Ownership Structure as a Corporate Governance Mechanism in Slovenian Hotels

This paper analyses ownership structure and company performance in the light of corporate governance theory and the actual privatisation process. Previous research has proven that the Slovenian state is a poor and passive owner, whereas private owners and employees are more active and more interested in their company’s economic performance. This paper shows that the transition to private ownership in the Slovenian hotel sector has not been finished. Consequently, state-owned and investment funds remain important owners of Slovenian hotels. The financial performance of hotel companies is below average in the economy and can be correlated with the current ownership structure. Since the current ownership structure has a negative impact on the hotel sector competitiveness, an ownership change is needed to boost the sector’s competitiveness and the competitiveness of Slovenia as a tourist destination

OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AS A CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MECHANISM IN SLOVENIAN HOTELS

Rad istražuje odnos između vlasničke strukture i poslovanja poduzeća u slovenskoj hotelskoj industiji u svjetlu teorije korporativnog upravljanja i aktualnog procesa privatizacije. Postojeća istraživanja na primjeru Slovenije pokazala su da je država pasivan i loš vlasnik, dok su privatni vlasnici (domaća i strana poduzeća) i zaposleni aktivni vlasnici zainteresirani za uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća. Rezultati našeg istraživanja su pokazali da privatizacija hotelskih poduzeća u Sloveniji nije završena te da su investicijski i državni fondovi još uvijek vlasnici značajnog dijela slovenskih hotelskih poduzeća. Poslovanje hotelskih poduzeća je slabije od ostalih poduzeća u slovenskom gpospodarstvu i može se povezati s vlasničkom strukturom. Sadašnja vlasnička struktura ima negativan utjecaj na konkurentnost hotelskog sektora. Zato je potrebna promjena vlasništva koja bi potakla povećanje konkurentnosti hotelskog sektora i Slovenije kao turističkog odredišta.This paper analyses ownership structure and company performance in the light of corporate governance theory and the actual privatisation process. Previous research has proven that the Slovenian state is a poor and passive owner, whereas private owners and employees are more active and more interested in their company’s economic performance. This paper shows that the transition to private ownership in the Slovenian hotel sector has not been finished. Consequently, state-owned and investment funds remain important owners of Slovenian hotels. The financial performance of hotel companies is below average in the economy and can be correlated with the current ownership structure. Since the current ownership structure has a negative impact on the hotel sector competitiveness, an ownership change is needed to boost the sector’s competitiveness and the competitiveness of Slovenia as a tourist destination

Resources and capabilities driving performance in the hotel industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the resources and capabilities framing sustainable competitive advantages in the hotel industry. Design – What is driving performance of firms is an on-going question evoking considerable interest among academics and practitioners alike. This has driven a large body of conceptual and empirical research. Empirical testing of sustainable competitive advantages driving performance in the hospitality industry has been one of the most researched topics in the last three decades. This paper summarises and reflects on those findings. Methodology – Paper uses content analysis to review the existing studies in order to understand resources and capabilities driving the performance in the hotel industry. Findings: Results show that most of the studies in the hospitality industry focus on investigating the impact of intangible resources and capabilities on hotel performance. In most of the cases studies use knowledge as a main driver of performance. Interestingly tangible resources are rarely considered and included in the research. Originality of the research – Literature has so far failed to provide a review paper summarising empirical results of many studies that explored drivers of hotels performance. This paper brings a theoretical contribution summarising and reflecting on the current body of knowledge

Ownership Structure as a Corporate Governance Mechanism in Slovenian Hotels

This paper analyses ownership structure and company performance in the light of corporate governance theory and the actual privatisation process. Previous research has proven that the Slovenian state is a poor and passive owner, whereas private owners and employees are more active and more interested in their company’s economic performance. This paper shows that the transition to private ownership in the Slovenian hotel sector has not been finished. Consequently, state-owned and investment funds remain important owners of Slovenian hotels. The financial performance of hotel companies is below average in the economy and can be correlated with the current ownership structure. Since the current ownership structure has a negative impact on the hotel sector competitiveness, an ownership change is needed to boost the sector’s competitiveness and the competitiveness of Slovenia as a tourist destination

The influence of the political environment and destination governance on sustainable tourism development: a study of Bled, Slovenia

