Contents
Title
Competences and Managerial Profile as Drivers of Hotel Internationalization: Implications on Firm´s Internationalization Strategy Pattern
Author
Ricardo Correia, Jorge Lengler,
Classification JEL
M30, M31
Abstract
Literature indicates that internationalization is a phenomenon influenced by firm specific and environmental factors. However, the international entrepreneurship literature has recently attributed to entrepreneur manager a prominent role in the internationalization decisions. Combining economic and behavioural theories we deliver to international literature an integrated approach adding entrepreneurial principles for explain the Portuguese hotel sector internationalization. Beyond exploring the main internal and external motivational factors that leads to the decision of internationalization and its influence internalization patterns, this study also proposes to investigate the role of the manager facing firm´s ownership advantages and international market opportunities. Since the research focuses on understanding and explaining the internationalization process of Portuguese hotel firms, a comprehensive multi-case study was applied as a research method. Evidence shows that stimulus responsible for internationalization were mainly competence based, within a strong managerial push component evidencing the appropriateness of resource based-view and international entrepreneurship as most appropriate theoretical foundations to support the explanation of the initiation of international activities. Concerning the relation between motivational factors and the patterns of internationalization, it was found a clear contribution from economic and behavioural theories evidencing the complementarity between the different theories as a valid and appropriate approach to support the explanation of internationalization phenomena. Several implications can be drawn from the study findings for corporate and public sector. The study further adds to international entrepreneurship literature a new perspective in the sense that the scope of the study goes beyond the creation of international new ventures being its integration with other models a credible approach between scholars. Directions for future research are provided with grounded proposition for further testing.
Keywords
Case Theoretic Approaches, Resource-Based View or Resource-Based Theory Competitive Advantage, Entrepreneurship Business Strategy, Travel and Tourism.
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