Entrepreneurial decisions in tourism and hospitality during crisis

Abstract

PurposeThe article examines the entrepreneurial decision-making in the Greek tourism and hospitality sector during a period of an economic crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe nationwide study includes the responses of 503 entrepreneurs engaged in the Greek travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The research employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), and examines trust, enterprising negotiation power, tourism decision-making considerations and crisis effects. It also includes the categorical data of operational mode and company type.FindingsThe analysis has generated three different pathways for entrepreneurial decision-making during crisis in the Greek tourism and hospitality sector. These pathways are (1) crisis conditions, (2) enterprising operations and focus and (3) enterprising capabilities.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the limited employment of fsQCA in the tourism sector, its full potential is still to be explored.Practical implicationsThe study provides three different pathways that Greek tourism entrepreneurs select for their decision-making according to the characteristics of their firms and their market orientation.Originality/valueTheoretically, the study contributes by enhancing understanding of entrepreneurial decision-making during periods of crisis. In the methodological domain, the research employs fsQCA, which has only recently started to be used in tourism and hospitality, and generally the service sector.

The Implementation of Strategic Management in Greek Hospitality Businesses in Times of Crisis

“…Other critical factors identified by this research that hotel businesses need to focus on at all times include emphasis on technological developments, quality, and innovation, as well as differentiation of services. Indeed, the capability of tourism businesses seems to play an important role [12]. Other critical factors that affect performance and effectiveness include competition in the industry and taking measures to cope with the volatile economic environment in which businesses have to operate.…”

“…An attempt was made to approach strategic management from the point of view of the survival of hotel businesses, but in combination with the governmental choices at the economic level [31]. Regarding the Greek context, many studies have approached the effects of economic crises on tourism from the destination point of view [32], attempting to establish the necessary requirements to regain efficiency in the wider tourism sector [33], as well as the required marketing and planning strategies to get out of a crisis [12,34].…”

“…Taking into account the above context of an economic crisis, this paper addresses the recent calls for more extensive research on the strategic management approaches in tourism and hospitality businesses [6][7][8], along with recent calls linking crises and strategic management in tourism businesses [9,10] and tourist destinations [11]. Furthermore, this paper draws upon the emerged areas of studies exploring strategic decisions and economic crises in Greece [12]. Thus, the aim is to investigate the implementation of strategic management in ages of economic crisis and to expand our existing knowledge in the field.…”

Tourism in the post COVID-19 era: evidence from hotels in the North East of England

“…Therefore, a similar research in a post COVID-19 period (and a comparison of both studies' findings) is strongly recommended. Finally, crises and disasters especially in the tourism sector include high levels of complexity, since they chaotically unfold and entail exceptionally high levels of unpredictability (Pappas, 2019;Pappas and Brown, 2020). On these grounds, future research should also take under consideration the levels of the generated complexity, employing sufficient methods such as fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, conjoint analysis and nonlinear regression.…”

Guest editorial

“…The sixth paper titled "Entrepreneurial decisions in tourism and hospitality during crisis" (Pappas & Brown, 2020) is contextualised in the Greek tourism and hospitality industry. Although data were collected during a period of economic crisis, the results are timely and important given the current worldwide pandemic crisis and could shed light for understanding the entrepreneurial behaviour and resilience of touristic and hospitality entrepreneurs during crises.…”