To determine how the positioning of new hotels is affected by the distribution of similar incumbent competitors, this paper investigates geographic location, price, size, and services. With data on all 240 hotels operating in the city of Madrid between 1936 and 1998, a model of geographic and product location at the time of the hotels' foundings is estimated based on the above mentioned variables. These are simultaneously determined and contingent upon the changing socioeconomic and urban circumstances of the city. The findings suggest that agglomeration occurs only among differentiated establishments. In the balance between agglomeration and differentiation strategies, particularly significant is the trade-off between price and geographic dimensions. Keywords: hotels, location, Madrid. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Résumé: Emplacement des hôtels dans les villes touristiques: Madrid 1936-1998. Pour déterminer comment le positionnement des nouveaux hôtels est affecté par la distribution des concurrents similaires et déjà établis, cet article examine situation géographique, prix, grandeur et services. Avec des données sur tous les 240 hôtels en opération à Madrid entre 1936 et 1998, on calcule un modèle de la situation géographique et des services au moment de la fondation des hôtels, en se basant sur les variables surmentionnées. Celles-ci dépendent au même temps des circonstances urbaines et socioéconomiques changeantes de la ville. Les résultats suggèrent que l'agglomération a lieu seulement parmi les établissements différen-ciés. Dans l'équilibre entre les stratégies d'agglomération et de différentiation, le compromis entre prix et situation est particulièrement significatif. Mots-clés: hôtels, situation, Madrid. Ó

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This article analyses the connection between the use of advanced human resource management (HRM) practices, individually and as a system, with manufacturing flexibility. The results show a positive relationship between the implementation of advanced HRM practices and manufacturing flexibility. While most of the advanced HRM practices analysed show higher levels of implementation in flexible firms, no differences are observed in training efforts. Flexible firms are more prone to implement systems of advanced HRM practices.

This paper measures two descriptors of tourism namely, its scale and agglomeration level and subsequently evaluates both descriptors according to their direct and joint impacts on the host communities' quality of life. The key constructs for this research are the following: (1) a tourism evaluation function that incorporates the scale and agglomeration of tourism, which is constructed for each one of the 50 Spanish provinces; and (2) a measure of the host communities' quality of life that comprises 12 objective partial indicators and an overall indicator that integrates them all. Results show the existence of carrying capacity frontiers or maximum thresholds that tourist destinations can sustain without damaging the economic, socio cultural, or environmental systems of the communities they belong.

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