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This study targeted hospitality family business owners as essential pillars of the tourism industry. How they perceive aspects of the crisis and what they derive organizational resilience from, including the role of their human resources, are explored. Internal and external factors of resilience are analyzed alongside different levels of resilience action.

The World Health Organization announced coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. In Tirol, the hospitality industry has particularly been affected as tourism businesses find themselves in the challenging times of returning to normal business, corresponding to the fourth phase in Faulkner’s (2001) Tourism Disaster Management Framework. The authors used a qualitative exploratory approach, using semi-structured interviews.

In taking on a holistic explorative approach, the authors determined several methods used by entrepreneurs in dealing with a pandemic crisis to increase business resilience at a specific stage. Internal and external resilience factors have been detected among three levels of resilience action (personal, regional and governmental). The most surprising result of the semi-structured in-depth interviews was the entrepreneurs’ rather positive outlook.

Generally, this study creates an in-depth understanding of the tourism businesses in their dealing with a global crisis, using family business owners as an exemplary stakeholder group. The authors bridge a gap in the literature by applying a holistic explorative approach in the early stage of a never seen worldwide crisis and by addressing organizational resilience. Three levels of resilience action give new insight into how the beginning of a pandemic crisis is handled and perceived by hospitality family business entrepreneurs.

本研究的重点是作为区域旅游业骨干的酒店业家庭企业业主。探讨了他们如何应对危机, 以及他们如何看待自己的组织复原力, 包括其人力资源的作用。该研究进一步确定了企业业主的具体角色, 即在处理危机时的不同性格和个人处事方法。

世界卫生组织（WHO）于2020年3月11日宣布了COVID-19的大流行。在蒂罗尔州, 酒店业尤其受到政府措施和旅行禁令的影响。在本研究中, 旅游企业发现自己正处于恢复正常业务的挑战期, 相当于Faulkner（2001）的旅游灾难管理框架中的第四阶段。本研究采用半结构化访谈的定性探索方法来研究问题并得出结论。

在采取全面的探索性方法时, 我们发现企业家在特定阶段有几种处理大流行病危机的方法, 以提高企业的复原力。半结构化深度访谈得到最令人惊讶的结果是企业家们相当乐观的心态。

总的来说, 这项研究以家庭企业业主为示范性的利益相关者群体, 取得了对旅游业处理诸如Covid-19大流行病等危机的更好理解。由于小型家庭企业对旅游和酒店业的重要性, 本研究以Faulkner(2001) 的旅游灾难管理框架为指导工具, 为旅游背景下的危机管理提供了新的视角。

Este estudio se centra en los propietarios de empresas familiares de hostelería que funcionan como la columna vertebral de la industria turística regional. Se explora cómo afrontan la crisis y cómo perciben su propia resiliencia organizativa, incluido el papel de sus recursos humanos.

La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) anunció una pandemia de COVID-19 el 11 de marzo de 2020. En el Tirol, la industria hotelera se ha visto particularmente afectada por medidas gubernamentales y prohibiciones de viaje. En el presente estudio, las empresas turísticas se encuentran en tiempos difíciles para volver a sus actividades normales, correspondientes a la cuarta fase del Tourism Disaster Management Framework de Faulkner (2001). Se utilizó un enfoque exploratorio cualitativo mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas para responder a la pregunta de investigación y sacar conclusiones.

Al adoptar un enfoque exploratorio holístico, encontramos varias formas en las que los empresarios se enfrentan a una crisis pandémica para aumentar la resiliencia empresarial en una etapa específica. El resultado más sorprendente de las entrevistas en profundidad semiestructuradas fue el estado de ánimo bastante optimista entre los emprendedores.

En general, el estudio crea una mejor comprensión de cómo la industria del turismo está lidiando con una crisis como la pandemia Covid-19, utilizando a los propietarios de empresas familiares como un grupo de partes interesadas ejemplar. Cubrimos una brecha en la literatura aplicando un enfoque exploratorio holístico y abordando la resiliencia organizacional abiertamente, lo que lleva a tres perspectivas que van desde el gobierno, la región y el individuo (percepciones de los propietarios de empresas familiares) en el contexto del Marco de gestión de desastres turísticos de Faulkner (2001).

This paper aims to explore the pertinent issues of innovation and service experiences in family firms in the tourism industry, which are mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The conceptual paper, building on social identity theory, undertakes a thorough review of the relevant literature before developing propositions regarding innovation and service experiences for small family firms in the tourism industry.