In the context of sustainable tourism development, there are many studies about the exchange process between residents and tourism, yet this issue is practically unexplored with respect to the political environment of tourism. Therefore, this paper introduces and posits that the political environment is a necessary enabler for implementing sustainable tourism. The authors extend the established three-pillar sustainability concept by adding in the political dimension. Then they surveyed how residents' positive and negative perceptions of tourism impacts determine their satisfaction with life in the tourism destination and thus their support for tourism in their community. The model was empirically tested within the context of the long-established Alpine destination of Bled in Slovenia. The findings confirm the importance of the political environment and question the sustainability of Bled's tourism development. It is suggested that the community has relatively weak destination governance due to the underdeveloped political environment. The survey expands and deepens the tourism sustainability debate by adding in the political environment and how it relates to the emerging growth of research on destination governance. The proposed model can be adapted and applied to any destination in order to improve its governance, including the implementation of sustainable tourism development

Preteklost, sedanjost in prihodnost raziskav o okolju prijaznem vedenju v turizmu

Environmental sustainability is one of the key challenges humanity is facing today. Tourism is an invasive industry in terms of the damage it causes to the environment. An effective way to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of tourism is to shift tourist behaviour towards environmentally friendly behaviour. While there is a growing number of publications on tourist pro-environmental behaviour (PEB), this paper aims to overview the existing research in this area by applying a bibliometric analysis. Co-citations, keyword co-occurrences and bibliographic coupling are used to analyse the tourism PEB research and provide guidelines for the future

Can publicly visible pro-environmental initiatives improve the organic environmental image of destinations?

Destination image formation theory postulates that the way tourists perceive a destination - the destination\u27s image - affects tourists\u27 destination choice. Organic destination image - which develops naturally, without an active effort by anyone to shape destination image - is more powerful than destination image induced through marketing because tourists are sceptical about the information conveyed to them through marketing communication channels. Theory predicts that destinations cannot control organic image. We challenge this assumption by hypothesizing that visible environmental initiatives at the destination are positively associated with the organic destination image of being environmentally sustainable. Results indicate that destinations may indeed be able to proactively and deliberately manage their organic image. Tourists who notice pro-environmental initiatives at the destination and pay attention to them perceive the destination as more environmentally friendly and sustainable when they depart. With organic image being a key driver of destination choice, implementation of pro-environmental initiatives becomes a rational marketing investment. This is particularly important given the increasing environmental concern of consumers. The invaluable side effect of redirecting "green marketing dollars" towards "green action dollars" is the improved environmental performance of the destination, which contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AS A CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MECHANISM IN SLOVENIAN HOTELS

Rad istražuje odnos između vlasničke strukture i poslovanja poduzeća u slovenskoj hotelskoj industiji u svjetlu teorije korporativnog upravljanja i aktualnog procesa privatizacije. Postojeća istraživanja na primjeru Slovenije pokazala su da je država pasivan i loš vlasnik, dok su privatni vlasnici (domaća i strana poduzeća) i zaposleni aktivni vlasnici zainteresirani za uspješnost poslovanja poduzeća. Rezultati našeg istraživanja su pokazali da privatizacija hotelskih poduzeća u Sloveniji nije završena te da su investicijski i državni fondovi još uvijek vlasnici značajnog dijela slovenskih hotelskih poduzeća. Poslovanje hotelskih poduzeća je slabije od ostalih poduzeća u slovenskom gpospodarstvu i može se povezati s vlasničkom strukturom. Sadašnja vlasnička struktura ima negativan utjecaj na konkurentnost hotelskog sektora. Zato je potrebna promjena vlasništva koja bi potakla povećanje konkurentnosti hotelskog sektora i Slovenije kao turističkog odredišta.This paper analyses ownership structure and company performance in the light of corporate governance theory and the actual privatisation process. Previous research has proven that the Slovenian state is a poor and passive owner, whereas private owners and employees are more active and more interested in their company’s economic performance. This paper shows that the transition to private ownership in the Slovenian hotel sector has not been finished. Consequently, state-owned and investment funds remain important owners of Slovenian hotels. The financial performance of hotel companies is below average in the economy and can be correlated with the current ownership structure. Since the current ownership structure has a negative impact on the hotel sector competitiveness, an ownership change is needed to boost the sector’s competitiveness and the competitiveness of Slovenia as a tourist destination

Tourist pro-environmental behaviour

Contextual impacts have a major role for the tourist pro-environmental behaviour at the destination, however, they remain under-researched. In this article, we explore the change in pro-environmental behaviour of tourists from daily to tourism context. We surveyed tourists asking them to evaluate the environmental image, their pro-environmental behaviour at the recently visited destination and in daily life, and then analysed data with t-test and regression analysis. The results show that: 1) most of the analysed pro-environmental behaviours get worse in the tourism context2) tourists, whose pro-environmental behaviour at home is above the average, behave better at the destination too3) perception of the destination as environmentally friendly is associated with better pro-environmental behaviour at the destination