Tourism has become a priority in national and regional development policies and is considered a source of economic growth, particularly in rural areas. Nowadays, wine tourism is an important form of tourism and has become a local development tool for rural areas. Regional tourism development studies based on wine tourism have a long history in several countries such as the US and Australia, but are more recent in Europe. Although Spain is a leading country in the tourism industry, with an enormous wine-growing tradition, the literature examining the economic impact of wine tourism in Spanish economy is scarce. In an attempt to fill this gap, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of wine tourism on economic growth and employment in Spain. More specifically, by applying panel data techniques, we study the economic impact of tourism in nine Spanish wine routes in the period from 2008 to 2018. Our results suggest that tourism in these wine routes had a positive effect on economic growth. However, we do not find clear evidence of a positive effect on employment generation.

Purpose: Accelerators are seen as powerful entities that provide critical support to startups in their development. However, little is known about the acceleration practices by which they help their startups. The present study has as its aim to investigate whether business accelerators do assist their startups in the generation of their dynamic capabilities and in their performance and which processes and organizational routines of accelerators programs become effective drivers.Design/methodology/approach: Drawing from the dynamic capability perspective, this empirical research explores the impact of business acceleration programs in their startups by applying a Canonical discriminant analysis using data from 24 Spanish business accelerators.Findings: This study reveals that certain accelerators practices indeed enhance startups’ dynamic capabilities. Further, absorption, integration, and innovation capabilities had a positive influence on startups’ performance while sense the market capability showed a negative one. These findings enable us to identify which business acceleration practices lead to better startups’ performance improvements.Research limitations/implications: This is a preliminary attempt to help in the untangling of the dynamic capability and the business incubation black box. The cross-sectional design of the study and the fact that the data was gathered from a single country and based on survey results in bias and in a limited generalization of its findings.Practical implications: This research can help decision makers’ in business accelerators to put in practice organizational mechanisms aimed to be more successful in their objectives.Originality/value: This study is pioneer to empirically analysis the relationship between business accelerators’ practices and the generation of dynamic capabilities.

This research seeks to understand the situation that entrepreneurs have experienced during COVID-19 and the impact that this has caused on the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The question is whether business incubators as facilitating institutions of entrepreneurship have been determinants for the survival of startups. The study was conducted using a statistical methodology of analysis based on the application of structural equations modeling (SEM) on a theoretical framework built and validated empirically in a representative sample of entrepreneurs from the Community of Madrid (Spain). The results obtained show that the different tools, actions, advice, and services offered by the business incubators, during confinement to the present, have been key to the survival of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which in turn promotes the advancement of the productive industry of our country.

Purpose: This research aims at the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) framework – How can cognitive traits for entrepreneurship be used by incubators and accelerators?Design/methodology/approach: In this research the authors analyze the factors that catalyze the founding of new technology-based firms. From a practitioner stand-point, the GEM posits that these factors can be classified as contextual, social and individual factors. The present study focuses on the latter, looking into how demographic characteristics, possession of human capital and cognitive traits interrelate. The authors rely on a sample of 141 technological new ventures being incubated in Madrid, Spain, which is analyzed with the multilayer perceptron technique.Findings: The results show that cognitive traits, as defined in the TPB, act as the “last mile” in the entrepreneurial decision process, while demographic and human capital factors appear to antecede them. These results are relevant for incubators and accelerators, which now gain a better, more complete understanding of success factors of their incubatees.Originality/value: This research deals both with practitioners' view of entrepreneurship and with scientific literature, intertwining both with the purpose of providing valuable information for incubators and accelerators.

La Directiva Marco del Agua obliga a adoptar sistemas tarifarios que recuperen los costes del recurso agua y el establecimiento de políticas nacionales de precios que contribuyan a conseguir un uso sostenible del agua. Las tarifas del agua deben emplearse como herramienta coadyuvante de control del consumo, buscando la eficiencia y un uso sostenible del recurso. En esta investigación, hemos estudiado las características de las tarifas existentes en siete ciudades españolas, analizando el comportamiento del consumo de agua de uso doméstico en el periodo 2003-2010, para comprobar si el actual sistema tarifario español se adecua a la situación del recurso y a los objetivos de la Directiva. La conclusión principal de nuestro trabajo es que el actual sistema ha perdido su eficacia como herramienta de control del consumo, por lo que resulta necesario un replanteamiento de la política de precios y un nuevo sistema tarifario en España.

The aim of this work was to classify the business incubators in Spain according to the four phases of the startup’s incubation process. Considering that the graduation rate implies greater survival and business success of the incubated companies, they have been identified at each stage of the incubation (spread of entrepreneurship, pre-incubation, advanced incubation, and graduation). The activities that present higher impacts on the success of the incubated companies and the activities carried out by the business incubator that have a greater relevance on the graduation of the companies have concretely been considered. Principal component (PC) cluster analysis has been applied. All the incubation variables were used simultaneously, reducing their number and grouping them into factors. Finally, the cases were grouped according to these latent variables. Principal component analysis reduced dimensionality to eight factors with a 74% explained variance. Factor 1 was positively related to pre-incubation variables; factor 2 was linked to training and collaboration variables within the entrepreneurship diffusion phase. Factor 3, named activity monitoring and control, was related to phase 3, or basic incubation variables. Cluster analysis facilitates the grouping of business incubators into three clusters: Group 1 (16% of the total), incubators with strong deficits in incubation phases 1, 2, and 3. They are small-sized business incubators, often located in rural areas or cities, with a low graduation rate. Group 2 (30%), business incubators with a very high graduation rate and strongly positive values in factors 1 and 2. Factor 3, although positive, is susceptible to improvement. They are the largest group of business incubators and usually located in industrial and technological parks. Group 3 (54%) is the majority, with values close to clusters 2 and 3.