Small tourism family firms are faced with deficits in strategic orientation and innovation, and cooperation seems to be a means to overcome size deficits in family-run businesses. Customers integrated into the service experience enhance innovative developments and foster innovation in small tourism firms. As a prerequisite, the service experience must be appropriately managed by collecting and evaluating relevant data on customers’ needs, expectations and satisfaction. An open-minded and consumer-focused market-driven strategy seems to be an advantage.

Future research should undertake empirical studies to validate and/or modify the propositions presented in this conceptual paper.

This is one of the few studies to have addressed the relationship between service experiences and innovation for family-run small businesses in the tourism industry.

Among all forms of commitment, affective commitment has been shown to be the most desirable for enterprises. However, research on commitment among employees in family-run businesses in the hospitality industry is scant. To address this gap, this study aims to analyze the impact of employer image components on hospitality employees’ affective occupational commitment within family-run businesses. As one can assume specific employer image aspects when studying family-run businesses, this paper expects to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between employer image and employee commitment in this context.

This study adopts the employer image framework of Baum and Kabst (2013), emphasizing that in addition to considering potential employees, the commitment of current employees needs to be assessed. Convenience sampling is used to obtain a sample from the target population (Tyrolean hospitality and gastronomy employees) from June to September 2018. Multiple linear regression analysis is applied to test the influence of individual employer image constituents on employees’ affective occupational commitment.

Among the five components of the employer image framework applied here, working atmosphere, task attractiveness and payment attractiveness show a significant influence on employees’ affective occupational commitment.

This study connects an existing employer image model to employee commitment within the hospitality industry. The findings suggest that the model is applicable to current employees as a key stakeholder group and shows the utility of employer image theory in connection with employee commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and synthesize major streams of research on quality of student experience in higher education, to present an agenda for future research.

The paper presents a systematic review of research published in high-quality journals during the period 2000 to 2014 in the areas of quality of student experience and higher education.

Findings highlight current research trends on the quality of student experience in higher education. Results show five prevailing research streams: exploration of learning experience; exploration of student experience; gender differences in assessment of higher education experience; improvement in quality of student experience; and student satisfaction with higher education experience.

The identification of the five research streams provides the basis for a synthesis of key issues identified within each research stream. In addition, the identification of purposes and limitations in existing research supports attempts to address issues of the quality of student experiences in higher education.

Literature currently portrays the quality of student experience as a student-centric idea. Together with the purposes and limitations identified in existing research, the paper proposes an agenda for future research that increases the variety of research streams to provide a deeper understanding of the student experience and to enhance the delivery of quality in higher education.

The findings contribute to the research scene by providing important insights in terms of the current trends and focus of existing research in the area of quality of student experiences in higher education.

This study determines the influence of employer image on industry attractiveness in small and medium-sized hospitality firms by using the instrumental-symbolic framework adapted from marketing literature.

A total of 405 employees and 429 family firm owners in Bavaria were surveyed using a quantitative research design. The authors used linear and hierarchical multiple regression analyses for hypothesis testing using the variables included in the instrumental-symbolic employer image framework.

The study revealed differences in perception between employees and owners. Data showed that employees' ratings for instrumental attributes, such as job security and income options, and symbolic attributes, such as industry attractiveness, significantly differ from those of owners. Consistent with the instrumental-symbolic framework, owners' perceptions of symbolic attributes predicted their perceived industry attractiveness.

Owners may examine how their industry's image needs to be changed to gain positive perception by current and potential employees. Policymakers may benefit from the study’s results that may help them find the right focal points for strategies in promoting Bavaria's hospitality sector. As a result, an adequate and positive image is created that attracts workers for this sector.

The study addresses the rather under-researched stakeholder group of existing hospitality employees, particularly with respect to employer image. Furthermore, owners and employees are compared, regardless of their individually different relationships to the business. Employer image is connected with overall perceived industry attractiveness, stating that the industry comprises individual employing businesses and thus depends on employer image.

This paper aims to explore the pertinent issues, barriers and pitfalls of intergenerational communication in business families during their leadership succession period.

Building on relational leadership theory, the paper makes use of an action research approach using a qualitative single case study to investigate communication barriers and pitfalls in business transition.

