their underlying factor. In order to assess the suitability of each indicator variables to their underlying structure, the following criteria recommended by Yong and Pearce (2013) were adopted for retaining/dropping an item/indicator as follows: First, all items loaded into their associated factors were retained and those loaded into more than one factor were dropped. Second, if more than two items were loaded in one factor, all items were retained and if less than two items were loaded in one factor all were dropped. Third, all items with loading ranging from 0.5 to 0.9 were retained and those with loading less than 0.4 or above 0.8 were dropped. As far as this study is concerned, Table 2 presents a selected output of SPSS of items which were dropped in other ways those poor fitted the data as elaborated below as follows: Owner’s Market Capability (MC)-MC2 and MC7 were eliminated from the analysis because they had weak loadings and hence affected the fitting. For example, MC2 had multiple loading on MC and AD. For MC7, had a negligible contribution because it was loaded alone in a single factor which failed to support theoretical assumptions. Mobile Marketing Adoption (AD), AD2 and AD5 were eliminated because they had weak loadings on theoretical model and hence affected their fitting. AD4 had multiple loading on AD and MC which resulted in poor model fit. Given this perspective, those items that did not fit well with factor solution were dropped from the analysis as described in Table 2 and those that fitted well were retained as described in Table 3. Having established the study framework from the exploratory factor analysis, the next step was to perform confirmatory factor analysis as described in detail below. In this study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to analyze theoretical constructs through assessing the loadings of the measures, error variances, and covariance (Hooper et al., 2008). At the begining the researcher used EFA to discover whether the original variables are organized in a particular way reflecting another latent variable. At this stage the researcher wanted to confirm and harmonize a belief about how the original variables are organized in a particular way using CFA. To

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Table 3 Rotated component matrixa Observed variable MC6 MC3 MC5 MC1 AD4 AD6 AD1

Unobserved variable Owner’s market capability 0.887 0.873 0.821 0.743

Mobile marketing adoption

0.871 0.858 0.647

Extraction method: Principal component analysis Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser normalization a Rotation converged in 3 iterations

carry out confirmatory factor analysis the measurement model was developed to test for specification error and correlation between the latent variables (Yong and Pearce, 2013). In this section, measurement models of two variables as used in the conceptual framework are presented and thereafter the measurement models for the composite structure or variables are also presented. Model Fitness Evaluation in Confirmatory Factor Analysis The following criteria were used to guide the model refinement process to achieve a better fit as recommended by Schermelleh-Engel et al. (2003) who assert that a standardized regression weights (S.R.W) values should be above 0.5 and modification indexes (MI) that reveal high covariance between measurement errors accompanied by high regression weights between these construct errors and cross-loading items are candidates for deletion. Measurement Model for Adoption (AD) Initially, CFI was run using IBM Amos 20 to test and confirm for measurement model base but it fails to fit well. In the modification index MC3 was found to have high loading in modification index hence was deleted. After second run, the model output as illustrated in Fig. 2 indicating that the model fits well based on Hoe (2008) commonly applied fit indices which require a model to achieve the following minimum requirement: CFI (>0.90 indicates good fit), RMSEA (