Search

Successful service recovery is one of the major tasks for every service provider. This paper transfers the theory of service recovery from traditional industries into the spectator sport context, more precisely -football. A satisfied and committed consumer is one of the main goals for every business entity, as well as for football clubs. The main purpose of this paper is to examine factors that predict satisfaction with service recovery and its outcomes in the context of the spectator sports industry. The research methodology used previously established scales related to service recovery satisfaction in terms of other industries, which are modified in order to meet the requirements of this research. The research was conducted on 408 active consumers of services provided by Croatian football clubs. The research results show that service recovery perceives equity impacts recovery satisfaction in terms of football as the most popular spectator sport in the world. Furthermore, it has been established that recovery satisfaction predicts satisfaction with club services and trust in football clubs. Relationships between predictors such as recovery satisfaction, satisfaction with club services, trust, and its proposed outcome, such as commitment towards the club could not be supported. This could be due to the fact that spectator sport consumers possess enormous emotional and psychological loyalty towards the club, which surpasses traditional consumer theory understanding. Furthermore, a significant relationship between consumer commitment and positive word of mouth has been established. // Implications for Central European audience: Obtained results can also be of interest for audience from other Central European countries where football is also an extremely important part of their leisure activities and overall culture.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between market orientation, innovation resources and companies’ financial performance. Focus is put on the mediator role of proactive market orientation (PMO) in the relationship between reactive market orientation (RMO), innovation resources and financial performance in the context of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Research builds on reliable scales. Four hundred and fifteen usable questionnaires were collected from companies in Slovenia with more than 20 employees. The results show a strong and positive relationship between RMO and PMO. The impact of RMO on innovativeness as an element of organisational culture is both positive and stronger than the impact of PMO. PMO proved to have a significant positive influence on the capacity to innovate. While innovativeness alone does not directly influence financial performance, the results do confirm the positive impact of an organisational capacity to innovate on financial performance. The finding of our paper is that when PMO was included as a mediator between RMO and the capacity to innovate, the result was that this indirect impact proved to be one of the strongest in the model. Also, it proves that in CEE countries, it is important to stress the influence of market and market orientation in building innovation resources and consequently financial performance. The limitation of the current study is that we considered the relationship only among few marketing resources and organisational performance. In future research, additional measures of market performance may be introduced as mediators between innovation resources and financial performance.

The organizational culture is a significant construct in a time of change during the organizational transition, and it plays an important role in achieving goals of social responsibilities, which is an important part of sustainability. The literature shows the gap of socially responsible transfer of organizational culture with the impact on employee’s well-being. The cultural changes of the organization during the transition are particularly in connection with the impact on internal communication where organizational culture presents a part of values, norms, and ethics, which influences successfully implemented changes and in such a way has an influence on the stress and work satisfaction. The main purpose of the presented study is the development of the model of socially responsible transfer of organizational culture to the foreign subsidiaries on a basis of adjusted internal communication, which reduces stress and increases work satisfaction. Impacts of organizational culture on internal communication, stress, and work satisfaction are clearly presented, as well as inter-related impacts of the constructs concerning national culture, leadership, and organizational knowledge. Thus, the new holistic model of socially responsible transfer of the parent organization culture to foreign subsidiaries clearly defines steps of organizational culture, internal communication, stress management, and work satisfaction. Managerial implications are discussed.

Praktikum je namenjen študentom prvega letnika dodiplomskega študija na Ekonomsko-poslovni fakulteti za delo pri vajah predmeta Osnove marketinga in se uporablja kot dopolnilo k drugi izdaji monografije Marketing – Temeljni koncepti in njihova uporaba v digitalnem okolju. Praktikum zajema 10 poglavij in zajema naslednja osnovna področja marketinga: opredelitev marketinga, marketinško okolje, temeljni marketinški koncepti, spoznavanje odjemalcev, raziskave za potrebe marketinga, načrtovanje strategij marketinga, izdelek, cena, marketinške poti in marketinško komuniciranje. Vsako poglavje sledi enaki strukturi: študijski primer, vprašanja iz primera, vprašanja za utrjevanje in vaje za utrjevanje, ki so namenjene poglobljenemu razmisleku o obravnavni temi.

