The family role on the internationalization process of family businesses: a two-case study

Essa dissertação procura identificar o papel da família no processo de internacionalização de dois negócios familiares: JBS, a maior empresa de proteína animal do mundo e Cutrale um dos líderes mundiais no mercado de suco de laranja. Empresas familiares possuem características que são intrínsecas a esse tipo de empresa. Muitos dos motivos de se internacionalizar ou mesmo o modo como eles se internacionalizam podem ser extremamente característicos. Assim, através de uma pesquisa qualitativa, os dois estudos de caso foram analisados baseados em teorias de internacionalização de empresas familiares. Porém, nessas companhias estudadas, a família não desempenhou um papel relevante no processo de internacionalização das mesmas. Com esses resultados, questões surgiram, como por exemplo, se o tamanho ou segmento da empresa tiveram um impacto na importância do papel que a família possui no processo de internacionalização. Essas questões não eram o foco do estudo porém fornecem muitos subsídios para uma próxima pesquisa.

Corporate governance development in privately held family businesses: a multiple case analysis

The objective of this study is to better understand and illustrate the process and the motivations for corporate governance implementation in Brazilian privately held family businesses. Three case companies were analyzed through an adapted developmental framework to illustrate the progression in corporate governance in response to changes in the ownership, investment and management dimensions over time. In this development, causal relationships between corporate governance and the three other framework dimensions were identified. It was found that the analyzed companies´ corporate governance implementation was motivated by the need to curb agency costs, whereas a cornerstone in this development was the first generational change. Only after the family businesses have reached the necessary maturity on all three dimensions, corporate governance practices were implemented. Put simply, the analyzed case companies developed formal systems as they grew more complex. This study complements the academic discussions on corporate governance in family businesses by offering Brazilian evidence on its underlying motivations and sequential implementation over time.

Co-creation in hospitality industry: a case study on the drivers of traveler-generated content

User-generated content in travel industry is the phenomenon studied in this research, which aims to fill the literature gap on the drivers to write reviews on TripAdvisor. The object of study is relevant from a managerial standpoint since the motivators that drive users to co-create can shape strategies and be turned into external leverages that generate value for brands through content production. From an academic perspective, the goal is to enhance literature on the field, and fill a gap on adherence of local culture to UGC given industry structure specificities. The business’ impact of UGC is supported by the fact that it increases e-commerce conversion rates since research undertaken by Ye, Law, Gu and Chen (2009) states each 10% in traveler review ratings boosts online booking in more than 5%. The literature review builds a theoretical framework on required concepts to support the TripAdvisor case study methodology. Quantitative and qualitative data compound the methodological approach through literature review, desk research, executive interview, and user survey which are analyzed under factor and cluster analysis to group users with similar drivers towards UGC. Additionally, cultural and country-specific aspects impact user behavior. Since hospitality industry in Brazil is concentrated on long tail – 92% of hotels in Brazil are independent ones (Jones Lang LaSalle, 2015, p. 7) – and lesser known hotels take better advantage of reviews – according to Luca (2011) each one Yelp-star increase in rating, increases in 9% independent restaurant revenue whereas in chain restaurants the reviews have no effect – , this dissertation sought to understand UGC in the context of travelers from São Paulo (Brazil) and adopted the case of TripAdvisor to describe what are the incentives that drives user’s co-creation among targeted travelers. It has an outcome of 4 different clusters with different drivers for UGC that enables to design marketing strategies, and it also concludes there’s a big potential to convert current content consumers into producers, the remaining importance of friends and family referrals and the role played by incentives. Among the conclusions, this study lead us to an exploration of positive feedback and network effect concepts, a reinforcement of the UGC relevance for long tail hotels, the interdependence across content production, consumption and participation; and the role played by technology allied with behavioral analysis to take effective decisions. The adherence of UGC to hospitality industry, also outlines the formulation of the concept present in the dissertation title of “Traveler-Generated Content”.

An analysis of the perceived service quality of hospitality industry in Rio de Janeiro through the SERVQUAL model: a multiple case study

Brazil is under political and financial crises where the end seems far away. Because of that, researchers argue that the hotel rooms offered by Rio de Janeiro, built to host the Olympic Games 2016, will be difficult to occupy after the event. It is then necessary for the hotels to understand how guests perceive the service quality in order to adapt to this new era. If guests’ perceptions meet or exceed their expectations, they will be satisfied and will probably return. Thus based on the SERVQUAL approach, this paper aims to study the impact of the service dimensions on the guests’ overall satisfaction at hotels of Rio de Janeiro. Two hotels were considered representative of the city in terms of service quality and customers’ profile. Interviews to the hotel managers were performed, and questionnaires to the guests were administered. Among the five SERVQUAL dimensions – Reliability, Tangibles, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy – the Empathy dimension appears to be the only one that affects the guests’ overall satisfaction. The study could also identify that gender, country of residence, home country and family income have an impact on guests’ satisfaction. This study has no intention of generalization, but rather of refining the theory about services and the SERVQUAL model.