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The inclusion of the Expected Return into the rules governing the insurance regulation in Spain may be considered as an important step to improve the transparency of the insurance system. The implementation of the Expected Return will allow to carry out the comparison, in terms of profitability, between insurance products offered by different companies. One of the objectives of this paper is to propose the methodology that should be followed for the calculation of the Expected Return, so that this indicator fulfills its main purpose: to compare different insurance products. The second contribution of this paper will allow to analyze the impact that the change in the premium value has on the Expected Return, so that it can become a new element to be considered by insurance companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper we analyze the reasons behind the high success rate in the football clubs insolvency proceedings. The Spanish insolvency scenario has shown elevated fail rates (higher than 90%), evidencing notable weaknesses. Conversely, football clubs have successfully overcome their legal insolvency situations in the great majority of cases, and the results of our paper prove that (i) a financial structure less concentrated in secured credits (particularly secured financial institutions) than the rest of firms, and (ii) the systematic support given by public administrations (voting in favor of their proposals) have provided such outcome. Additionally, this occurs in a context in which public administrations have shown their reticence to give support to the rest of insolvent firms, while others (football clubs) receive it even though they present poorer management indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to design integrated product-service offerings and implement servitization processes, manufacturers need practical and tangible methodologies. Service design has been suggested as a way to facilitate such processes. This paper assesses the results gathered from an experiment of the implementation of service design in six Basque manufacturers already undergoing servitization processes. Data was collected by means of participatory observation and semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that service design allows manufacturers to go beyond product-oriented mindsets and to design integrated product-service value propositions through focusing on the experience offered to customers. Moreover, it concludes that service design can be applied without needing to fully transition towards services as a core offer. Nonetheless, manufacturers participating in this experiment highlighted the need to consider business competencies in service design in order to properly assess and manage all the change elements inherent to servitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the staffing policies of some leading consulting firms in Spain are analyzed to identify the factors that characterize them, as well as similarities and differences among them. The case study method is used for this analysis, and three case studies are considered: Accenture, IBM and Company Z. The results suggest that the professional partnership model and the managed professional business model are still relevant but are insufficient in explaining the various policies. Five factors are identified in addition to major trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a growing number of social enterprises in Spain. Like any other organization, they must be managed efficiently. However, few studies have analyzed the direction of this type of business and, to a lesser extent, how they manage their human resources. This paper focuses on how Spanish social enterprises manage their human resources by using a case study methodology. The results confirm that social companies do follow human resources practices but, due to the strong social component that moves and attracts workers to contribute to their missions, these practices differ from those made by non social enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the escape of talent from social companies by applying ethical and social responsible human resources practices, and by managing volunteers in accordance with their social characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex and international nature of tourism contributes to make it one of the industries most exposed to diverse critical situations. With tourism being an activity with relevant impact on the development of economy, identifying the types of crises that affect the sector emerges as a key issue for hotel management. In this paper, the analysis of the information provided by a panel of experts reveal that not only are economic crises, but the tourism industry is facing multiple types of risks and adverse situations. From the results of the study, we propose a management agenda that will contribute to control and even minimize the negative impact of potential and actual risk situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]