Grupos estratégicos en el sector hotelero español: diferencias de desempeño intra e intergrupo

El mundo es cada vez más pequeño debido a los avances tecnológicos y a la mayor experiencia de los directivos hoteleros y de los turistas, lo que provoca que la rivalidad entre destinos en el sector turístico sea cada vez mayor. Ante esta situación, este estudio se centra en el sector hotelero español y aplica los grupos estratégicos para determinar de qué forma compiten los hoteles y cómo influyen sus comportamientos estratégicos en su desempeño. Asimismo, se ofrecen acciones para mejorar el desempeño de un hotel en función del grupo estratégico al que pertenezca. La relevancia de este estudio radica en que clarifica la complejidad estratégica a la que están sometidos los directivos de los hoteles y les sirve de guía para la toma de decisiones estratégicas.

Affecting Factors of Public Employees’ Ganizational Commitment

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to shed some light on the antecedents of organizational commitment, the mediating role of job engagement and job satisfaction as determinants of organizational commitment within the public sector environment, and the effects that national cultural values may have on these relationships. Approach – This paper presents a review of the works that, from both theoretical and empirical points of view, explore the affecting factors of public employees’ organizational commitment in an international setting. Findings – A comprehensive model has been developed, detailing the expectations on the influence that these factors might have on public employees’ level of commitment, either as mediators or moderators. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is the paper’s theoretical nature; the subsequent implication is a future empirical research that may prove or disprove these theoretical findings. In addition, there are some other possible mediating factors and antecedents which may be of interest for future researchers. Originality/value – This comprehensive review of the extant literature may provide academics and public managers with a deeper comprehension of how organizational commitment might be achieved, and why some practices may or may not be transferrable from one country to another.

Augmented and Virtual Reality techniques for footwear

The use of 3D imaging techniques has been early adopted in the footwear industry. In particular, 3D imaging could be used to aid commerce and improve the quality and sales of shoes. Footwear customization is an added value aimed not only to improve product quality, but also consumer comfort. Moreover, customisation implies a new business model that avoids the competition of mass production coming from new manufacturers settled mainly in Asian countries. However, footwear customisation implies a significant effort at different levels. In manufacturing, rapid and virtual prototyping is required; indeed the prototype is intended to become the final product. The whole design procedure must be validated using exclusively virtual techniques to ensure the feasibility of this process, since physical prototypes should be avoided. With regard to commerce, it would be desirable for the consumer to choose any model of shoes from a large 3D database and be able to try them on looking at a magic mirror. This would probably reduce costs and increase sales, since shops would not require storing every shoe model and the process of trying several models on would be easier and faster for the consumer. In this paper, new advances in 3D techniques coming from experience in cinema, TV and games are successfully applied to footwear. Firstly, the characteristics of a high-quality stereoscopic vision system for footwear are presented. Secondly, a system for the interaction with virtual footwear models based on 3D gloves is detailed. Finally, an augmented reality system (magic mirror) is presented, which is implemented with low-cost computational elements that allow a hypothetical customer to check in real time the goodness of a given virtual footwear model from an aesthetical point of view.