Through action research, interventions were taken in the underlying case, which increased the consciousness, as well as the personal and social competencies of the business family. Thus, business families stuck in ambivalent entanglement understand their underlying motives and needs within the change process, get into closer contact with their emotional barriers and communication hindrances, which is a prerequisite for any change, and break the succession iceberg phenomenon.

Future research should undertake multiple case studies to validate and/or modify the qualitative methods used in this action research to increase the validity and generalizability of the findings.

Given the large number of business families in transition, our study shows the beneficial effects action research might have on business families’ communication behavior along a change process. The findings might help other business families to understand the value of action research for such underlying challenges and decrease communication barriers.

This is one of the few studies to have addressed intergenerational communication of business families using an action research approach.

The vulnerability of the tourism industry to an array of risks, encompassing family-related, small- and medium-sized enterprise-specific, strategic, tourism-specific and external factors, highlights the landscape within which small and medium family enterprises (SMFEs) operate. Although SMFEs are an important stakeholder in the dynamic tourism sector, they are not one homogenous group of firms, but have different strategic orientations. This study aims to investigate the interplay between strategic orientation and risk perception to better understand SMFEs risk perception as it is impacting their decision-making processes, resilience and long-term survival. The authors investigate how different strategic orientations contribute to different perspectives on risk among owner-managers.

Based on a qualitative data corpus of 119 face-to-face interviews, the authors apply various coding rounds to better understand the relationship between strategic orientations and the perceptions of risks. Firstly, the authors analysed the owner–manager interviews and identified three groups of different strategic orientations: proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFE, destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFE and passive SMFE. Secondly, the authors coded the interviews for different risks identified. The authors identified that the three groups show differences in the risk perceptions.

The data unveil that the three groups of SMFEs have several differences in how they perceive risks. Proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs prioritize business risks, demonstrating a penchant for innovation and sustainability. Destination-affirmative and resilience-oriented SMFEs perceive a broader range of risks, tying their investments to destination development, emphasizing family and health risks and navigating competitive pressures. Passive SMFEs, primarily concerned with external risks, exhibit limited awareness of internal and strategic risks, resist change and often defer decision-making to successors. The findings underscore how different strategic orientations influence risk perceptions and decision-making processes within SMFEs in the tourism industry.

The authors contribute to existing knowledge include offering a comprehensive status quo of perceived risks for different strategic orientations, a notably underexplored area. In addition, the differences with respect to risk perception shown in the paper suggest that simplified models ignoring risk perception may be insufficient for policy recommendations and for understanding the dynamics of the tourism sector. For future research, the authors propose to focus on exploring the possible directions in which strategic orientation and risk perception influence one another, which might be a limitation of this study due to its qualitative nature.

Varying strategic orientations and risk perceptions highlight the diversity within the stakeholder group of SMFE. Recognizing differences allows for more targeted interventions that address the unique concerns and opportunities of each group and can thus improve the firm’s resilience (Memili et al., 2023) and therefore leading to sustainability destinations development. The authors suggest practical support for destination management organizations and regional policymakers, aimed especially at enhancing the risk management of passive SMFEs. Proactive SMFE could be encouraged to perceive more family risks.

Viewing tourism destinations as a complex stakeholder network, unveiling distinct risk landscapes for various strategic orientations of one stakeholder has the potential to benefit the overall destination development. The proactive and sustainability-oriented SMFEs are highly pertinent as they might lead destinations to further development and create competitive advantage through innovative business models. Passive SMFEs might hinder the further development of the destination, e.g. through missing innovation efforts or succession.

Although different studies explore business risks (Forgacs and Dimanche, 2016), risks from climate change (Demiroglu et al., 2019), natural disasters (Zhang et al., 2023) or shocks such as COVID-19 (Teeroovengadum et al., 2021), this study shows that it does not imply that SMFE as active stakeholder perceive such risk. Rather, different strategic orientations are in relation to perceiving risks differently. The authors therefore open up an interesting new field for further studies, as risk perception influences the decision-making of tourism actors, and therefore resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how intergenerational communication between predecessors and successors impacts on the entrepreneurial family and the family business, and aims at developing a typology of communication patterns in family business succession.

Based on grounded theory methodology, ten in-depth narrative family interviews with predecessors and successors were conducted, transcribed and analyzed. The qualitative data analysis followed a hermeneutic approach focusing on in situ language phenomena such as positioning, syntax, semantics and interaction patterns.

