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Although in recent years intangible assets are considered a basic factor of production, it is necessary to show that their mere possession will not always guarantee superior performance. Accordingly, based on the resource-based view of the firm and the intellectual capital-based view, this paper has a twofold purpose. First, it analyses the existing relationship between sustainable intangible capital and performance. Second, it analyses the role played by corporate social responsibility and strategic knowledge management as mediator capabilities in the relationship between sustainable intangible capital and performance. Three hypotheses are proposed and a quantitative methodology based on PLS on 120 Spanish hotels with three or more stars is used. The findings do not support the hypothesis that sustainable intangible capital directly influences hotel performance. However, the two mediating hypotheses are supported, showing that corporate social responsibility and strategic knowledge management act as mediators by creating the values, philosophy and necessary foundations for sustainable intangible capital to have a significant influence on hotel performance.

This paper has as its aim to analyse multinational enterprises’ location decisions from the perspective of the knowledge-based firm in an attempt to answer the following questions: Are innovative MNEs more likely to be located in areas with a higher degree of agglomeration? Who benefits to a greater extent − in terms of innovation − from geographical proximity with other agents: national or foreign enterprises? What role does absorptive capacity play in the relationship between agglomeration and innovation? According to this research work, agglomeration differently influences the innovation of MNE subsidiaries – through knowledge spillovers – depending on the types of agglomerated companies. The analysis performed with a sample of firms located in Spain includes local and foreign companies and uses data from a survey conducted by the National Statistics Institute (INE for its Spanish initials) in 2016. The results show that the agglomeration of similar enterprises favours innovation amongst foreign firms, as opposed to local ones, which absorb both positive and negative effects.

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between family involvement and entry mode choice by Spanish hotel chains in foreign markets. Drawing on stewardship and institutional theories, we examine how family character may moderate the effect of institutional differences on the choice of entry modes entailing different levels of resource commitment and control over international activities. Using a sample of 981 hotels established abroad by 76 Spanish hotel chains, the results show that family involvement is associated with entry modes involving greater control and resource commitment. Moreover, family involvement moderates the relationship between both formal and informal institutional distance and entry mode choice. Specifically, when both distances are high, family involvement increases the likelihood of choosing entry modes involving higher control and resource commitment.

The present paper brings together two of the research lines which have proved most relevant in the field of strategic management during the last few years: the importance of knowledge as a source of competitive advantage; and the ease of access to that resource within clusters and/or industrial districts. More specifically, our work focuses on the tourism sector, analysing the extent to which the profitability of Spanish vacation hotels located along the Mediterranean coastline depends on internal and external knowledge, that is, on the knowledge resources generated at each destination. A multiple linear regression is designed for the empirical analysis. The evidence supports the hypothesis that the external knowledge generated at each destination is statistically significant, even though internal knowledge turns out to be more relevant in terms of hotel profitability.

The international expansion of emerging-market multinational enterprises (MNEs) is becoming a research topic of increasing interest among international business scholars. One of the specific research questions arising is whether conventional theoretical arguments originated in studies on developed-country MNEs are still valid for explaining the international behavior of emerging-market MNEs. Drawing on the institutional theory, this paper argues that the influence of host country institutional factors on location decisions differs between Chinese and Indian MNEs. We hypothesize that the negative impact of both cultural distance and political risk on location decisions is lower for Chinese MNEs as compared to Indian MNEs. From a sample of 832 outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) we obtain empirical support for these hypotheses.

The present article analyzes the extent to which the degree of firm agglomeration is higher or lower among Spanish coastline tourist districts, depending on the knowledge made available from the institutions at each destination (universities, vocational training centers, and technology centers). The empirical evidence supports the hypothesis of a U-shaped relationship between these variables for knowledge obtained from universities and higher-level vocational training centers. In this sense, the article highlights the importance of knowledge as a source of competitive advantage, and the ease of access to that resource inside clusters and/or tourist districts. However, the evidence is the opposite for knowledge from medium-level vocational training centers and technology centers, that is, an inverted U-shaped relationship between the variables.

This paper measures the impact on profitability of the geographical area where the vacation hotels of the Spanish Mediterranean are situated. It places a special emphasis on analysing the tourist districts existing in this coastal Spanish area and the extent to which the degree of business agglomeration at each destination affects hotel profit. Due to the characteristics of the service sector, and after a revision of the agglomeration literature, a ‘U’-shaped relationship is hypothesized between these two variables. With data of about 1869 hotels belonging to 113 tourist districts, results support the hypothesis and partially the theory of tourist districts.

China is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism markets. Europe is an attractive destination for Chinese tourists. However, Europe still accounts for a small percentage of Chinese outbound tourism. If European countries want to benefit from this market, they should pay attention to Chinese tourists’ preferences. This article contributes to the understanding of Chinese outbound tourism by analyzing those destination attributes that can influence the number of Chinese tourists received. From a sample of 47 European countries, our findings suggest that a greater cultural distance from China, a large number of World Heritage Sites, a large ethnic Chinese population, and a large number of flight connections to China are associated with the amount of Chinese tourists visiting each country.

In recent years, there is an increasing number of papers focusing on the internationalisation process of Indian multinationals. However, there is still a gap in understanding the determinants of their outward foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions. Thus, this paper analyses the factors influencing the choice between FDI modes by Indian firms. Our findings show that industry technological intensity, host country risk, host market attractiveness, previous international experience and the volume of exports from India to the host country are determining factors of the choice between acquisitions and greenfields.

The Chinese tourism sector is experiencing one of the highest levels of growth, to the extent that China is set to become the leading world power in tourism within the coming decade. Therefore, studying this important sector deserves particular attention. The aim of this study is to analyze the state-of-the-art of China tourism research by reviewing 95 academic papers published between 1997 and 2008 in the world's three leading tourism journals: Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, and Tourism Management. We report the main topics analyzed as well as various rankings of journals, citations, and individual and institutional contributions.

This study examines the relevance of environmental management as a source of competitive advantage for hotels. The relationship between the environmental proactivity of hotels located in the province of Alicante (Spain) and their economic performance levels was studied, and three strategic groups, based on environmental proactivity, were identified: Proactive, Intermediate and Reactive. The findings show that the degree of proactivity achieved by these hotels does not strongly impact on their organisational performance. Nevertheless, performance levels increase as environmental proactivity grows.

The implementation of a total quality management (TQM) culture, with its implicit orientation towards the customer, is a complex matter and requires a long-term approach. Consequently, the firms that try to change from a bureaucratic culture to one oriented towards quality will have to design an appropriate strategy in order to succeed. This type of modification can only be achieved through an evolutionary process and not a reactionary or a revolutionary one, since we are dealing with individual and collective behaviours that can obtain customer satisfaction through continuous improvement. In this respect, we present the case of a transformation towards a TQM culture in the Division of Alicante (Alicante is a province in the East of Spain) of Telefonica Group (a Spanish telecommunications company which, in 1999, provided jobs for over 100000 people and had profits of more than 1780 million euros). Thus, we are going to study the stages the Division went through in the process and the problems they had to face, finally reflecting the results obtained after implementing a strategy that was formulated to achieve this purpose in the long run.