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This paper aims at from the perspective of the social exchange theory (SET) gaining an understanding of how promotion of halal concept in Sweden is perceived by Swedish hoteliers.

A mixed-methods approach has been used consisting of 62 completed surveys with closed-ended and open-ended questions, follow-up comments and five in-depth interviews with hoteliers in the mid-Sweden region. Content analysis has been employed.

Three categories of meanings are the main findings: general perception, safeguarding Swedish secular values and financially unjustifiable have been discovered. Most of the respondents have been sceptical towards halal and Muslim-friendly hotel concepts due to financial and cultural challenges these two concepts have for the Swedish tourism and hotel industries. Based on the SET, this entails more costs than benefits and is especially at odds with Swedish-rooted secular values.

This study provides practical implications and increased knowledge for tourism stakeholders including hotels in Sweden.

This is one of the very few studies on halal tourism in Scandinavia and the first Scandinavian study on hoteliers' attitudes towards halal tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to deal mainly with the participants’ perception of their attendance in publicly funded training programmes in the tourism industry.

The investigation is based on e-mail interviews with 12 employees in the Swedish tourism industry who have actively participated in such courses as well as some courses offered by private organisations.

The results show that the interviewees have a positive perception of their participation and they believe that their attendance has had an overall positive impact on them or on their businesses. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether their participation has had an extraordinarily positive impact on business outcomes in terms of subsequent increased turnover, greater productivity or sales, or an expanded customer base. Lack of time and money and the prevalence of unsuitable courses prevent business owners and their employees from attending such courses.

This research is the first Swedish qualitative investigation on the issue.

The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding on if and how hotel senior managers (HSMs) in four-star chain hotels in London and Stockholm implemented crisis management techniques (CMTs) as a response to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Qualitative questionnaires were sent to 30 HSMs in London and Stockholm. From the feedback, this paper assesses, using thematic analysis, differences in CMTs used, past and present, alluding to COVID-19’s economic impacts on hotels.

Results determined that crises broadly economically impacted destinations similarly through loss of travellers and thus revenue. However, with a more intricate and specific assessment, destinations are impacted differently; thus, CMTs must alter. Findings show many CMTs can be implemented to reduce crises’ economic impacts. The literature review and empirical results allude to many previous and current CMTs, although these must be relevant and specific to the crisis, hotel and/or destination.

This paper has theoretical implications for academics on, among other things, theory building. Practically, it supports hotels in developing and determining CMTs to reduce the economic impacts of crises, to be better prepared when another pandemic emerges and contributes to the tourism and hospitality industry’s knowledge of management strategy within crises.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Swedish study focusing on post-COVID-19 crisis management in hotels in London and Stockholm.

The purpose of this paper is to gain more insight into the phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations and attain more knowledge on the topic.

The study employed a questionnaire consisting of qualitative and quantitative items. In all, 21 individuals (12 women, 9 men) responded.

The most important reason for solo travel was their own free choice and in some cases, difficulty finding companions. Their activities at the destinations were mostly visiting attractions followed by visiting friends, shopping, walking, eating at restaurants, learning the language, working, etc. They mostly mentioned advantages but also some disadvantages with solo travelling. Their experiences, especially with the people in the host destinations, have been positive and they show overall satisfaction with their visit. A predominant share of the interviewees showed a kind of loyalty to one or more specific city destinations and wished to revisit them again and again.

The current study might have some implications for city tourism developers/destination developers, travel agencies, national or regional tourism boards and tour operators in major urban areas and cities. Especially, this study has a practical contribution to the city tourism practitioners and gives them more insight in what values, attitudes, perceptions, expectations and motivations the solo travellers might have before or while they visit their cities. The study also has implications for potential solo travellers seeking more knowledge and information on the issue.

The phenomenon of solo travel to city destinations is an unresearched topic in Sweden. This exploratory study is the first in Sweden to focus on solo travellers visiting city destinations.

The main purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence which identifies the impact of ethnicity and other relevant variables on external capital acquisition among Swedish women‐owned businesses at start‐up.

Several methods have been employed to analyze the sample including a binary logistic regression model. The sample consists of 836 women‐owned businesses in southeast Sweden; 97 immigrant‐owned, 739 native born‐owned.

The results indicate that there are partly significant differences between native women‐owned firms and immigrant woman‐owned businesses at start‐up. Unlike the native‐owned firms, the immigrant woman‐owned businesses rely more on loans from family members and less on bank loans.

The results reveal that age has a positive impact on loans from family members, while the additional job outside one's own business, the amount of the owner's personal start‐up capital and firm size positively influenced access to capital from banks. The owners' level of education, previous business experience, the legal form taken by the firm and the industry affiliation conversely played no significant role in explaining the women owners' attitudes toward loans from either friends or the bank.

To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first empirical investigation addressing this issue in the Swedish context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there are any significant differences between native Swedish and immigrant entrepreneurs in business advice sought at start-up.

The study, based on a unique and large database consisting of 304 immigrant and 2,512 native-owned firms, applies several univariate and multivariate statistical methods including ANOVA and regression analysis.

According to the results there are certain similarities and differences between Swedish native- and immigrant-owned firms concerning the type of external business advice they seek. The results suggest there are significant differences between native and immigrant-owned firms for four of 20 types of advice received. Native-owned firms, on average, tend to seek more advice on accounting and on the choice of business form as well as the help of a knowledgeable person. On the other hand, immigrants seek, on average, more advice on export questions than their native counterparts.

This research contributes to policy-making by helping authorities gain a better understanding of the impact of immigrant background on business network decisions at the nascent stage of development. Immigrant access to good advice in the nascent stage should increase new firm survival. This study does not, however, measure performance. As this research is based on aggregate level secondary data, more specific analysis has been impossible. This is an important limitation of this paper. In addition, immigrants are not homogenous groups and they differ in age, education, work experiences, etc. The results should therefore be interpreted carefully.

This paper is one of the first and few empirical studies investigating the issue of immigrant business advice strategies in the Swedish context. The study provides a detailed overview of how ethnicity influences entrepreneurs’ use of external business advice in the firm formation stage for micro and small firms.

The aim of the study is to investigate whether there are any differences between the attitudes towards participation in development programmes of entrepreneurs who are immigrants and those who are native-born.

Several statistical methods, including a binary logistic regression model, were used to analyse a unique, firm-level dataset collected by the Swedish Small Business Forum in October and November 2012. The dataset was based on a questionnaire composed of 60 closed questions that was completed by 531 participants representing 395 companies.

Based on the analysis of 15 different attitude variables, the empirical findings are that immigrant managers/owners are more likely to show a positive attitude to participation in development programmes, in terms of nine of those attitude variables, than their native counterparts. Because there are no data about second generation of immigrants in the sample, thus, this category may have had an impact on the results. However, there is no possibility to identify any impact on the results.

There is no prior research focusing specifically on this question, and to the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that has attempted to deal with the issue. This study is based on a recent and unique database, and provides new evidence on the relationship between ethnicity and attitude towards participation in development programmes among entrepreneurs. Its context is different from that of prior research.

This study examines the association between performance and competence development among Swedish micro firms, measured as number of hours per person a company allocates annually to competence development.

A panel dataset consisting of around 395 firms will be analyzed using seemingly unrelated regression-model (SUR-model) for relationships between the hours allocated to competence development and various proxies for business performance, and the relationship between attending a business training program and various proxies for business performance.

The empirical results are mixed showing a positive association between owners' attendance on a business training program and company performance merely with regard to four performance variables: better job satisfaction within a company, increased number of employees, organizational improvements and increased exports. However, the findings provide no evidence to suggest that there is a link between competence development and other performance variables.

The present study provides a better understanding of the relationship between company performance and competence development. An investment in entrepreneur training and education could ensure the improvement of the performance of micro firms. This implication is especially relevant to firms in such industries as the service sectors, which are highly competitive.

This study is based on a unique sample including many relevant variables, compared to previous researches. To the authors' best knowledge, this study is the one of the first empirical investigations focusing on this issue in the Swedish context.

The aim of this study is to examine whether there are significant differences between female and male entrepreneurs’ use of consultation during business start-ups.

Using several statistical tools, including ANOVA and seemingly unrelated regressions, empirical analyses are conducted on a unique and firm-level panel database of 837 female- and 1926 male-owned active small firms.

The results indicate that gender may be an important variable in the use of advice among small business owners in Sweden. Female owners in this study are shown to be more eager than male owners to use external business advice, and do so to a higher extent.

One implication of this study is that firms may not be able to use all business advice types simultaneously during their start-up stage, so an ordered list of consultancy services would help them prioritize and adjust their needs accordingly. Because the use of business advice is context-based, the findings of this study may not be generalized to firms in other countries. This paper shows some gender-based attributes/features relating to the use of business advice, which need to be better integrated into policymaking for the future assistance of small businesses.

This article focuses on an important issue and is unique partly because few studies have examined the relationship between gender and external business advice. By explicitly and empirically examining this issue, this article makes a contribution to the small- and medium-sized enterprises’ literature.