The reconstruction of the interviewees’ subjective realities resulted in a theoretical concept with four communication types, varying between continuity and change, and between relatedness and autonomy. Given the fact that succession is not a single event but a long-lasting process, the typology can be transferred into a dynamic model for succession comprising three consecutive stages: intergenerational transmission, independent acquisition and finally interdependent development of the family firm heritage.

First, the results are based upon a small sample size (n=10) that should not be generalized to the population of family businesses at large. Hence, to complete the overall picture, a broader survey among family-run firms by means of an extended qualitative or even a quantitative survey would be most valuable to generate more objective data. Another shortcoming is that the authors only investigated intra-family succession and challenges. No attention was paid to the various opportunities of external succession of family businesses, such as management buyout, management buy in, external management or liquidation.

Understanding the sociological and psychological aspects of communication helps family firms to identify characteristics in communication during their succession process. First, the knowledge that various communication types are highly dependent upon the personal interactions among the parties involved, might be an asset for family firms which are handing over their company in the future. Second, knowledge on different communication types might raise awareness for and prevent from conflicts and emotional relationships during the firm succession and thus function as a strategic advantage.

Following a sustainable and responsible strategy, family firms can be regarded as the pillars of our economy. Yet, they can be compared to an endangered species often not surviving the transfer from one generation to the next. Succession seems to be a delicate stage in a company’s lifecycle, the failure of which threatens thousands of jobs every year. When it comes to the survival rate of family firms, the increase of communicative and reflexive competence as it is addressed by this paper, is one of the key factors helping the family to deal with conflicts and thus strengthen their self-efficacy.

The dynamic succession model presented in this paper gives experts a comprehensive insight into the inner logic of entrepreneurial families reconstructed by their communicative patterns. Understanding the different dimensions of succession lays the foundation for consulting and supporting family members in transition processes helping them to cope with intergenerational ambivalences and find solutions that are both beneficial for the individuals as well as for the business.

Previous mountain tourism research addressed economic, environmental, social and political impacts. Because limited studies evaluated visitors’ perception of their experience, this study aims to examine the tangible and intangible visitor experience in a Tyrolean alpine tourist attraction.

The study adopted Klaus and Maklan’s (2012) customer experience model, suggesting that customers base their experience perception on the quality of product experience, outcome focus, moments of truth and peace-of-mind. Their model was used to validate the impact on overall customer experience quality at the mountain attraction through conducting a structured survey with 207 face-to-face interviews on-site.

The results of the confirmatory factor analysis did not confirm the four-dimensional structure, probably due to the differences between mountain tourism experience and the mortgage lending experience in the original study. Instead, principal component analysis suggested a different dimensional structure of components that were arbitrarily named as functional, social, comparative and normative aspects of the visitors’ experience.

The results are based on a sample in a given period of time, using convenience sampling. While the sample size satisfied the data analysis requirements, confirmatory factor analysis would benefit from a larger sample size.

Consumer experience dimensions while visiting a mountain attraction may not be concrete or objective, and consequently may yield different types of attributes that influence behavior.

The social exchange theory could explain relationships between visitors and service providers and their consequences. Attraction managers should increase benefits for visitors and service providers to enhance their relationships, and thus experience.

The study explored the applicability of an existing experiential consumption model in a mountain attraction context. The findings introduce a revised model that may be applicable in other tourist attractions.

Although the role of human capital in the hospitality sector is critical, the industry faces challenges in attracting workers with a poor industry image frequently mentioned regarding labor shortages. This research paper attempts to investigate the factors influencing labor shortages by presenting the perspectives of employees and employers.

Precisely 232 rural hospitality industry employees (n = 128) and employers (n = 104) in Northern Italy were surveyed using a written close-ended online survey and a quantitative research design as part of a convenience sampling approach. For hypotheses testing, Spearman's rho was used.

A relationship between the shortage of professional workers and a variety of factors was found, including professional, digital, social and green skills, industry-intrinsic characteristics and symbolic image attributes of the industry. The findings show that some factors are more important for employees, while others are more significant for employers.

This study demonstrates several practical implications for the hospitality sector by addressing the under-researched stakeholder group of existing hospitality employees, e.g. improving working conditions, reduction of manual operations through digital technologies, realistic career planning, employer branding, identification of skill deficiencies and provision of specialized trainings.

Most research on labor shortages in the hospitality industry has focused on the perspective of either employees or employers. This study compares both perspectives, including the industry image, to gain a realistic picture of the relevant factors for a rural tourism destination in Northern Italy.