This document summarizes a study on cooperation between small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) and other tourism stakeholders in the Małopolska region of Poland. It includes a literature review on cooperation among SMTEs and the importance of networks. It describes the methodology used, which was a survey of 195 SMTEs. The results show that larger SMTEs cooperate with more stakeholders than micro enterprises. Cooperation was highest with travel agencies, tourism organizations, and public authorities. The document concludes with characteristics of the surveyed SMTEs.

1. Cooperation of Small and Medium-
sized Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs)
with Tourism Stakeholders in the
Małopolska Region – Top
Management Perspective Approach
Krzysztof Borodako
Department of Tourism, Cracow University of Economics
krzysztof.borodako@uek.krakow.pl
International Conference on Tourism & Management Studies – Algarve 2011

2. Plan of presentation
Literature review
Methodology of the research
Research sample
Results
Conclusions
Acknowledgement: The scientific research financed from the budget for science in 2009-2011
as a research project (No 2606/B/H03/2009/36).
Project commission by the Ministry of Science and High Education.
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 2

3. Literature review
The significant part of the tourism and hospitality industry are
SMTEs (Morrison 1998; Page, Forer & Lawton, 1999)
SMTEs usually do not possess enough resources to run
businesses separately: information, knowledge, human
resources, but also financial or organizational resources
The participation in the network is particularly important in
case of Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises
(SMTEs)
Relations of managers and entrepreneurs could be seen as a
main aspect of cooperation (Crick & Spence, 2005; Kontinen
& Ojala, 2010)
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 3

4. Literature review
One of the key attributes of cooperation between different
partners is the number of relations during a particular time
period (e.g. in the conducted research was assumed one year )
Others attributes of cooperation between different partners
could be formality, diversity, density and stability
All stakeholders in the tourism destination are interdependent
in terms of their information access, distribution, supplies,
sales and at the same time they are interdependent in relation
to others companies in the tourism destination (Ford, Gadde,
Håkansson & Snehota, 2003:6)
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 4

5. Facts about Malopolska Region
Area 15,144 sq. km,
Provincial capital city: Krakow,
Krakow – 756 000 residents,
22 counties (3 municipal),
57 cities; 2,635 villages,
25 cities under 10,000,
Population 3,2 million
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 5
Source: www.index-medica.pl

6. SMTEs in Malopolska
SMTEs are a part of 99.94% of all companies in the Hotels
and Restaurants sector in Malopolska (CSO, 2008)
Micro and small companies (up to 50 employees) constituted
99.51% of all companies of that sector (CSO, 2008)
There were 10 705 micro companies in the Hotels and
Restaurants sector, which was 3.75% of all micro firms in the
region (CSO, 2008)
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 6

7. The aim of research
To understand the difference in number of
relations of SMTEs with tourism
stakeholders in the region
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 7

8. Methodology
The collected database of the companies consisted of
1812 unique e-mail addresses of different businesses in
tourism industry in the region.
The inquiry form was prepared in an electronic version
on the internet website with access granted to
companies that were invited by a special e-mail
invitation.
Finally, out of 1812 emails sent to unique addresses,
198 addresses were incorrect, so the final number of the
delivered invitations was 1614.
As a result of filling the inquiry forms I received 195
completed records from SMTEs companies fulfilled by
the owners, CEOs or directors of the companies.
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 8

9. Characteristics of the responders
Position Status Education
President 59.51% Owner 82.56% Higher education 68.91%
Secondary vocational
Director 40.49% Employee 17.44% education 30.05%
No indication 19.63% Basic vocational education 1.04%
Experience in
Age Profile of education
tourism sector
21-30 years old 14.36% Under 1 year 1.54% Tourism 22.05%
31-40 years old 27.69% 1-2 years 6.67% Business 21.54%
41-50 years old 29.74% 3-5 years 16.92% Technical 23.08%
51-60 years old 23.59% 6-10 years 24.10% Law 1.54%
Over 60 years old 4.62% 11-15 years 19.49% Humanities 17.44%
over 15 years 30.26% Others 14.36%
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 9

