Tourism represents one of the main industries in terms of job creation and economic development while sustainability in tourism represents a worldwide challenge. The objective of the present study is to use a bibliometric approach to review the relevant literature. Bibliometric indicators, such as citations, are used to identify the field structure and the VOSviewer software is used to map the main trends in this area. Over the period 1987–2018, a total of 4647 papers were found in Scopus regarding sustainability issues in tourism. Analysis of the leading journals, authors, institutions, and keywords indicates that: (1) the literature on sustainability issues in the field of tourism is significantly growing; (2) a mere six papers accounted more than 300 citations, but there are several prolific authors; (3) of the 614 sources included in the review, the most important have published 46.7% of the papers; (4) in terms of documents and citations, the United States is the leading country in this topic; (5) according to keyword trend network analysis, sustainability is becoming a strategic approach for companies and tourist destinations. Finally, this subfield within the tourism literature has considerable potential and is expected to continue growing.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to study which perceived and attained entrepreneurial competences acquired by students while developing a business plan are rated most highly; and second, to analyse the differences observed in entrepreneurial competences, depending on whether the business plan developed is real or fictitious. Design/methodology/approach To analyse the role played by business plans in perceptions and attainment of competence, data were collected from students enrolled on a final project course of a bachelor’s degree, specifically the Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. The course in question focussed on entrepreneurship and business plans. The data on perceived and attained competences were obtained through questionnaires and assessment rubrics, respectively. Mean comparison analyses were conducted to investigate any differences in entrepreneurial competences existing between students developing real or fictitious business plans. Findings The paper finds evidence that the process of creating a business plan results in entrepreneurial competence being highly rated and that whether the business plan is real or fictitious does not affect the level of entrepreneurial competence. Research limitations/implications A longitudinal study will be required to analyse how entrepreneurial competences evolve during the business plan creation process. Originality/value This paper finds that few studies have been conducted to explore entrepreneurial competences in relation to business plan development and shows that more complete research is required. Moreover, both perceived and achieved competences are considered, an analysis not previously carried out.

Purpose In the last few years, the interest on professional identity development (PID) and the factors that influence PID has become central in higher education (HE) literature. However, the knowledge developed in this domain has focussed on a factor at a time and on a degree or discipline, thus being difficult to have a general picture of all the factors that influence the development of professional identity in HE. The purpose of this paper is to try to go further by proposing a systematic and integrative conceptual framework on the factors that influence PID of HE students. Design/methodology/approach To identify the influencing factors on PID the authors used primary and secondary data sources. In particular, the authors first conducted a thorough literature review to identify the influencing factors on PID already studied, and second the authors conducted a qualitative pilot study through four Focus Groups to identify new factors not acknowledged before. Findings The resulting integrative conceptual framework considers the following categories of influencing factors on PID: social experience, educational context, perceived congruence with the profession, demographic characteristics, professional image, professional experience, personal development and self-engagement. Research limitations/implications The proposed framework constitutes a roadmap for future research on career development and counselling to develop in order to enhance PID at university. Nonetheless, this proposed conceptual framework needs to be validated with empirical data. Originality/value This paper integrates all the existing knowledge on the influencing factors on PID from different disciplines by constructing a conceptual framework to be validated with further research.

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