eEnabled internet distribution for small and medium sized hotels: the case of hospitality SMEs in Athens

Advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) have strategic implications for a wide range of industries. Tourism and hospitality have dramatically changed by the ICTs and the Internet and gradually emerge as the leading industry on online expenditure. The Internet revolutionised traditional distribution models, enabled new entries propelled both disintermediation and reintermediation and altered the sources of competitive advantage. This paper explores the strategic implications of ICTs and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of Internet distribution for small and medium-sized hospitality enterprises (SMEs). Primary research in Athens hotels demonstrates the effects of the Internet and ICTs for secondary markets, where there is lower penetration and ICT adoption. Interviews and questionnaires identified a number of strategies in order to optimise distribution. The analysis illustrates the strategic role of ICTs and the Internet for hospitality organisations and Small and Medium-sized organisations in general. Most hotels employ a distribution mix that determines the level and employment of the Internet. The paper demonstrates that only organisations that use ICTs strategically will be able to develop their electronic distribution and achieve competitive advantages in the future

The Systematization of Disturbances Act upon E-commerce Systems

There are many processes on Internet, on web servers, in ERP and company running an e-commerce system which can be influenced by disturbances. In order to minimize their impact it is necessary to identify and collect all disturbances, to determine their evaluation metric and to propose necessary remedies. Modifications proposed should be tested by means of modeling taking internal and external environment needs into consideration. Necessary information can be captured using the e-commerce system components monitoring. Particular system environment properties like company structure, system architecture, hardware, software, methods of connection with the supplier´s e-commerce system, customer communication interface are to be taken into account. Important social indicators like legislative and economic development, development of the global information society and others should also be considered. Disturbance and failure models can be designed using various methods like e.g. multi-agents modeling, simulations, fuzzy methods modeling etc. Generic ecommerce system model using control circuit as a fundamental notion can be used as a base for modeling.e-commerce system, disturbances, categorization of disturbances, modeling of disturbances, agent, simulation of disturbances

E-Commerce Applications Ranking

The paper presents the cycle of development of e-Commerce applications. The e-commerce applications are analyzed being considered to be a subject for complex evaluations. A set of criteria and factors are presented being considered relevant for e-commerce applications used in complex assessments. A ranking algorithm is proposed based on the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) process, which was implemented and tested with online application IAID. The objective of this paper is to build, implement and test this algorithm with the online application IAID.E-Commerce, Hierarchy, Evaluation Criteria, Analyses, Ranking Algorithm

Selection of Software Product Line Implementation Components Using Recommender Systems: An Application to Wordpress

In software products line (SPL), there may be features which can be implemented by different components, which means there are several implementations for the same feature. In this context, the selection of the best components set to implement a given configuration is a challenging task due to the high number of combinations and options which could be selected. In certain scenarios, it is possible to find information associated with the components which could help in this selection task, such as user ratings. In this paper, we introduce a component-based recommender system, called (REcommender System that suggests implementation Components from selecteD fEatures), which uses information associated with the implementation components to make recommendations in the domain of the SPL configuration. We also provide a RESDEC reference implementation that supports collaborative-based and content-based filtering algorithms to recommend (i.e., implementation components) regarding WordPress-based websites configuration. The empirical results, on a knowledge base with 680 plugins and 187 000 ratings by 116 000 users, show promising results. Concretely, this indicates that it is possible to guide the user throughout the implementation components selection with a margin of error smaller than 13% according to our evaluation.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad RTI2018-101204-B-C22Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2014-55894-C2-1-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2017-88209-C2-2-RMinisterio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad MCIU-AEI TIN2017-90644-RED

The Development Impact of Information Technology in Trade Facilitation

The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview and context of the country studies on Information Technology (IT) for Trade Facilitation (TF) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).Impact of Information Techonology, Trade Facilitation, SMEs

Adopting interoperability solutions for online tourism distribution

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Sofia Reino, Aurkene Alzua-Sorzabal, Rodolfo Baggio, "Adopting interoperability solutions for online tourism distribution: An evaluation framework", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 7(1): 2-15, January 2016. The final, published version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-08-2014-0034. Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that make the adoption of interoperability solutions for online tourism distribution (OTD) more likely by small operators and to develop an evaluation framework for this solutions. Research identifying these determinants is missing. The resulting evaluation framework is then applied to evaluate a number of extant technological solutions focused on interoperability solutions for OTD. Design/methodology/approach – In an attempt to address this gap of research, this paper undertakes a series of interviews and focus groups of the European tourism industry. Findings – Findings partly aligned with the suggestion made by previous research about technology adoption by micro, small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs), they also highlighted some issues which are specific to the adoption of interoperability solutions for OTD. These related to the scarcity of information and communication technology (ICT) applications specifically designed for mini and micro enterprises, the very limited capabilities available for using efficiently ICTs in business-to-business (B2B) operations and the difficulty in collaborating with other companies due to the number of different solutions used in the industry, especially when dealing with large aggregators (global distribution systems (GDSs) or large online travel agencies) and lack of standardization for data. Research limitations/implications – The study has important theoretical implications. It provides a better understanding of issues affecting the adoption of interoperability solutions for OTD by SMTEs, such as the scarcity of ICT applications specifically designed for mini and micro enterprises, the very limited capabilities available for using ICTs efficiently in B2B operations and lack of standardization. Practical implications – It facilitates making decisions about adopting interoperability solutions for online distribution solutions, both by suppliers and destination managers. Originality/value – Limited work has focused on understanding issues affecting the adoption of interoperability solutions for OTD solutions among SMTEs.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio