Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the extent to which social capital (SC) spurs innovation in firms located within tourism clusters. Specifically, the study focuses on the mediating role of ambidextrous knowledge strategy (AKS) on the relationship between SC and innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
A structural model is used on a sample of 215 firms of the hospitality and tourism industry located in World Heritage Cities of Spain. Data analysis is carried out using partial least squares.
Findings
The combination of bonding and bridging capital yields higher innovation performance through AKS.
Research limitations/implications
This analysis does not take into account the full set of confounding factors that influence innovation. The factors captured by this study significantly explain heterogeneity in the intensity of innovation among the studied firms.
Practical Implications
The main recommendation is that firms located in cultural tourism clusters (CTCs) do not restrict the focus on either local or outside relations only but pursue a strategy based on the combination of internal and external relations. This will enable ambidextrous knowledge strategies and better innovation performance.
Originality/value
There are numerous studies on the relation between some dimensions of SC, some knowledge strategies and some types of innovation. The value added of the present study is the articulation of complementarities among these dimensions. In particular, this study integrates bonding and bridging dimensions of SC, exploration and exploitation of knowledge and incremental and radical innovation. In addition, the paper provides an empirical identification of World Heritage Cities of Spain as CTCs.
PurposeThis paper aims to process underlying the relationship between supervisor servant leadership and employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in hotels. Specifically, it analyzes the mediating role of empathy – individual level – and service climate – group level – in the relationship between supervisor servant leadership and employee OCB.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical analysis uses original data on hotels located in historic cities in Spain. A survey provided a sample of 343 work-group-level (supervisors) and 835 individual-level (employee) from a sample of 171 hotels.FindingsThe most interesting finding is the indirect effect of supervisor servant leadership on employee OCB through the mediating role of both employee empathy – individual level – and group service climate – group level.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that hotel supervisors should adopt servant leadership to enhance OCB in their workgroups. This paper also provides insights into other ways to increase employee OCB, namely, through human resources initiatives that enhance employee empathy and shape a service climate within groups.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the few that analyzes the relationships between supervisor servant leadership, employee empathy, group service climate and employee OCB in a unifying cross-level model. It is also the first to analyze employee empathy as a positive outcome of supervisor servant leadership, as well as a mechanism to explain the relationship between servant leadership and employee OCB. Finally, it is one of the few studies that analyzes all these relationships in conjunction within the hospitality industry.
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