This paper aims to test the relationships between design orientation and its implementation with customer orientation and, consequently, company performance. Researched model and hypotheses were tested on the Croatian market. Data were collected using the computer-assisted web interviews on the population of Croatian companies with at least three employees. The hypotheses were tested using the partial least squares based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The research results highlight the role of design as one of the important predecessors of customer orientation, and its indirect influence on company performance was confirmed.

In the present research, we examined whether emotional responses determine price fairness perceptions and resulting behaviours. The relationships among negative emotional response, price fairness perception, self- protective behaviour, and negative word-of- mouth were hypothesized and empirically investigated. Furthermore, the moderating role of moral foundation was addressed and tested. Results indicated that there is a strong relationship between negative emotions and price fairness perceptions. While the latter had no significant effect on self-protective behaviour, it had a noticeable one on negative word-of-mouth. There was also a significant positive relationship between the two types of behaviours, where self- protective behaviour positively influenced negative word-of-mouth. Furthermore, the relationship between price fairness and negative word-of-mouth was significantly greater among respondents who scored higher on the moral foundation scale. Such results indicate that behaviour of those with a higher moral foundation appears to rely more on price fairness, while the behaviour of the second group (respondents with lower moral foundation scores) is determined primarily by emotional response. Our research contributes to the knowledge of consumer behaviour by providing an insight into different customer reactions regarding what they perceive to be unfair prices.

The purpose of this article is to present the relationships among older employee stress, motivation, satisfaction, and relationships in the workplace using two different approaches and different sample sizes. Research was implemented on an initial sample of 1013 older employees. In the next step, six smaller samples were calculated using the random selection of cases, namely samples with 25, 50, 100, 250, 400, and 500 older employees. This way the possible impact of sample size on relationships between latent variables using the covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) methods was assessed. The results on the larger samples have proved to be quite robust since they were confirmed with both approaches. They indicate that stress has a strong and negative impact on employee relationships and also a negative impact on employee satisfaction. Furthermore, employee relationships have a strong and positive impact on satisfaction and a positive impact on employee motivation. In addition, satisfaction has a strong and positive impact on employee motivation. The present paper helps readers to better understand the difference between the CB-SEM and the PLS-SEM methods. Researchers should be encouraged to use both techniques, even though CB-SEM methods have had a long tradition in management and marketing research since both fields heavily rely on psychometric measurement. From the organizational point of view, conclusions highlight the importance of the impact the variables of older employee stress, motivation, satisfaction and employee relations have on each other in the workplace.

Work is a crucial part of human life. One should attain employees’ well-being (WB) to support organisational success. In the first phase, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to assess the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the reflective latent constructs. In the second phase, structural equation modelling was performed to test the research hypotheses. By structural equation modelling we found that physical health (PH) statistically significant negatively affects subjective emotional well-being (SEWB). Positive PH and SEWB were negatively connected. Emotional intelligence (EI) has a statistically significant impact on SEWB. The last relationship in the model—between spiritual intelligence (SI) and self-determination (SD)—was negative, but statistically significant. Therefore, human resource management’s activities (HRM) must concentrate on optimal physical/mental health, emotional (EI) and spiritual (SI) intelligence. Employees’ good health supports their emotional WB. Their emotional balance, based on their EI, enhances their subjective emotional WB and SD. The employees ’SI affects their SD.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to measure attitudes towards cosmetic surgery services among women and to determine the potential segments of women according to their attitudes towards cosmetic surgery services and discover the main differences among them. Design/methodology/approach The research was implemented on a sample of 258 women in Slovenia. A quota sample was chosen for this research following the age characteristics of the Slovenian female population. The data collection method used was personal interviews. Convergent validity for the attitudes towards cosmetic surgery services was assessed with exploratory factor analysis. The segmentation analysis procedure was implemented in two phases. First, hierarchical clustering with Ward’s method was deployed, and in the second step K-means cluster analysis was used. Findings The results show that four clusters were clearly distinctive according to three dimensions, namely, intrapersonal, social and consider component. In further analysis, four segments of women were analysed regarding the fear of ageing, the importance of appearance, body image and self-esteem. Results show that all four segments are unique and distinguish one from another. Practical implications Through segmentation analysis, authors of this study indicate two segments (target groups) that are possibly interesting for providers of cosmetic services. Marketing communication activities should mainly be focussed on the woman’s appearance. Originality/value Based on a theoretical hypothesis and use a quantitative method, the aim of this paper is to provide a deeper analysis and understanding of attitudes and views of different woman profile regarding cosmetic surgeries. It presents a more structured view on differences that exist among segments of female consumers while also adding new insights into the factors that influence attitudes towards cosmetic procedures.

