Llorenç Bagur-Femenías, Marian Buil-Fabrega and Juan Pedro Aznar
The purpose of this research is to analyse how to adapt teaching and learning methodologies to new generations of digital natives to promote their commitment to sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to analyse how to adapt teaching and learning methodologies to new generations of digital natives to promote their commitment to sustainable development. The research explores the existence of a relationship between digital natives’ characteristics, individual dynamic capabilities and their commitment to innovation and therefore to sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
A structural equation model is used to test the proposed hypothesis by a survey conducted with 532 digital-native higher education students.
Findings
The results show the existence of a significant relationship between digital natives’ competences, individual dynamic capabilities and a better approach to managing situations with regard to relationships with key stakeholders and the fostering of innovation and commitment to the social and environmental issues demanded by society.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this study are that it is based on a sample from a specific Spanish university that cannot be representative of all digital natives from all universities and different cultural contexts. The variables measuring the characteristics of digital natives have only recently been used in the academic literature.
Practical implications
The research proposes including individual dynamic capabilities and innovation courses in sustainable development education to accelerate the implementation of sustainable development goals. These research findings can be used as insights into the development of university programmes and courses.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first attempts at understanding how to promote education for sustainable development among digital natives and at identifying them as future change makers for sustainable development.
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Jordi Perramon, Llorenç Bagur-Femenias and Oriol Amat
The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations for the adoption of quality management practices (QMPs) and the effects exerted by the advanced management information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations for the adoption of quality management practices (QMPs) and the effects exerted by the advanced management information systems (AMIS) as mediating factors in a sector consisting of highly competitive companies with a high mortality rate in recent years: travel agencies.
Design/methodology/approach
The results were based on a survey completed by 185 travel agencies with less than 50 employees, covering over 5 per cent of the SME travel agencies in Spain. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the links between the studied dimensions.
Findings
The findings indicate that QMPs have a positive, direct influence on the adoption of AMIS and that the adoption of AMIS has a positive, direct impact on financial performance. The results suggest that quality policies facilitate greater use of financial indicators but not in the use of non-financial indicators, where the key to better business performance lies.
Originality/value
Therefore, the results of this paper indicate that being proactive about quality practices can provide travel agencies a great number of benefits through the implementation of AMIS.
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Llorenç Bagur‐Femenias, Josep Llach and María del Mar Alonso‐Almeida
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the decision to adopt environmental practices in small service companies given that most of the studies on environmental…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the decision to adopt environmental practices in small service companies given that most of the studies on environmental practices focus on the industrial sector and on larger companies.
Design/methodology/approach
This work is based on 448 personal surveys involving the managers of small travel agencies, using structural equation modeling to study the links between the dimensions studied.
Findings
The results of this paper suggest that being proactive on environmental issues can bring small service companies a great number of benefits that improve their competitiveness and firm performance.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of the adoption of environmental practices on a single service industry. It therefore provides useful empirical evidence for managerial practice in the industry concerned.
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Josep Llach, Llorenç Bagur, Jordi Perramon and Frederic Marimon
The purpose of this paper is to further research on the Kaplan and Norton (1996) balanced scorecard (BSC) model after having discerned that previous work has so far neglected to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to further research on the Kaplan and Norton (1996) balanced scorecard (BSC) model after having discerned that previous work has so far neglected to explore the interrelationships between the model’s dimensions and the influence contextual factors may have.
Design/methodology/approach
The data set used to meet this paper’s main objectives was collected using a structured online survey sent to the member companies of the Catalan Association of Accounting and Management (ACCID). Specifically, the surveys were directed to the heads of the finance departments. From the 3,500 mails sent, 336 companies decided to participate in the study. These figures represent an acceptable response rate of 9.6 per cent. As 83 of the companies declared that they would only use financial indicators, the final study sample totalled 253 firms.
Findings
The results demonstrate the mediating effects intermediate constructs have, and highlight how important leadership is in achieving success or high performance. These results follow on from previous empirical literature that analysed other management systems such as the Baldrige, the EFQM or the Deming models. In addition, some differences in the relationships as per the contextual factors studied have been detected. Therefore, the conclusions reached in this paper will be of interest to both academics and professionals in perceiving and understanding the logical flow of consequences any decision taken will produce.
Originality/value
The authors’ main contributions are: to have strictly followed the theoretical BSC model by combining both formative and reflective dimensions using the emerging partial least squares methodology; to have based the study on 253 firms and to have used 37 category indicators which, to our knowledge, are more than any other previous work; to have developed a mediation model designed to appreciate the interrelationships the dimensions in the BSC model have; to have analysed the possible differences there are in the interrelationships between the dimensions using two widely accepted influencing contextual factors in current literature, namely a firm’s size and its typology.