Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.46672/aet.11.2.1
MANAGEMENT PERCEPTION OF INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT TO THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF HOTEL COMPANIES THROUGH COMMERCIAL DIPLOMACY
Ivana Licul
orcid.org/0000-0001-8238-8317
; Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka
Abstract
Commercial diplomacy is a mediation mechanism between government institutions and companies aimed at facilitating the market approach and decreasing costs of internationalisation, thus creating preconditions for their international market presence. Although science recognises the importance of this method of institutional support in the business internationalisation process, the relationship between government institutions and the corporate sector is not sufficiently researched, whereby research objectives are often limited to the macroeconomic level, thus dismissing the needs of the entrepreneurial sector and the specific nature of activities in which it operates. This paper focuses on the sector of small and
medium hotel companies in Croatia, with emphasis on hotel managers’ perception of the significance of institutions
authorised to provide the services of commercial diplomacy. The purpose is to understand how hotel managers valuate the role of government institutions in facilitating international market positioning. The impact of hotel size and location on the perception of relevance of institutions providing services of commercial diplomacy in the process of international market penetration was researched on the sample of 103 respondents. The results suggest significant difference in the perception of institutional support dependant on hotel location (p = 0.001) and hotel size (p = 0.045). Hotel companies in the Adriatic Hinterland and Pannonian Croatia perceive institutions as more important in relation to those on the coast and in Northern Croatia, whereas small and medium hotel companies valuate institutional support more than micro companies. The results indicate the need for adapted models of institutional support that take into account the regional and structural specificities of the hotel sector, aimed at a more effective encouragement of the internationalisation process through commercial diplomacy.
Keywords
commercial diplomacy, small and medium enterprises, hotel activity, management
Hrčak ID:
340162
URI
Publication date:
4.12.2025.
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