Purpose Poor payment discipline has been a constant problem faced by European companies and has only deteriorated with the current global economic crisis. Even though new legislation has been adopted several times on the European level, the situation has not changed in favor of improved payment discipline. This research aims to determine the correlation between ethical culture of the company and how it influences its payments. Design/methodology/approach The factor structure of Kaptein’s (2008) instrument for measuring ethical culture was analyzed using principal component analysis with varimax rotation. This factor analysis yielded six factors with eigenvalues over 1.00. The reliabilities of the single constructs were as follows: clarity (α = 0.891), feasibility (α = 0.918), discussability (α = 0.955), supportability (α = 0.956), sanctionability (α = 0.879) and transparency (α = 0.801). These six factors explained 78 per cent of the total variance. All six factors were named according to Kaptein’s (2008) proposal, whose factor analysis yielded, in addition to the six factors, the following two factors: “Congruence of supervisors” and “Congruence of management”. Both factors represent the ethical culture dimension that Kaptein (1998) called “Congruence”, which refers to the extent to which superiors’ and managers’ acts are in line with their ethics on the declarative level. Findings The results showed that two dimensions of ethical culture, sanctionability and feasibility, improve payment discipline. Research limitations/implications The results of this study provide an important link between ethical culture and late payments. However, the research has some limitations. The first limitation is the response rate of only 9.1 per cent. The next limitation is geographical location; the results in other European countries could be different. The third limitation of the research arises from the data collection, because ethical culture was evaluated by one person from each enterprise, and the average payment delay was also calculated based only on a sample of invoices. Future research should therefore attempt to confirm the correlation between ethical culture and payment discipline in other European countries. It would be interesting to compare finds among different European countries, to determine whether there are major differences among companies in the field of payment discipline. Originality/value Good payment discipline can be defined as settling obligations to the customer on time. Late payments have been one of the biggest problems in many European economies. Trade credit becomes even more important during economic crises (Guariglia and Mateut, 2006), when investments are in decline, trading volume is reduced, bank credit is harder to obtain and interest rates are increased (Vojinović et al., 2013; Lin and Martin, 2010). Because customers do not fulfill their obligations on time, even enterprises with healthy sales growth encounter cash flow problems (Tsai, 2011). This paper’s empirical research has been implemented in Slovenia because it has some of the worst payment disciplines among European countries. Such research is unique in Slovenia as well as wider.

Collaboration between company and its suppliers is important in providing value to customers, especially in the age when companies are dominantly trying to focus on lowering costs to be more effective. But not just cost-effectiveness is a driving principle for all companies. Some companies are oriented towards establishing relationships with suppliers in order to provide value to customers. Hence, purpose of this paper is to explore relationships between companies and their key suppliers and to identify what influences their collaboration activities. Primary research was conducted on 182 Croatian companies, applying scales identified in previous research. Factor analysis and multivariate linear regression analysis were applied in analyzing research results. Results indicate that there are several benefits that companies perceive key suppliers are providing to them. Market and scout function, quality function, social support function, rescue function and innovation development function are some of them. These functions (supplier benefits), influence company future collaboration with key suppliers and consequently influences co-creation. Research results identified that quality, social support and innovation development function influence company’s future collaboration activities. Based on these results implications for marketing managers are offered and ideas for co-creation provided.

