María Dolores Sánchez-Fernández, PhD: octubre 2020

martes, 27 de octubre de 2020

Management of Tourist Destinations: The Expectations of Guests on eWOM Generation in Maldonado (Uruguay)

LINK: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6825

María Dolores Sánchez-Fernández^1,*

Daniel Álvarez-Bassi² and

José Ramón-Cardona³

Department of Business, University of A Coruña, Campus de Elviña, 15071 A Coruña, Spain

Center for Marketing and Tourism Research, Catholic University of Uruguay, Av. Roosevelt y Florencia, parade 7 y 1/2, Punta del Este 20100, Uruguay

Ibiza Island Council Uni. College of Tourism (Associated with the Uni. of the Balearic Islands), C/Bes, 9, 07800 Eivissa-Balearic Islands, Spain

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6825; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176825

Received: 27 July 2020 / Revised: 19 August 2020 / Accepted: 20 August 2020 / Published: 22 August 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strategic Planning and Management of Tourist Destinations)

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of exceeding the expectations of guests to generate greater satisfaction, in order to offer an unforgettable experience and generate more comments on the Web 2.0 in the context of tourism. Structural equation models were used. The data for the analysis were obtained from a sample of residents of the Maldonado-Punta del Este conurbation (Uruguay), who were asked about their last overnight stay. The proposed structural equation model was tested using the partial least square (PLS) technique. The results show that exceeding the expectations of guests is essential for the clients’ experience and very important for the satisfaction with the stay at the hotel. The generation of online comments (electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)) is also strongly influenced by emotional experiences. Exceeding the expectations of trained clients and surprising them with new services and experiences is the essence of luxury offers. The main practical implication is that exceeding expectations is the key to eWOM, and this means that managers must be involved in a perpetual process of service innovation. View Full-Text

Keywords: eWOM; management of tourist destinations; strategic planning; Uruguay

lunes, 26 de octubre de 2020

An Empowerment Scale Analysis of Mexican MSMEs: Modeling with Covariance Structures

LINK: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/8/10/1817

María de la Cruz del Río-Rama¹

Martha Ríos-Manríquez^2,*

José Álvarez-García³

and

María Dolores Sánchez-Fernández⁴

Business Management and Marketing Department, Faculty of Business Sciences and Tourism, University of Vigo, 32004 Ourense, Spain

Finance and Administration Department, University of Guanajuato, Guanajuato 38110, Mexico

Financial Economy and Accounting Department, Faculty of Business, Finance and Tourism, University of Extremadura, 10071 Cáceres, Spain

⁴

Department of Business, University of A Coruña, Campus de Elviña, 15071 A Coruña, Spain

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Mathematics 2020, 8(10), 1817; https://doi.org/10.3390/math8101817

Received: 23 August 2020 / Revised: 10 October 2020 / Accepted: 12 October 2020 / Published: 16 October 2020

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Abstract

Trained human capital is a source of incalculable resources, with an impact on the results of companies. For this reason, companies must carefully consider three aspects: empowerment with the consideration of the cognitive state of their collaborators; training and compensation; and fluidity in information sharing. Although granting empowerment to collaborators has been shown to be beneficial for organizations, its adoption has not been popularized. Therefore, it remains a construct that needs to be studied and understood, considering that it is influenced by the organizational culture of companies. In this research, the main objective was to examine the factor structure of the empowerment scale from the perspective of the owner or manager of the micro, small and medium-sized companies of Guanajuato, Mexico; using the dimensions of psychological empowerment; fluidity in information sharing; as well as training and compensation. The methodology is based on the Mathematical Economy; application of mathematical methods to represent theories and analyze problems in economics. This investigation used an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to validate the proposed measurement scale. The sample is made up of 222 valid questionnaires. The CFA provided evidence that the model that best fits the data is a second-order model made up of two dimensions: self-efficacy and influence on the company’s results, which carry the psychological empowerment construct. These results make clear that although information is necessary to train human capital, cognitive variables are more important in the empowerment of human capital. View Full-Text

Keywords: empowerment scale; confirmatory factor analysis; Mexico