2026-09-23T13:16:09Zhttps://iris.unica.it/oai/requestoai:iris.unica.it:11584/2667532022-10-20T09:35:28Zcom_11584_207615com_11584_111066col_11584_265854
Relazione tra contribuzione pubblica e performance economico-sociali nel settore turistico-ricettivo
DESSALVI, BERNADETTE
contribuzione pubblica
government grant
revenue management
yield management
public subsidie
regional policy
hotel performance
operating indicator
Sardinian hotel industry
Cagliari hotel industry
hotel Cagliari
public subsidies
revenue management
settore turistico ricettivo
Settore SECS-P/07 - Economia Aziendale
Purpose: This study investigates how government grants influence the economic and
social performance of companies benefiting from them. Literature in this topic indicates
various results: according to some studies subsidies seem to improve company
performance and profitability, while, according to others, they have a negative impact
on long term productivity and growth. Government grants impact have been not extensively
investigated in the tourism sector, especially regarding the economic and social
performance of the hotels. This study aims to fill this research gap by analyzing tourism
grants’ impact on different small and medium enterprises - SMEs located in the
metropolitan area of Cagliari (Sardinia) and furthermore to provide an evaluation of
grants policies’ outcome.
Design/methodology/approach: The research questions are:
Q1: Do tourism government grants improve the economic and social SMEs performance
in the hospitality industry?
Q2: Have tourism government grants proved to be effective and appropriate to the
hospitality sector?
The research shows an exploratory multiple case study conducted on five subsidized
hotels, selected with a purposeful sampling process, which started from the three Sardinian
major tourism public subsidies of the past decade. Economic grants impact has
been measured by typical revenue management operating indicators in the hotel indus7
try such as occupancy rate, average revenue per room and revenue per available room,
while subsidies’ social impact has been evaluated with social indicators such as the
human employment company level. The analysis compares the 3-year period which
precedes and follows the grants. The use of a mixed methods research, both qualitative
and quantitative, with tools such as questionnaires and interviews, also allowed a deep
comprehension of subsidies’ main characteristics and shortcomings.
Findings: The study shows that positive economic performance seems not to depend
exclusively on additional investment programs stimulated by subsidies. Nevertheless it
is shown that, contrary to the conventional intertemporal substitution argument, taking
advantage of grants provisions by anticipating investments, may not always have a
negative impact on company performance. The study reveals that the more investment
programs are sustainable and well-structured, the greater are the chances of the grants
having a positive long term impact on companies’ economic and social performance.
Grants’ negative impact on both economic and social performance seems to be linked
to the lack of government supervision on the subsidized investment programs.
Research limitation/implication: The study, which is only exploratory at this point,
needs to be extended to more significant samples in the hospitality industry. The study
shows that more of grants quality and more attention to the sector’s real needs evaluation
should be employed in order to provide more research evidence to detail both the
exact impact of subsidies on corporate performance and the quality of public resources
use.
Practical implication: The research shows that financial assistance to tourism SMEs
seems in part to be incoherent with the real regional needs. Subsidies have an impact
on companies’ economic and social performance and thus their provision should be the
result of careful design from the point of view of both the sector’s actors and the policy
authorities.
Originality/value: In this study a set of economic and social indicators of firm performance
are employed and linked to qualitative information to better comprehend the
perceived benefits and problems of regional tourism subsidies. The study provides the
first empirical evidence of the impact of subsidies on hospitality businesses.
2016-03-31
info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
http://hdl.handle.net/11584/266753
ita
numberofpages:289
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Università degli Studi di Cagliari
license:Non specificato