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The study aims to use the inter‐relationship between market orientation and e‐marketing in order to investigate alternative mechanisms through which both contribute to tourism services performance.

Direct and indirect effects of market orientation on performance are examined using structural equation modelling in a sample of 216 tourism firms.

Market orientation is found to contribute to performance through a dual mechanism in that it contributes both directly and indirectly, through e‐marketing, to the relationship.

The results indicate that academics and managers should consider the inter‐relationships between multiple sources of competitive advantage when looking for explanations of services performance and particularly, tourism services.

This is the first study, to the authors' knowledge, that investigates the inter‐relationship between market orientation and e‐marketing on service performance within the context of travel and tourism services.

Contemporary businesses face rapidly evolving changes and complexities that challenge their respective managerial responses and capabilities. The natures of information and communication systems, ways of doing business, knowledge-transfer methods, diffusion channels of innovation, and industrial habitus are shifting. Additionally, methods, concepts, and frameworks to study these challenges need to be in accordance.

Many of these features characterizing the new business environment influence not only the consumer business, but also the business-to-business (B2B) sectors and their ways of functioning. Interestingly, the influence also connects domestic with international business through the global connectedness. This is particularly visible in marketing communication, as the difference between domestic and international business communication has further diminished due to digital and virtual dimensions and applications. In this new age, it is assumed that new ventures and small- and medium-sized enterprises can turn their vulnerabilities and size constraints into competitive advantages by addressing these challenges with efficient social media usage. To address this technology-enabled dimension of B2B relations, the authors present a case study illustrating how a firm advances its relationship management and communication by introducing social media instruments. The study contributes to relationship management and international marketing communication and provides new insights into the workings of social media within the B2B context.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) may represent an important source of advantages for service companies. However, the literature suggests that ICT need to be adapted to the demands of the company and its customers. The purpose of this paper is to compare the ICT use in hotels situated in established (i.e. Spain) and emerging (i.e. Croatia) tourist destinations.

Non-hierarchical cluster analysis is performed. Clusters are internally validated by a K-Means cluster analysis and a discriminant analysis. Analysis of variance is applied and contingency tables between cluster membership and hotel characteristics are created.

The results reveal significant differences in the degree of ICT implementation, identifying “traditional” and “technified” hotels. However, these differences are better explained by the hotel category rather than by its location.

ICT may be useful for both hotels located in established tourist destinations and for those in emerging tourist areas. However, reasons for making use of ICT may differ: while hotels located in established tourist destinations may use technology in order to differentiate themselves from the competition in the local market, hotels in emerging destinations may try to attract Western tourists who are looking for something different.

It is known that hotels in established tourist destinations can use technology as a renewal tool. Nevertheless, there is little evidence about the ICT use in hotels in emerging tourist destinations, which intends to be approached by this study.

Logistical facility location decisions can make a crucial difference in the success or failure of a company. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have recently become a very popular decision support system to help deal with facility location problems. However, until recently, GIS methodologies have not been fully embraced as a way to deal with new facility location problems in business logistics. This research makes a framework for categorizing empirical facility location problems based on the intensity of the involvement of GIS methodologies in decision making. This framework was built by analyzing facility location models and GIS methodologies. The research results revealed the depth of the embracement of GIS methodologies in logistics for determining new facility location decisions. In the new facility location decisions, spatial data inputs are almost always coupled with the visualization of the problems and solutions. However, the usage of GIS capability solely (i.e. suitability analysis) for problem solving has not been embraced at the same level. In most cases, the suitability analysis is used together with special optimization models for choosing among the multiple alternatives.

This paper aims to discuss the mediating effects of innovation on the relationship between knowledge management and firm competitiveness.

A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from small construction firms in the Eastern Region of Peninsular Malaysia. Out of the 190 construction firms surveyed, 153 (80.5%) respondents returned their completed questionnaire. These were used for data analysis. The data were then analyzed using the covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM).

Knowledge management had a direct and significant positive effect on firm competitiveness. Nonetheless, the effect of knowledge management on firm competitiveness was mediated by innovation. This indicates that knowledge management should be supported by technical and administrative innovations in the firm.

The data collected were from a limited sample of construction firms. In addition, conducting a study on a region of Malaysia may limit the generalizability of the model.

While knowledge management is crucial for a firm’s competitiveness, technical and administrative innovations must be concurrently improved for a stronger firm competitiveness. This is especially true in terms of financial strength and core competence.

This paper provides some empirical evidence that technical and administrative innovations fully mediated the relationship between knowledge management and firm competitiveness. The results consolidate the resource-based view on the importance of internal resource and capability of the firm and improve KM research area. It also strengthens the view that KM is a critical factor for firm competitiveness, but a good KM without strong innovation will not increase the competitiveness of small construction firms.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that managers have to take into consideration when they implement the strategic information systems planning (SISP) process to develop information systems (IS) in the logistics sector.

Data were collected using questionnaires to IS executives in Greek small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the logistics sector. Factor analysis is performed on the detailed items of the SISP process constructs.

The results of this paper indicate that IS executives do not focus on defining goals, which will be used to improve the operations of the supply chain for the IS development. Both IS executives and managers from the logistics department of each organization should participate in the process of information technology (IT) strategy formulation and implementation. Executives from the logistics department of each organization should be aware of implementing environmental and organizational analysis with greater meticulousness, to identify IT opportunities and apply IT strategy with greater agility rather than now.

A strategic planning process for IS development in the logistics sector is required to achieve the consistently IS planning objectives. This is an important challenge for executives in SMEs who do not concentrate on implementing a strategic planning process for IS development.

This paper examines the factors that influence the strategic development of IS in the logistics sector and improve the effectiveness of decision-making regarding the supply chain’s operation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of various factors on suppliers' level of use of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐marketplaces by examining three basic variable domains; suppliers' internal environment, their external environment and the characteristics of the adopted B2B e‐marketplace.

A conceptual framework is developed based on extended literature review and examined on data collected from 87 suppliers that currently use Greek B2B e‐marketplaces. Factor analysis and multiple discriminant analysis are applied to test the framework and its related hypotheses.

Several hypotheses are formulated leading to the development of the proposed “B2B e‐MarkFLU” conceptual framework. The research results show that factors from all the examined variable domains influence suppliers' level of use of B2B e‐marketplaces. However, the B2B e‐marketplace's characteristics are regarded as the most important of the three categories because of its higher impact on the involved suppliers, whereas the factors from the external environment have the lowest impact.

The research helps to fill an existing gap in the study of B2B e‐marketplaces' post‐adoption stage, as there have been extremely limited empirical studies after their adoption phase. To our knowledge, this paper comprises the first empirical attempt aimed to investigate thoroughly the three aforementioned variable domains by researching suppliers' active participation in B2B e‐marketplaces.