Tag: entrepreneurship

Tourism Entrepreneurship and Industrial Restructuring

Our latest paper, on industrial restructuring and tourism entrepreneurship in Serbia, has just been published. This is an open access paper that you can download and read, for free, from here. The abstract is below:

Aerial view Orthodox church Lazarevac, Kolubara, Serbia

National culture can influence entrepreneurship by creating a specific cultural framework that defines the possibilities for the recognition of opportunities for entrepreneurial activities, as well as their social desirability. Very large corporations, especially those that dominate a region, also have their own organizational cultures, which in turn influence local social culture, and which can constitute a specific subculture within society. The “Kolubara” mine is the largest in Serbia, employing more than 11,000 workers. As most of its employees are living close to its headquarters, the small town of Lazarevac (Central Serbia), the culture nurtured within this organization and among its employees is heavily intertwined with the social culture of the inhabitants of the town. The GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) approach was used to investigate the relation between this organizational culture and national culture, by measuring the nine GLOBE cultural dimensions of the “Kolubara” employees and of the inhabitants of Lazarevac. The results of this are discussed and analyzed in the context of the ongoing economic transformation in many post-socialist economies. This study highlights the readiness of the people of small industrial towns, such as Lazarevac, to adapt to this ongoing transition and to undertake entrepreneurial activities in tourism during periods of industrial restructuring and the growth of service industries in former industrial areas.

Tourism and Hospitality Entrepreneurship in Islands

Our new paper, on entrepreneurship in the tourism and hospitality industries in island contexts, has just been published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management. In the paper, we conduct a systematic literature review on the topic, which has received little attention up to this point. The abstract is below. If you would like to read the paper, please just get in touch.

“Entrepreneurship is vital to the success of tourism and hospitality and in turn the sector makes an important contribution to many island economies.  Despite this, far too little attention has been paid by researchers to tourism and hospitality entrepreneurship in islands (THEI).  A systematic review of the literature was conducted to provide a platform for further research and to help investigators set their research priorities and thereby advance understanding of this important field.  Using the Scopus database and the PRISMA technique, a total of 132 articles were included in bibliometric and thematic content analyses. The review revealed that, although there has been an increase in THEI research, this has tended to focus on the Asia-Pacific region rather than the European and North American contexts.  It was also found that, hitherto, the generalizability of much THEI published research is limited.  It is therefore suggested that researchers consider redressing this geographical bias and conduct more quantitative and comparative THEI studies.  Further opportunities exist for scholars to investigate the characteristics and behaviors of tourism and hospitality island entrepreneurs as well as the impacts of the industrial and spatial aspects of THEI.”