Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay of skill-enhancing human resources practices, customer orientation (CO) and tourism small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance indicators.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for 194 valid cases are gathered through face-to-face techniques in Albanian tourism SMEs. Structural equation modeling is implemented to analyze data and test the hypothesis proposed.

Findings

Overall, both skill-enhancing human resources (HR) practices (i.e. recruitment/selection and training) are not associated with SMEs performance. Results suggest that using HR selection/recruitment practices are not associated to SME’s CO. Contrary, implementing skill-enhancing HR training practices is significant for SMEs strategy to focus and address customers’ wants and needs. Finally, it was found that the CO mediates the relationship between skill-enhancing HR training practices and performance, but this was not true on the skill-enhancing HR recruitment/selection practices-performance relationship.

Originality/value

This study makes contributions by further informing the debate about the direct and indirect link between skill-enhancing HR practices and performance. Additionally, it examines the precise role of the skill-enhancing HR practice on SMEs’ culture and or strategy to create value for customers.

中文翻译：

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提高技能的人力资源实践、客户导向和旅游中小企业绩效的相互作用

目的

本文的目的是检验提高技能的人力资源实践、客户导向 (CO) 和旅游中小企业 (SME) 绩效指标之间的相互作用。

设计/方法/方法

通过面对面技术在阿尔巴尼亚旅游中小企业中收集了 194 个有效案例的数据。实施结构方程建模以分析数据并检验所提出的假设。

发现

总体而言，提高技能的人力资源 (HR) 实践（即招聘/选拔和培训）与中小企业绩效无关。结果表明，使用 HR 选择/招聘实践与 SME 的 CO 无关。相反，实施技能提升的 HR 培训实践对于 SME 关注和满足客户需求的战略意义重大。最后，发现 CO 中介了技能提升人力资源培训实践与绩效之间的关系，但在提升技能人力资源招聘/选拔实践-绩效关系上却并非如此。

原创性/价值

这项研究通过进一步为关于提高技能的人力资源实践与绩效之间的直接和间接联系的辩论提供信息而做出了贡献。此外，它还研究了提高技能的人力资源实践对中小企业文化和/或为客户创造价值的战略的确切作用。