The business structure and the employment characteristics of the restaurants industry: the dominance of small familyrun businesses: evidences from the city of Aveiro, Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Simão, Pedro
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Breda, Zélia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/38828
• topic: Tourism; Restaurants industry; Business structure; Employment; Aveiro

Nowadays tourism is a very important sector in most economies, being its relevance also recognized in the academia. Many researchers have been studying this sector in several different perspectives, but there is not much evidence on the restaurants industry and on its characteristics. Therefore, this study aims to present the main specificities associated with the restaurant business in the city of Aveiro (Portugal), as well as managers’ and employees’ employment characteristics. For that purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted. Results show that both managers and employees present low educational qualifications, work long hours, and have low salaries. As for businesses, the restaurants industry is mostly characterised by the dominance of SMEs, which in the current economic situation, are facing a harsh time and need to be creative to be able to surpass a number of barriers in order to become more competitive. Managers are required to carefully analyse the most important aspects of their businesses so that they can stay competitive in the long run.