Internal and external effects of quality on competitiveness: Applications for the hotel sector in Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyze — from a global perspective — the main relationships existing between service quality and businesses competitiveness. To this end, a simultaneous equations model is presented. This model enables distinguishing between the external and internal effects of quality on competitiveness, and empirically verifies a set of hypotheses of great significance for the hotel industry. The data used to empirically verify this model were gathered from hotels owned by a national hotel company in Spain. The client survey carried out by the hotel — in the form of questionnaires — was the basis for creating the service quality indicators and establishing their most relevant dimensions. The quality indicator was created for each hotel based using Structural Equation Modelling (S.E.M.). On the other hand, the economic and financial data pertaining to the hotels served to create competitiveness indicators for each of them. The sign and value of the coefficients estimated by the model presented lead to a series of conclusions regarding the complex sequence of direct and indirect causal relationships between quality and competitiveness. The estimation obtained was used to empirically verify a set of key hypotheses regarding the competitiveness of these hotels and to propose measures designed to improve it.

El proceso de definir en matemáticas. Un caso : el triángulo

Departing from two protocols that show the difficulties presented to define the triangle in primary school pupils, and through a theoretical framework based on Orton (1990), Herskhovits (1990), Tall and Vinner (1981) and Van Hiele (1981) to establish the meaning that the definition has in Mathematics, we accomplish a summary of definitions of the concept of triangle in various original texts, as well as in material and computer programs. A short analysis of the definitions presented is accomplished and we offer certain theoretical evaluations to justify the answers given by the students

«El deber de mejorar» : higiene e identidad obrera en el socialismo madrileño, 1884-1904

Se pretende analizar la modulación y transformaciones de los discursos y reivindicaciones socialistas en materia sanitaria durante el periodo comprendido entre 1883 y 1904, con el objeto de demostrar su alto grado de politización y su deseo de integración social y política. En este sentido, se analiza el papel político desempeñado por la salud y la higiene en la construcción de una identidad obrera, así como la tensión y las ambigüedades ideológicas generadas por la necesidad de apropiarse de un discurso ajeno, emitido desde la ciencia, pero necesario para conseguir plantear reivindicaciones que perseguían la inclusión social de los obreros como ciudadanos de pleno derecho y su dignificación