The topic of health-promoting leadership has often been investigated on its impact on health outcomes. However, it is still unclear if healthpromoting leadership has an impact on other well-being parameters at work besides health. Another leadership behavior, the leaders’ listening skills, can benefit well-being parameters at the workplace, such as job satisfaction, which in turn lowers turnover intention. In the present study, we investigate the relationship between health-promoting leadership, the leaders’ listening skills, job satisfaction, and turnover intention to get a clearer picture about the effects of different leadership behaviors on the employees’ well-being. The results of an online-study with 354 Austrian and Slovenian workers showed that both types of leadership behaviors had a direct effect on the employees’ job satisfaction and an indirect effect on turnover intention through job satisfaction. Listening was found to have a stronger direct impact on job satisfaction. The findings indicate that both leadership behaviors are able to support well-being at the workplace.

Nowadays, enterprises can gain and sustain a competitive advantage in hypercompetitive environments for only a limited period of time. In order to be able to do that, enterprises must be dynamic. Even though – several authors suggest a positive association between organisational culture and the enterprise’s dynamic – we are still lacking the empirical support for such assertion. Therefore, we empirically tested the association between the type and strength of culture and the level of enterprises’ dynamics. Since organisational culture and the enterprises’ dynamics are both a complex phenomenon, we applied a case study approach combined with quantitative methods. The research indicates that the adhocracy culture type positively influences the level of enterprises’ dynamics. Regarding the strength of culture, our research results show that positive effects of strong culture exceed the eventual negative effects of such culture and positively influence the level of enterprises’ dynamics.

Late payments have long been a problem for enterprises, and the situation only escalated following the recent global economic crisis. Even though new legislation has been adopted at the European level, the problem of late payments has not improved. The aim of the study presented in this paper was to find out whether late payments can be explained by enterprises’ ethical culture. The analysis of ethical culture was performed by Kaptein’s (2008) measurement instrument. Of the six dimensions that could be confirmed with our sample, three correlated statistically significantly with late payments: sanctionability, feasibility and transparency. Sanctionability refers to the likelihood that unethical behavior will be sanctioned and ethical behavior will be rewarded; feasibility refers to the creation of conditions that allow employees to meet normative expectations; and transparency refers to the degree to which incorrect behavior is visible to those who can have an influence on changing such behavior. The more sanctionability and feasibility are expressed in enterprises, the better their payment discipline; the more transparency is present, the worse the payment discipline. Furthermore, our research showed that the size of the enterprise, liquidity (current ratio) and financial leverage (debt to asset ratio) have no statistically significant influence on the payment discipline of the observed enterprises.

The concept of health-promoting leadership focuses on the interaction between the organization and the individual by identifying components able to positively influence employees’ working conditions. In the present study, the effects of health-promoting leadership and transformational leadership on the employees’ recovery–stress balance are investigated. In an online study, 212 Slovenian workers were asked about their perceptions of their direct supervisors and their work-related stress and recovery. The results showed that both leadership styles have a significant effect on employees’ recovery at the workplace, which mediated the relationship between leadership and work-related stress.

European countries have faced the problem of poor payment discipline for many years. Despite legislation adopted in 2000 and 2011, the situation is not improving. Not much empirical research has been done about the causes of low payment discipline, and even the work that has been done has been generally focused solely on the financial reasons. The current research tried to determine whether the payment discipline is affected and influenced by management ethics. The study showed that board’s and senior management’s ethics affects the length of the average payment delay to suppliers. Based on this evidence and prior research in the field of moral judgment, this study developed a package of measures against late payments based on the improvement of the moral judgments of management.

The main goal of the paper is to research the impact of marketing resources on company performance for companies on B2B markets. The conceptual model, including market orientation, marketing strategy, ICT support factors for B2B markets and company performance was proposed and empirically tested. The research results show that market orientation and its sub-constructs, namely competitor orientation and customer orientation have a positive impact on implementation of marketing strategy and ICT support for B2B markets. Also, implementation of good marketing strategies for companies on B2B markets and ICT support on B2B markets have a positive impact on company performance.

