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The success of early-stage start-ups is strongly dependent on founders’ education. Yet, while scholars maintain that investors should consider founders' education an important signal of start-ups' prospects, mixed empirical findings suggest that more education does not always trigger positive investor reactions. Scholars have thus urged the development of new theoretical insights that may explain why and when education is beneficial to start-ups' emergence. Based on cognitive and social psychology literature, in this article, we evidence that different configurations of founders' education affect the ability of founding teams to obtain funding. The empirical support that we obtained from a sample of 1078 start-ups helps reconcile the contradictory findings of past research through a joint examination of two dimensions of founders' education that were previously only investigated separately—the level of education and the heterogeneity of educational backgrounds. Our focus on the group dynamics founding teams advances our understanding of the contribution of founders’ education onto early-stage start-ups' fund raising. In greater detail, educational level and educational heterogeneity positively affect the amount of funds raised, but their joint presence negatively moderates such a relationship. In doing so, we also provide start-uppers and policymakers with important information regarding how cofounders should group together when launching a start-up.

Purpose of the paper: This paper aims to understand whether a hotel’s commitment to sustainability practices is a factor that influences a tourist’s intention to book a hotel room. Methodology: For the purposes of the study a between-subjects experimental approach was applied to a sample of 451 Italians. A t-test and a multiple regression analysis were then adopted to measure whether sustainability affects customers’ intentions to book. Findings: Findings show that, ceteris paribus, customers are more willing to book rooms at hotels committed to sustainability practices than at those that are not. Research limits: The research is framed to capture how consumers react to sustainability-driven practices at hotels and specifically in the upscale hotel market. Consequently, it should be replicated across other hotel categories. Practical implications: Findings suggest that hotel marketers should undertake sustainability practices to inspire consumer intentions to make hotel reservations, thus sustaining hotel performance and local community wellbeing. Originality of the paper: This study contributes to deepening the scientific debate on consumer interest in making reservations that favor hotels that undertake sustainable actions and practices. This research strand has thus far attracted limited attention in the existing literature if compared to similar studies primarily devoted to analyzing the environmental dimension of hotel sustainability and its impact on tourist choices.

This paper analyses corporate sustainability (CS) in multinational enterprises (MNEs) and, in particular, the way the commitment of subsidiaries depends on different configurations of internal and external influence exerted by stakeholders, institutions and corporate headquarters. The study is based on primary data collected through surveys sent to subsidiary managers in the hotel industry in 19 different countries in the world. The findings of a principal component analysis and a cluster analysis show four different clusters of firm behaviors, depending on the external stimuli and the internal obstacles subsidiaries face when implementing CS. These may actually facilitate or hinder its implementation. Results show that some subsidiaries act proactively towards CS, overcoming objective difficulties, whereas others appear to be sluggish, since they feel no pressure to implement such activities, even though they are increasingly important in the current scenario. This paper contributes to the literature on CS in international business and also provides practical recommendations to help MNEs achieve better CS results through a more effective implementation of sustainability activities by their subsidiaries.

Hospitality firms are increasingly investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to generate strong relationships with stakeholders while aiming to benefit their own performance. However, CSR may bring both costs and benefits to the focal firm. We analyze how corporate financial performance (CFP) is affected by CSR, finding that the impact of CSR on CFP has a U-shaped form, where CSR is a cost that translates into higher benefits only when it generates solid relationships between firms and their stakeholders. Furthermore, we adopt a contingency approach, assessing the role of quality management (QM) on the CSR-CFP relationship. We find that the simultaneous implementation of CSR and QM is less beneficial to CFP than the isolated implementation of CSR due to the redundancy of different activities aimed at similar goals, i.e., stakeholders’ satisfaction. In doing so, we advance academic understanding of the impact of CSR and QM on CFP.

The consequences of climate change urges researchers to investigate the issues of environmental sustainability, and the definition of policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions has become more urgent. In this context, urban areas play a significant role since here, economic, productive and social activities are concentrated and, therefore, the majority of the GHG emissions are produced. For these reasons, many cities worldwide are making big efforts to improve their level of environmental sustainability, but is this a worthy investment in terms of territorial competitiveness? In the era of globalization, indeed, countries, regions and cities cannot underestimate the competition against each other to attract firms, people and skills. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify the type of relationship between environmental sustainability and territorial competitiveness at city level in order to verify whether or not it is possible to positively affect competitiveness by investing on green initiatives. The study measures the level of environmental sustainability and competitiveness of 103 Italian capital cities by constructing two composite indicators and it compares the two performances using a statistical approach, showing that being green also means being more competitive and this positive relationship increases proportionally with the population. In other words, strategies designed to make a city more environmentally sustainable positively affect its level of competitiveness, and this correlation is stronger for bigger cities.