Examination of individual preferences for green hotels in Crete

The hospitality sector is experiencing a massive transformation currently. Hotels are currently receiving considerable criticism over their practices concerning energy, environmental, as well as resource management. As a result, managerial practices in the hospitality sector have come under scrutiny. All these developments have given rise to the concept of the ‘smart’ hotel. The smart hotel concept has received considerable attention in the relevant literature in the last few years. However, the majority of this attention has either focused on the technical side (i.e., examining smart hotels from a technological standards perspective), or adopted a rather limited perspective, choosing to focus on specific managerial practices within smart hotels (i.e., environmental management). The current paper aims to address this gap in the literature through the utilization of stated preferences discrete choice modeling methodology. Through this methodology, the paper evaluates tourists’ preferences for a wider range of managerial practices and policies pertaining to smart practices in the hospitality sector. According to the empirical findings, tourists exhibit strong and negative preferences towards the automation of the service delivery process. In addition to that, respondents were very strongly opposed towards hotels without international certification standards for their operations. On the opposite side, tourists expressed very strong and positive preferences towards water management policies (particularly policies aiming to reduce and reuse water resources). Finally, respondents exhibited strong and positive preferences towards different energy-saving technologies within hotels

Strategies for the development of e-business and vertical e-marketplaces

The last decade, the way of doing business has certainly changed because of the rapid development of information and communication technology. Electronic commerce is a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organizations, merchants and consumers to reduce costs and enhance quality. Although markets’ experts, as well as academic researchers, still predict the huge potential of e-commerce with optimistic forecasts, the evolution of e-business had been predicted more accelerated than its present situation. This thesis examines two of the most important topics in the modern e-business literature. First, the low rate of SMEs worldwide to adopt e-business strategies is investigated. Concerning the low efficiency of B2C e-commerce, this thesis proposes the local e-collaboration as the “Trojan Horse” for the introduction of SMEs into global B2B e-commerce. To support this thesis we present the necessary evidence from the international literature and we propose a framework that enhances local and global B2B e-commerce. In particular, this approach is based on the exploitation of local characteristics, which from one hand eliminate initially important obstacles for the adoption of e-commerce practices and from the other hand, combined with factors of global environment, can contribute significantly to the extraversion of SMEs e-business activities beyond their local boundaries. In the proposed framework the most important role is given to “local forces”. Second, the thesis examines the business model of electronic marketplaces. It is generally argued that the success of B2B e-commerce is due to significant advantages B2B e-marketplaces offer to participating firms in contrast to the traditional B2B markets. E-marketplaces are considered as complex systems because of the existence of several network externalities among the participating agents (buyers, suppliers, intermediary). The thesis proposed a series of economic models that investigate the role of the intermediary and the vertical relations among buyers and sellers in such e-marketplaces. The bulk of the theoretical literature in e-commerce assumes that the owner of an e-marketplace extracts rents through the membership (entrance) fees from suppliers and buyers. Instead, in the presented models the intermediary can also charge commission fees over the quantities that are sold through the electronic platform. This more realistic business model is investigated under different conditions in two-sided markets. In an e-marketplace where all participants act strategically, the analysis suggests that, although the intermediary’s optimal pricing policy can include membership fees and commissions, the intermediary prefers to operate a vertical e-marketplace under market conditions allowing him to impose high membership fees and low commissions for both sides of the market. Under different ownership structures, i.e. in cases of buyer-driven and supplierdriven vertical e-marketplaces (with or without the existence of intermediary), the analysis show that membership fees and commissions can be used together, either as revenue resources or subsidization tools. Finally, in case of an intermediary who creates a new B2B e-marketplace competing with the traditional market, the analysis reveals that when the intermediary offers standalone value-added services to participating firms its optimal pricing policy can include the imposition of membership fees to both sides of the industry. In such case, the level of these fees is strongly related with his investment decisions and the market conditions

The impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on locals; the case of the hospitality sector in Crete

The current paper focuses upon the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on locals’ opinions regarding the hospitality sector in Crete. The main research aim driving the current study is to evaluate respondents’ (locals’) willingness to pay a premium for CSR activities in the hospitality sector. The paper utilizes primary data collected through a survey questionnaire in the region of Crete. In total, researchers collected 400 survey questionnaires over a course of three months during the pandemic period. The paper utilized a logistic regression framework. According to the results, respondents that were highly familiar with CSR were also very positive in supporting CSR actions. Whereas gender does not seem to exert a particularly strong influence on individual willingness to pay a CSR premium, yet once the analysis distinguishes between different premium levels, females were found more likely to contribute at lower amounts, as compared to their male counterparts. The results indicate that businesses should adopt and adapt their CSR practices to new business discourses

Youth’s Entrepreneurial Intention: A Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis of the Factors Influencing Greek HEI Students in Time of Crisis

Governments’ coronavirus disease (COVID-19) measures have forced the community to stay at home. During this period, youths have had time to think about their career paths. For some, a conventional eight-hour job in a private company is undesirable; meanwhile, entrepreneurship can mitigate the adverse effects of the crisis, such as unemployment. Accordingly, this study investigates the intention of Greek youths that study in a higher education institution (HEI) to engage in entrepreneurship in times of crisis, and highlights the factors that drive them to enter the business arena. This study designed and distributed a questionnaire to 369 Greek youths who were studying at the University of Thessaly. The data from the empirical research were used to develop a multinomial logistic regression model to investigate youths’ entrepreneurial intention and reveal the driving factors. The results showed that during times of crisis, youths appeared hesitant to enter the business arena. However, those who were more confident indicated that entrepreneurship could provide them with greater satisfaction. Driving factors for engaging in entrepreneurship were family and friends. Inhibiting factors for establishing a new business were having previous work experience in a family business and lack of educational knowledge. This study contributes to the understanding of youths’ entrepreneurial intention and the driving factors that play a key role in shaping this intention in Greece during a crisis period, since there are few studies on this topic

Youth’s Entrepreneurial Intention: A Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis of the Factors Influencing Greek HEI Students in Time of Crisis

Governments’ coronavirus disease (COVID-19) measures have forced the community to stay at home. During this period, youths have had time to think about their career paths. For some, a conventional eight-hour job in a private company is undesirable; meanwhile, entrepreneurship can mitigate the adverse effects of the crisis, such as unemployment. Accordingly, this study investigates the intention of Greek youths that study in a higher education institution (HEI) to engage in entrepreneurship in times of crisis, and highlights the factors that drive them to enter the business arena. This study designed and distributed a questionnaire to 369 Greek youths who were studying at the University of Thessaly. The data from the empirical research were used to develop a multinomial logistic regression model to investigate youths’ entrepreneurial intention and reveal the driving factors. The results showed that during times of crisis, youths appeared hesitant to enter the business arena. However, those who were more confident indicated that entrepreneurship could provide them with greater satisfaction. Driving factors for engaging in entrepreneurship were family and friends. Inhibiting factors for establishing a new business were having previous work experience in a family business and lack of educational knowledge. This study contributes to the understanding of youths’ entrepreneurial intention and the driving factors that play a key role in shaping this intention in Greece during a crisis period, since there are few studies on this topic