The influence of intellectual capital on innovativeness and growth in tourism SMEs: empirical evidence from Slovenia and Croatia

Abstract

The innovative capability of an organisation depends on the intellectual capital that it possesses. Our research attempts to examine the influence individual intellectual capital components have on the innovativeness and consequent growth of a company. This article proposes a classification and measurement method of intellectual capital, highlighting the following three components; human capital, organisational capital, and social capital. Our aim is to explain innovation performance and company growth by showing the importance of each intellectual capital dimension on a specific type of innovation (product, process, marketing, and organisational). To this end, a questionnaire survey was performed on 2800 Slovenian and 1700 Croatian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism area. A data sample of 359 companies was analysed using SPSS 19 and the EQS 6 statistical programme to employ multivariate data analyses techniques through developed hypotheses.

Determinants of SMEs’ performance: evidence from European countries

“…For instance, the impact of the state government approach to business development is carefully considered for SMEs in Malaysia (Rasiah, 2002). In the U.K., researchers focus on the innovation policy, which has a great impact on service and manufacturing SMEs (Foreman-Peck, 2013). In Brazil, researchers report the impact of a cluster development policy on SMEs' performance (Figal Garone, Maffioli, de Negri, Rodriguez, & Vazquez-Bare, 2015), while Lin and Lin (2016), studying a sample of 77 Taiwanese SMEs, found that the level of organisational performance depended on the types of network relationships.…”

Innovativeness as a determinant of entrepreneurial orientation: analysis of the hotel sector

“…This study fills this gap by examining the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation in the hotel Rauch et al, 2009;Rigtering, Eggers, Kraus, & Chang, 2017). This great interest partly stems from the fact that both entrepreneurial orientation and one of its dimensionsnamely, innovativenessare fundamental factors that determine the competitive behaviour of companies in an increasingly globalised market subject to fierce competition (Gomezelj Omerzel & Smol ci c Jurdana, 2016).…”

“…Innovativeness is the tendency of firms to participate in and support new ideas that may lead to new technological products, services or processes (Anjani & Yasa, 2019;Lumpkin & Dess, 1996). This trend allows companies to create a broad set of skills, which are valuable tools for competitiveness (Gomezelj Omerzel & Smol ci c Jurdana, 2016) in an ever-changing business environment (Ahimbisibwe & Abaho, 2013;Teixeira & Ferreira, 2019). Innovative capacity is linked to the success of the company as a result of the adoption and implementation of new ideas, processes and/or products (Prifti & Alimehmeti, 2017).…”

“…Innovativeness describes a process that involves the development and exploitation of new knowledge (O'Raghallaigh, Sammon, & C. Murphy, 2011). Innovation and innovative capacity have been the focus of the work of many scholars of the hotel sector (Gomezelj Omerzel & Smol ci c Jurdana, 2016;Hern andez-Perlines et al, 2019). Innovativeness in the service sector, which includes the hotel sector, cannot be conceived in the same way as innovativeness in the industrial sector.…”

“…Innovativeness in the hotel sector is based on a set of skills that can be combined in different ways to enhance competitiveness (Mattson, Sundbo, & Fussing-Jensen, 2005;Otterbacher & Gnoth, 2005). In the tourism sector, the response to customer needs is a key source of innovativeness, which is a key factor to be competitive (Gomezelj Omerzel & Smol ci c Jurdana, 2016). Currently, competition in the hotel sector requires firms to adapt to changes in the environment through innovation (Mart ınez-Ros & Orfila-Sintes, 2009), particularly technological innovation (Buhalis, 1998; Camis on-Haba, Clemente-Almendros, & Gonzalez-Cruz, 2019).…”