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Aims to provide the entities and institutions that train retailers with a series of recommendations to improve the quality of the courses they organise and give, especially concerning the aspects where those actually receiving training detect the greatest shortcomings. Hence, the perceptions of the individuals attending the courses as well as the importance they give to each of the aspects considered to be relevant for evaluating the quality of training received have been analysed. To this end, a measurement instrument based on the SERVPERF scale has been developed and, according to the quality evaluations obtained, the retailers have been classified into homogeneous groups. Evaluating the quality of the training received, grouping the retailers, and detecting significant differences among the groups will enable the bodies organising and/or giving courses to diversify their offerings in terms of the characteristics of those receiving training. They will also be able to determine the strengths and weaknesses of these courses at an overall level as well as for each of the groups. Likewise, clues can be found to improve aspects of the training courses to which due attention may not be being paid at the present time.

The current work aims to analyze the role of commitment perceived by the consumer in the maintenance of long‐term relationships. The context of analysis chosen is the tourism sector, more specifically the relationships that retail travel agencies establish with their consumers. The study tests a conceptual model via a system of structural equations using the statistics package EQS 6.1 for Windows. The results corroborate the importance of the consumer’s trust in the travel agency and the consumer’s perception of the firm’s commitment, because this commitment acts as an antecedent of trust and creates the conditions for the firm to achieve a stable portfolio of customers.

Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of the advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship surrounding the entrepreneurial intention on a university context.

To test the hypothesis it is used a quantitative research. With a structural equations approach, it is explored the psychological mechanisms that could affect to the entrepreneurial intentions of university students.

The results obtained show that the advantages related to entrepreneurship, in particular personal rewards, influence positively on the entrepreneurial attitude. However, the disadvantages, in particular economic aspects, have a negative effect. Additionally, the authors test that the gender and the academic training have a moderate effect on the variables which influence on the entrepreneurial intention.

This paper contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship in two important aspects. First, it goes into detail about the influence that perceived advantages and disadvantages of starting a new business has on entrepreneurial intentions. Second, the authors examine relevant and special collective, university students that try to decide their professional future and, hence, it is a critical period to decide the startup of a new business.

Con la Teoría de Comportamiento Planificado como marco de referencia este trabajo analiza la influencia de las ventajas e inconvenientes asociados al emprendimiento sobre la intención emprendedora en un contexto universitario.

Para la contrastación empírica de las hipótesis planteadas se realiza una investigación de naturaleza cuantitativa mediante la cual se exploran los mecanismos psicológicos que podrían guiar las intenciones de emprendimiento de los estudiantes universitarios.

Los resultados obtenidos ponen de manifiesto que las ventajas asociadas al emprendimiento, en especial las recompensas personales, influyen positivamente en la actitud emprendedora, mientras que los inconvenientes asociados al emprendimiento, y en particular los aspectos económicos, ejercen un efecto negativo. Asimismo, se constata que el sexo y los estudios cursados tienen un efecto moderador en las variables que afectan a la intención emprendedora.

El presente trabajo aporta dos contribuciones fundamentales a la literatura sobre emprendimiento. Por un lado, profundiza en la comprensión de la influencia que tienen en la decisión de emprender las percepciones de los individuos respecto a las ventajas e inconvenientes de crear un negocio propio. Por otro lado, se examina un colectivo de especial relevancia en el ámbito del emprendimiento, como son los estudiantes universitarios, que se encuentran en situación de encaminar su futuro profesional y, por tanto, en un momento crítico para la decisión de crear una empresa propia.

Appropriate management of service failures involves a complex organizational response that allows an effective internal and external recovery, learn from mistakes and introduce future service innovations. Empirical evidence on the organizational recovery practices more suitable to achieve these objectives, leading to superior performance, is limited. The present work seeks to extend the existing literature by identifying the potential dimensions that constitute an integrated service recovery system (ISRS), introducing a strategic, proactive and relational approach to service failure and recovery management, and by proposing a causal model linking the ISRS with performance.

The ISRS dimensions and their attributes are derived from an extensive literature review and suggestions from academics and business experts. Structural equations modeling is used to test a model linking the ISRS (conceptualized as a second order construct), with client, employee and business performance indicators, using data from a Spanish sample of 151 Knowledge‐Intensive Business Services (KIBS).

Results confirm that the firms' ability to approach service recovery from a strategic, proactive and relational perspective allows improving performance among clients and employees, that is, the external and internal recovery to occur, which leads to a superior competitive performance.

The ISRS scale can provide managers with a diagnostic tool to analyze their recovery practices and to further improve their competitiveness in the long term.

The need to assess the integrative nature of effective service recovery systems has been claimed theoretically. An empirical study showing the link between comprehensive service recovery practices and performance was lacking.

This exploratory study aims to compare how businesswomen with different initial bounds to their businesses resort to gender discourses to construct a shared business identity in group interaction.

The study was conducted with two focus groups of Portuguese businesswomen with different initial bounds to their enterprises: those who created their own companies and those who “inherited” family businesses. All the participants of both groups own and manage their businesses.

A discourse analysis of the interactions shows that the identities of businesswomen are constrained and produced by different masculinities (authority, professionalism and self-determination) and femininities (restrictive and emancipatory). The interweaving of these gender discourses results in the production of a “respect” identity in the family businesses group and a “self-determination” identity in the start-up businesses group.

The comparison of the different business identities shared by women with particular business experiences contributes to reflections upon the diversified contours that gender discrimination can undertake, and upon the need of practitioners to adjust the gender policies according to those particular experiences.

The paper compares and highlights how Portuguese businesswomen with different business backgrounds collectively construct specific and shared business identities that allow them to deal with diverse experiences of gender discrimination and devaluation.

Reports some findings with respect to the possibility of classifying service consumers on the basis of their quality expectations. After reviewing traditional types of market segmentation, two hypotheses related to the applicability of service quality expectations as a grouping variable are formulated. Then, findings from a study developed in the tourism industry are presented, using the Chow test to verify the mentioned hypotheses. The study indicates that the segmentation proposed is operational and that, in general, the aspects for which the customers have greater expectations are those which influence their satisfaction to a greater extent. Finally, managerial implications are discussed based on the results of the study

The purpose of the present study is to test that perceived risk is a multidimensional concept both when it is associated to the purchase of store brands and national brands and analyzes the effect of perceived risk on store brands proneness.

In order to achieve its objective the paper used a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the proposed perceived risk scale and three regression analysis were carried out to evaluate the effect of perceived risk on store brands proneness.

The results of the study show significant differences between store and national brands and, on the other hand, it has been confirmed that these differences contribute to decrease store brand proneness, the latter being measured through three variables: actual store brands purchase, consumption intensity and future purchase intention.

Previous empirical research has focused primarily on the perceived risk associated with store brands individually. On the contrary, this paper considers the perceived risk difference between store and national brands, believing that the difference between brands is what will really make the consumer choose a store brand or a national brand. On the other hand, the present study will permit the evaluation of the effects of the evolution of store brands in Spain, effects that can be replicated in other Mediterranean countries.