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Browsing ESHT - DSIM - Artigos by Author "Castro, Conceição"
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- Entrepreneurs’ self-perception of skills in rural tourismPublication . Castro, Conceição; Ferreira, Fernanda A.The objective of this paper is to study the perception of entrepreneurial and personal maturity skills among owners of rural tourism businesses and structure these skills. The main obstacles to entrepreneurship felt by these entrepreneurs are also analysed. Using the results of a survey of rural tourism businesses in Northern Portugal, exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted. The data was evaluated through CFA, using Analysis of Moment Structure and performed a Structural Equation Model. The CFA led to two distinct factors: one includes emotional coping, critical evaluation and networking (personal maturity) skills, while the other (entrepreneurial) includes goal setting and environment scanning skills. The findings reveal, after a cluster analysis based on the resulting component scores, three different groups of entrepreneurs with different perception of competencies, background and type of business. The owners/managers encountered some restrictions in the start-up process as the bureaucracy and the lack of financial support and information. Studying rural tourism owner's perceived entrepreneurial competencies provide advances in identifying its dimensionality and corresponding profiles and help defining strategies to enhance them, in order to promote success and local development.
- Ethical behavior of firms and corruption in the public sector – a cluster analysis of worldwide countriesPublication . Castro, Conceição; Ferreira, Fernanda A.; Lopes, CristinaIn countries where corruption is high, there is less incentive for corporate organizations to behave ethically. Ethics, either in the private and public sectors, can be related to the level of economic development, economic freedom, and the quality of governance. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between corporate ethics and corruption in the public sector, to group countries according to these indicators, and investigate the characteristics of these clusters. A hierarchical followed by a K-means cluster analysis was performed to group 127 countries. Non-parametric and post-hoc tests were used to examine the significant differences among clusters in some features. The correlation between the ethical behavior of firms and corruption in the public sector was strong and significant. The cluster analysis led to three significantly different clusters, one formed by countries with high levels of corporate ethics and low corruption and it is composed only by countries with high-income, another with medium levels and finally a group of countries with low levels of corporate ethics and high levels of corruption. The results also suggest significant differences among the clusters in several economic, institutional, and development indicators. Improving these indicators potentially lead to high standards of ethics in the private and public sectors.
- Online hotel ratings and its influence on hotel room rates: the case of Lisbon, PortugalPublication . Castro, Conceição; Ferreira, Fernanda A.Lisbon is one of the European Union cities that has one of the highest growth in the number of hotels. With the digital revolution, travelers can easily not only compare prices but also get information about the experience of other guests which can influence prices. The aim of this paper is to analyze how prices for a hotel stay can be influenced by some quality signaling factors, as star rating and online consumer’s ratings (location, cleanliness, comfort, facilities, staff and value for money, available on Booking.com), the volume of consumer’s comments and the availability of rooms in Lisbon. For 151 hotels in Lisbon, from 3 to 5 stars, through a multiple regression model, the results suggest that hotel category, location and facilities ratings have a positive influence on hotel room rates, but higher trade-off between what clients pay and the guest hotel stay experience has a negative impact on the consumer’s willingness to pay, as well as the number of comments. Among different hotel categories, the influent factors are different. Our main findings provide signs to hoteliers to take corrective actions towards the attributes most valuable for consumers and that can provide a higher room rate premium.
- The impact of terrorism and corruption on tourism in Turkey: a regression analysisPublication . Ferreira, Fernanda A.; Castro, ConceiçãoTerrorism can have strong detrimental effects on tourism arrivals. Turkey is the country with the highest number of deaths from terrorism in the OECD after the September 11 attacks in the USA. The objective of this article is to study the impact of terrorism and corruption on the tourism industry in Turkey based on the multiple regression between 1995 and 2015. Our results suggest significant and adverse effects of terrorism and corruption on tourism. The paper aspires to contribute to the existing investigation through widening the dimension of the research on the effect of terrorism on tourism arrivals and highlights the serious implications of terrorism and corruption on tourism.
- Trends in hotel pricing: identifying guest value hotel attributes using the cases of Lisbon and PortoPublication . Castro, Conceição; Ferreira, Fernanda A.; Ferreira, FlávioPurpose – The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the effect of different hotel characteristics and room attributes on room rates of hotels in the cities of Lisbon and Porto, the capital and second most important city in Portugal. Design/methodology/approach – Using the hedonic pricing method, hotel characteristics are decomposed and analyzed, giving us the perception of the impact of each hotel attributes on the room rates and the people’s willingness to pay for this. Ordinary least square regression analysis was applied to the hedonic price model to find which variables could explain differences in the hotel room rates in Lisbon and Porto. Findings – The results suggest that in Lisbon and in Porto, a number of common characteristics have significant effects on consumer willingness to pay for a stay in a hotel as star rating, consumer rating and the room size. In Porto, the existence of a fitness centre and in Lisbon, the distance to the city centre are also attributes that create a premium in room rates. Practical implications – The knowledge of the most valued characteristics by consumers is an important tool for hotel managers to define a price strategy. Also important is the knowledge of the attributes that provide more added value for consumers as these should be taken into account in new investment decisions. Originality/value – This study highlights the implications of the way one defines and measures qualitative hotel characteristics in hedonic pricing. Although the hedonic method has been applied in several studies, to our knowledge, in Portugal, there are few studies applied only to hotel room rates, and there are no studies comparing hotel room rates in different Portuguese cities. Moreover, the research highlights the critical role of a proper definition and measurement of the variables in hedonic pricing in general and the hotel star in particular.