Internet as a training tool in small tourism and hospitality businesses in Norway.

摘要

Training and development are necessary components to insure the success of small businesses in the changing global economy. Previous small- and medium-size enterprise (SME) research has shown that the owners and employees of small businesses receive less formal education than employees at larger firms due to high costs, inconvenient locations, inflexible schedules, lack of human resources, and owner attitudes. Technology and the advancement of internet-based learning may be a solution to many of these potential barriers. This descriptive study examines the current adoption and attitudes towards the Internet as a formal and informal training and development tool by small tourism and hospitality businesses (STHB) in Northern Norway. The study provides an introduction to SMEs and the attitudes and barriers they face in pursuing training, the advantages and disadvantages of internet-based training and a discussion of formal versus informal training methods followed by a description of the methodology and results.;For this study a web-based survey link was e-mailed to 615 STHBs in Northern Norway in June and July 2008. The findings of this research have significance in the context of STHBs in Northern Norway, but given the low response rate of 24.2% (N=149), cannot be generalized to other contexts.;The researcher found that the majority of small tourism and hospitality owner-managers who had participated in training in the last 2 years perceived a variety of positive outcomes and that those owner-managers who had previously participated in internet-based training had a positive experience. Overall, the owner-managers had a positive view of information communication technologies (ICTs) and internet-based training and the majority indicated they were interested in utilizing the internet for training and development. The researcher also found that the STHBs utilized information communication technologies within their businesses for a variety of informal educational purposes including e-mail, internet searches, word processing, billing/checking, marketing/advertising and e-commerce. The least used of the ICT options provided were social networking programs. Overall, the researcher found that small tourism and hospitality businesses in Northern Norway were interested in internet-based training opportunities if the classes offered are relevant for their business and relatively inexpensive.