Family business in tourism characteristics

Abstract

Tourism and family entrepreneurship make a significant contribution to the Croatian economy, therefore it is important to define characteristics and business operations of family business in tourism. This paper examines characteristics of small family businesses in tourism from the perspective of owners of small family hotels in Croatia. In this qualitative study, interview was employed as a primary research instrument and the scientific method used is based on gestalt principles. GABEK©, a specific method of qualitative research and text analysis was used. The paper portrays the aspects of chosen business characteristics of small families in tourism - motivation of owners when setting up a business, success of small family business, financing, business issues, business facilitation and innovativeness. For each business aspect gestalten tree was formed with owner`s aggregated statements and finally the gestalten tree containing all chosen business aspects has been formed. Motives are, as presumed, family oriented and tending to preserve the family vision in the future. Qualitative, non-financial success measures are more important than financial measures. Business is usually financed from own funds and by combining bank loans, while business issues imply too high tax rates. Innovativeness levels are low which relates to low education levels. Originality of the research can be found in the fact that no similar study was conducted for Croatia nor as GABEK© method was used for qualitative data analysis. The research contributes to the scarce scientific research corpus in the field of family business in tourism. Practical implications presuppose education suggestions for family members in family firms - business facilitation suggestions and detected business issues.

Family businesses in the tourism industry: a research agenda

“…For example, Soler and Gémarb’ (2016) study which used the hedonic price model is conducted in Málaga, Spain and implied that “being a family-business hotel has a significant negative impact on room price” in Malaga (Soler and Gémarb, 2016, p. 58). In a similar manner, Bujan (2020) found out that for Croatian family business owners, nonfinancial measures are more important than financial measures. On the other hand, Chauhan and Madden (2020) found out that in the tourism sector in Thailand, family businesses play an important role due to their flexibility, credibility and ability to fill niches in the market.…”

A Bibliometric Overview of Tourism Family Business

“…This study also presents evidence of academia's efforts to understand the phenomenon of TFB, with studies that help to define the characteristics of FB in this sector (e.g., [7,9,13,64,73,75,89]), incorporating multilevel characteristics of ownership, family, business, tourist destination, and demand.…”

“…The human resources in TFB are usually characterized as having much experience but a low level of professionalization [60,62,64,65]. Moreover, they tend to have limited business planning and evaluation capabilities, and little inclination towards cooperation, networking, and the use of advanced management systems and tools related to information technologies [66,67].…”

“…TFB managers are especially focused on cost reduction [67] and cost control [53], with TFB usually securing financing from a combination of internal funds and bank loans [62,64], often maintained through investments in tangible collateral assets [71]. However, the factors that determine whether TFB will innovate may or may not be economic, but tend to be linked to risk aversion, the maintenance of traditional products, family control, and avoidance of disclosure [68].…”

Servant leadership and customer OCB: moderation effect of altruistic values amongst family hotels employees

“…, 2012; Zellweger et al. , 2010, 2013) such as business expansion and the continuation of FB tradition guide the perception of business success (Bujan, 2020). An important aspect of these lodging facilities is the casual management style, and human resource management methods are not given much thought.…”