10. Characteristics of the researched
companies from the Małopolska Region
Subsector Number of employees Age of firm
Accommodation 40.51% Micro firms (1-9) 59.49% under 2 years 11,34%
Catering 26.67% SMEs (10-249) 40.51% 3-5 years 25,77%
Others 32.82% 6-10 years 21,65%
11-15 years 17.53%
over 15 years 23.71%
Member of tourism chamber or organization Part of the region
Yes 27.46% Cracow (city and district) 46.15%
No 72.54% Other part of the Małopolska 53.85%
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 10

11. SMTEs cooperation in relation
to the level of employment
Micro firms SMTEs Micro firms SMTEs Micro firms SMTEs
Cooperate with
Cooperate with:
Travel agency Tourism organizations Public authorities
with:
p*= 0.00220 p= 0.00493 p= 0.00007
V= 0.2565434 V= 0.2416381 V= 0.3164247
none 27% 17% 43% 23% 22% 14%
1 to 5 45% 29% 50% 59% 66% 47%
over 5 28% 53% 6% 18% 12% 38%
total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Micro firms – one to nine employees; SMTEs – ten to two hundred forty nine employees
* In the research the statistical significance in the analyzed cases was lower than 0.05 (p≤0.05).
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 11

12. SMTEs cooperation in relation
to the level of employment
Micro firms SMTEs Micro firms SMTEs Micro firms SMTEs
Cooperate with
Cooperate with:
Higher education Training or consulting
Financial institutions
with:
institutions companies
p*= 0.00547 p= 0.00024 p= 0.00045
V= 0.2399167 V= 0.2977360 V= 0.2832762
none 52% 32% 53% 29% 25% 6%
1 to 5 40% 47% 43% 50% 67% 73%
over 5 8% 22% 5% 21% 8% 21%
total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Micro firms – one to nine employees; SMTEs – ten to two hundred forty nine employees
* In the research the statistical significance in the analyzed cases was lower than 0.05 (p≤0.05).
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 12

13. SMTEs cooperation in relation
to the subsector
AC CA OT AC CA OT AC CA OT AC CA OT
Cooperate with:
Cooperate with
Tourism Private tourism
Accommodation Catering
organizations attractions
with:
p= 0.00012 p= 0.00000 p= 0.02475 p= 0.00092
V= 0.2491663 V= 0.3024805 V= 0.1751565 V= 0.2269834
none 15% 37% 10% 27% 44% 10% 37% 45% 25% 25% 53% 25%
1 to 5 53% 46% 37% 64% 27% 51% 53% 36% 68% 51% 16% 41%
over 5 32% 17% 53% 9% 29% 40% 10% 18% 7% 25% 31% 34%
total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Abbreviations used in the table: AC – Accommodation, CA – catering, OT – Others
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 13

14. SMTEs cooperation in relation
to the age of the company
Age of the researched companies
Cooperate with:
< 2 3-5 6-10 11-15 > 15 < 2 3-5 6-10 11-15 > 15 < 2 3-5 6-10 11-15 > 15
years years years years years years years years years years years years years years years
Cooperate with
with:
Catering companies Tourism organizations Financial institutions
p= 0.00797 p= 0.01149 p= 0.00078
V= 0.2353074 V= 0.2333461 V= 0.2646296
none 38% 15% 24% 35% 25% 62% 37% 41% 23% 23% 52% 12% 14% 15% 13%
1 to 5 62% 66% 54% 35% 36% 38% 50% 44% 58% 73% 48% 76% 71% 59% 78%
over 5 0% 19% 22% 29% 39% 0% 13% 15% 19% 5% 0% 12% 14% 26% 9%
total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 14

15. Some limitations of the method
First of all, the structure of the SMTEs sample does not
exactly reflect the reality structure of the companies in
the Malopolska region (although high participation of
micro enterprises could be seen as very valuable).
Secondly, the dominant part of the sample came from
the city and district of Cracow, so the metropolitan area
is imperceptibly overrepresented (affected by good
reputation of the Tourism Department of Cracow
University of Economics in that area).
In the research there were included only enterprises, that
use e-mail.
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 15

16. Concluding remarks
The largest part of the researched sample usually
cooperates with one to five partners from each
stakeholder group.
Surprising was the high level of cooperation with
competitors from the same subsector – almost one third
of the accommodation and catering firms collaborate
with more than five competitors.
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 16

17. Thank you!
E-mail:
krzysztof.borodako@uek.krakow.pl
Krzysztof Borodako PhD 17