The aim of this paper is to study attitudes toward online dating among students studying in Austria. We are especially interested in researching the usage of dating sites as well as gender and user status differences in attitudes toward online dating among these students. The results, gathered through empirical research, show that these students do not have positive attitudes toward online dating. Some gender and user status differences were also identified. According to the results, specific profiling for the target group is offered on the basis of their attitudes to online dating; such information can be very helpful for online dating providers and advertisers.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore small hotels guests' perception of social responsibility (SR), to relate their SR perceptions with their motivation for choosing small hotels instead of large ones, and to check whether motivation is further related to guests' satisfaction. System thinking is used for better attainment of SR through linking the environmental and social dimension of hotel guests' SR perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – The paper starts with a theoretical background for the conceptual model. The empirical quantitative research was conducted in 2013. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The hypotheses were analysed with structural equation modelling. Findings – The findings show that guests of small hotels perceive SR predominantly through its environmental and socio-local perspective. The guests with stronger perception of SR are more motivated to choose small hotels for their vacations, and at the same time, demonstrate a higher level of satisfaction with their choice. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to guests of small hotels only and to two dimensions of SR: environmental and socio-local. Originality/value – Results of the study should encourage the small hotel operators to implement system thinking when reviewing their existing SR actions and adding some new ones. Relevant SR actions in small hotels, based on managers' system thinking, should become an important part of strategic, managerial and operational decisions.

Every society is based on humans, being also essential factors of the social responsibility (SR), which is an important predecessor of the organizational performance. SR supports informal systemic behavior aimed at requisite holism of behavior of influential persons and their organizations; it leads towards creativity-based well-being (CBWB) of humans in organizations and in society. This matters: people with CBWB live and work better. Links between CBWB, SR and human resource management (HRM) and the influence of SR and HRM on organizational performance from aspects of growth, development and finances are demonstrated empirically. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analyzing tourism perceptions of host communities and residents’ attitudes toward tourism development has been gaining increasing attention in the tourism research. This paper examines how residents perceive positive and negative economic and socio-cultural impacts of tourism. The authors identify several differences between two groups of respondents: residents employed in tourism and other residents. The study provides tourism planners with useful information concerning specific elements associated with residents’ positive and negative perception of the impact of tourism.

Job insecurity is a serious stressor in the work environment, with negative work-related outcomes. The effects of job insecurity strongly depend on the country’s economic condition. The present study investigated the relationship among job insecurity, job satisfaction, and the intention to quit as well as possible mediating variables (resources/recovery and stress). The samples of 251 Slovene and 219 Austrian workers were analyzed. The data indicated that job insecurity is related to higher stress and intention to quit as well as to lower resources/recovery at the workplace. Stress is an important mediator in the relationship between resources/recovery and job satisfaction as well as intention to quit. These relationships were found in both samples.

Enterprise culture is judged by many acknowledged scientists and researchers now as a major determinant of any enterprise’s success. The present article shows the research cognitions on the impact of enterprise culture to the success of the enterprises observed. It investigates the impact of customer and employee oriented enterprise culture on market and financial performance of the enterprise. Results suggest that enterprises, which are more customer (externally) oriented, show better market performance as well as better financial performance. The cognitions also show that more employee (internally) oriented enterprises, show positive impact to their market as well as to their financial performance.

We investigated relationships among market orientation, innovation and reputational resources, and their impact on market performance and fi nancial performance within the transitional economy of Slovenia. Market orientation related positively to market and fi nancial performance of fi rms indirectly through innovation and reputational resources. Reputational resources associated positively with loyalty, market share, and sales volume, innovation resources associated positively with market share, and sales volume indirectly through customer loyalty. Selected marketing resources related positively to fi cial performance indirectly through customer loyalty, market share, and sales volume. The implications of these fi ndings for theory and practice are considered. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. JEL Classifi cation: M31, M10

PurposeTo work out an innovative organisation model for tourism destinations in rural areas.Design/methodology/approachBy outlining the problematic of tourism development in rural areas and implementing the concept of network management and the systems theory, we developed an innovative approach to destination management for non‐urban areas.FindingsNetwork management means a new lesson for destination management. Our model has been conceived to systematically deal with different subsystems and both systemic and non‐systemic entities in a rural destination.Research limitations/implicationsThe focus is limited to destination management in rural areas only. Although several methods suit different types of destinations, some seem to be less adequate for rural areas. The model was intended to search an optimal organisational model only.Originality/valueThe model introduces an original approach to the destination management and allows its application in a wide range of real situations. It can help achieving a better organisation and thus an improved competitiveness of a rural destination.

The study focuses on the emerging tourism industry in four communities in the Eastern Slovenia at different level of tourism development. Using social exchange theory, the research explores rural residents' perceptions of the economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts of tourism. The paper examines the differences and similarities in perceptions between two groups of respondents: residents employed in tourism business and other residents. The findings suggest that there are more similarities between the two groups than expected in terms of the positive impacts of tourism. However, non-industry residents expressed more concern about the negative socio-cultural and environmental impacts. Residents' perceptions of positive and negative impacts tourism varied in communities under different stages of tourism development. However, contrary to expectations, residents in advanced stages of tourism were not more antagonistic towards tourism. Finally, the residents' satisfaction with tourism is significantly higher in destination in development and consolidation stages than in the mature stage.

The case study research methodology in combination with quantitative methods was applied to explore the influence of a family on the emergence and presence of informal and formal institutional measures of business ethics implementation. For the empirical testing, we have selected Slovenia, one of the most developed European post socialist transition countries. Our research reveals that the role modeling is presented to a greater extent in family than in non-family businesses; this measure is the most popular measure of encouraging ethical behavior in family as well as in non-family businesses. The core value statement is presented to a greater extent in non-family than in family businesses, reflecting the less formal mode of family businesses functioning. Key words: Family, family enterprise, case study, informal and formal measures of business ethics implementation, ethical behavior, transition economies, Slovenia.

Enterprise culture is judged by many acknowledged scientists and researchers now as a major determinant of any enterprise’s success. The present article shows the research cognitions on the impact of enterprise culture to the success of the enterprises observed. It investigates the impact of customer and employee oriented enterprise culture on market and financial performance of the enterprise. Results suggest that enterprises, which are more customer (externally) oriented, show better market performance as well as better financial performance. The cognitions also show that more employee (internally) oriented enterprises, show positive impact to their market as well as to their financial performance., Mnogi priznati znanstvenici i istraživači smatraju kulturu poduzetništva jednom od osnovnih odrednica poduzetničkog uspjeha. Ovaj članak pokazuje rezultate istraživanja o utjecaju kulture poduzetništva na uspjeh promatranih poduzeća. Istražuje poduzetničku kulturu usmjerenu na klijenta i zaposlenika te njen utjecaj na tržište i financijsku performansu poduzeća. Rezultati ukazuju na to da poduzeća koja su usmjerenija na klijenta (eksterno), pokazuju bolje tržišne kao i financijske performanse. Rezultati također pokazuju da poduzeća orijentiranija na zaposlenike (interno) pokazuju pozitivan utjecaj na tržište i na vlastite financijske performanse.

Percipirana vrijednost jedna je od najutjecajnijih mjera potrošačevog zadovoljstva i lojalnosti. Percipirana vrijednost potrošača šire se može definirati kao sveukupna procjena potrošača o korisnosti proizvoda (ili usluge) temeljena na percepcijama onoga što se prima i onoga što se daje. Osnovna svrha studije je ispitati ulogu percipirane vrijednosti kao posredne varijable u percepciji hotelskih usluga. U empirijskoj studiji percipirana kvaliteta je izravno, ali i neizravno povezana sa zadovoljstvom hotelskog gosta te se stoga percipirana vrijednost smatra posrednom varijablom između percipirane kvalitete i zadovoljstva hotelskog gosta. Podaci za empirijsko istraživanje sakupljeni su kod 1020 hotelskih gostiju u Ljubljani, Portorožu, Zreču i Rogli u svibnju i lipnju 2007. korištenjem osobnlh intervjua. Rezultati sugeriraju da samo trecína odstupanja kod zadovoljstva gostiju može biti objašnjena petcipiranom kvalitetom te da je neizravni utjecaj percipirane kvalitete kroz percipiranu vrijednost puno veći od izravnog utjecaja. Ovo upućuje na važnost percipirane vrijednosti kao posredne varijable u odnosu kvaliteta - zadovoljstvo., Perceived value is considered as one of the most influential measures of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Perceived customer value can be broadly defined as the customer's overall assessment of Ihe utility of a product (or service) based on perceptions of what is received and what is given. The main purpose of the study is to examine the role of perceived value as mediating variable in hotel services perception, ln the empirical study perceived quality was linked directly as well as indirectly to hotel guest satisfaction, therefore perceived value was considered to be a mediating variable between perceived quality and hotel guest satisfaction. Data for empirical research was collected from 1020 hotel guests in Ljubljana, Portorož, Zreče and Rogla in May and June 2007 by means of a personal interview. Results suggest that only one third of the variance in guest satisfaction can be explained by perceived quality and that the indirect effect of petx:eived quality on guest satisfaction through perceived value is much stronger than direct effect. This indicates the importance of perceived value as mediating variable in quality - satisfaction relationship.

The study investigates the relationships between market orientation, innovation resources, reputational resources, customer related capabilities, and distribution based assets, as well as their impact on market and financial performance. The results indicate that market orientation is indirectly related to a company's market and financial performance through other four marketing resources. Reputational resources have a positive impact on loyalty, market share, and sales volume, while the impact of innovation resources on market share and sales volume is rather indirect through customer loyalty. While the customer related capabilities significantly impact customer loyalty their impact on market share and sales volume can not be confirmed. On the other side the distribution based assets are weakly related to loyalty and market share and sales volume. General findings indicate that selected marketing resources impact financial performance indirectly through the creation of customer loyalty and directly through market share and sales volume. V raziskavi proučujemo povezavo med tržno naravnanostjo in inovacijskimi viri, viri ugleda, sposobnostmi povezanimi z odjemalci in premoženjem, ki temelji na dobaviteljih, kakor tudi njihov vpliv na tržno in finančno uspešnost. Rezultati razkrivajo, da je tržna naravnanost preko štirih obravnavanih marketinških virov posredno povezana s tržno in finančno uspešnostjo podjetij. Viri ugleda imajo pozitiven vpliv na zvestobo in tržne deleže ter obseg prodaje, medtem ko je vpliv inovacijskih virov na tržne deleže in obseg prodaje predvsem neposreden preko vpliva zvestobe odjemalcev. Sposobnosti povezane z odjemalci sicer pomembno vplivajo na zvestobo odjemalcev, vendar v raziskavi njihove povezave s tržnimi deleži in obsegi prodaje nismo potrdili. Premoženje, ki temelji na dobaviteljih je zgolj šibko povezano z obema kazalcema tržne uspešnosti (zvestobo, tržnimi deleži in obsegi prodaje). V splošnem ugotavljamo, da tržni deleži in obsegi prodaje na finančno uspešnost vplivajo neposredno, hkrati pa so tudi pomemben mediator pri posrednem vplivu zvestobe odjemalcev na finančno uspešnost.

In contemporary marketing research, there is a general consensus in marketing and management theory that intangible resources of the organisation can play crucial role in sustainable competitive advantage creation. In this paper, the relationships between four such intangible resources (hotel image, perceived quality, perceived value and hotel guest satisfaction) are empirically researched. Structural model of guest satisfaction was developed and tested on the sample of 1,020 tourists in Slovenia. Results suggest that the direct impact of perceived quality on guest satisfaction is quite weak. However, perceived quality as well as hotel image impact guest satisfaction indirectly through perceived value. The results indicate the importance of perceived value as mediating variable in service perception models which means that marketing practitioners and managers in the hotel industry should focus their efforts mainly on the perceived value of their offerings.

Innovation resources are among the resources critical for the creation of sustainable competitive advantage and therefore, for the growth and survival of companies. Authors explore partial dimensions of innovation resources and their relations with company performance from a sample of companies in Slovenia as a transforming socialist economy. The results of research show moderate positive correlation between these two variables.