Journal of Business and entrepreneurial
July - September Vol. 7 - 3 - 2023
http://journalbusinesses.com/index.php/revista
e-ISSN: 2576-0971
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Receipt: 15 Ocober 2022
Approval: 22 May 2023
Page 1-13
Elements of integrated business management as a
mechanism for profitability in the inns of the La
Troncal sector
Elementos de la gestión integral empresarial como
mecanismo de rentabilidad en las hosterías del sector la
Troncal
Ana Gabriela Hinojosa Caballero
*
Joffre Edgar Boza Aguirre
*
Jonnathan Fernando Guzmán Chávez
*
Lucia Carolina Morales Calle
*
ABSTRACT
The canton of La Troncal in the province of Cañar is
identified as a natural tourist center, which is why
identifying the elements of integrated business
management as a mechanism of profitability in the
inns is of vital importance to demonstrate the
economic revival of the area, a literature review of
the elements of business management was
conducted, A survey was applied to representatives
of inns in the tourism sector and after an analysis of
the results of these surveys, the lack of application of
different elements of integrated business
management was evidenced, and it was
recommended to the interested parties to review
the organization of their company to apply these
elements more efficiently, which will bring them an
increase in profitability in the future.
Keywords: business management, profitability
mechanisms, inns hotels
* MsC. Docente Universidad Católica de Cuenca;
aghinojosac@ucacue.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6885-0384
* MsC. Docente Universidad Católica de Cuenca;
jrcampoverdes@ucacue.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9226-7348
* Lcda. Universidad Católica de Cuenca;
jonnathan.guzman.46@est.ucacue.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7721-
8018
* Lcda. Universidad Católica de Cuenca;
lucia.morales.59@est.ucacue.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4390-
3838
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RESUMEN
El cantón La Troncal en la provincia del Cañar se
identifica como un centro turístico natural, razón por
la cual identificar los elementos de gestión integral
empresarial como mecanismo de rentabilidad en las
hosterías es de vital importancia para evidenciar la
reactivación económica de la zona, se realizó una
revisión bibliográfica de los elementos de gestión
empresarial, se aplicó una encuesta a los
representantes de hosterías del sector turístico y
luego de un análisis de los resultados de dichas
encuestas, se evidenció la falta de aplicación de
diferentes elementos de la gestión integral
empresarial, llegando a recomendar a los interesados
revisar la organización de su empresa para aplicar
dichos elementos de manera más eficiente lo que ha
futuro les traerá un incremento en la rentabilidad.
Palabras clave: gestión empresarial, mecanismos
de rentabilidad, hosterías
INTRODUCTION
Canton La Troncal has everything necessary to position itself as a tourist destination,
due to its geographical location that attracts everyone who visits it. In this way, tourists
favor the economic reactivation of the canton, demanding quality lodging with services
up to the standards of an external visitor. On the other hand, it should be taken into
account the significant losses that these tourist lodges had, which contribute to the
economy of the canton due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a fact that clearly had a great
impact worldwide.
This indicates that not having an integrated system in place decreases the company's
profitability. In this context, the implementation of the elements of integral business
management in hotel enterprises becomes a necessary component for hotel companies
to achieve excellence and increase their economic profitability. That is to say that when
we talk about excellence we refer to the goal to be achieved as a company, recognizing
the value of the service offered to the customer and that the customer is satisfied.
The general objective is to identify the elements of integral business management as a
profitability mechanism in the inns of the La Troncal sector. The specific objectives were
to analyze the theoretical references of different authors that cover the subject to be
studied, to describe the elements of integral management that contribute to the
profitability of the sector to be studied and to apply a data collection instrument that
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allows observing how much the elements of business management are applied within the
company.
The purpose of this research project is to investigate the elements of integrated business
management that contribute to the profitability of the hotel sector in the canton of La
Troncal, to prevent these companies from having difficulties when implementing a model
of integrated management and that leads to the failure to achieve its objectives resulting
in a fractioned and erroneous system. In this way, an in-depth study will be developed
on each of the elements that make up the integral management, providing a better
description of the same; so that managers or administrators of the respective hotels can
implement them in a correct way. It should be noted that the group of companies being
studied are part of one of the largest economies in the canton and in the country.
According to them, failures and mistakes among those responsible for the service or
product are always detected by the customer and these affect the objectives that the
company has, which is why they are forced to implement systems that manage quality in
processes or products. However, many companies do not see this implementation as a
necessary case (Carrera, Ligña, Morales; et al, 2017).
The aim of integrated management is to contribute elements to the objectives set in the
company and to help business decisions in order to maximize the benefit of the company
that applies it.
Integrated management is a way of managing a company based on unified processes and
objectives. Different sectors serve a joint management, in favor of the same strategies.
(SYDLE, 2022).
Similarly, Arevalo (2022) in his research on Process Management and its impact on
profitability indicates that profitability tends to increase as process management improves,
and in a complementary manner, efficiency, error reduction and compliance with quality
specifications are improved.
Tourism in Ecuador as a growing industry is increasingly present in the country's
economy, and in many regions, employment, economic, social and cultural development.
But the industry is affected by the poor quality of hotel service and inadequate
infrastructure in these facilities, these are the main reasons for disclosure in this study.
In recent years, tourism activities have developed
significantly in many cities across the country. Meanwhile, in today's highly competitive
hotel environment, service quality is expected to be the key to increasing hotel
occupancy and revenue. Especially because quality differentiates the product (or service)
from other products or services and therefore creates expectations. Therefore, it is
important to know what level of quality customers perceive in the hotel service, since
the modern company strives "in addition to making the service profitable, for customer
satisfaction" (Silva Ordoñez, et al., 2019).
In this sense, in terms of the perceived quality of hotel services, (Gallego, 2002) states
that:
It refers to customer satisfaction upon arrival, during the stay, as well as upon
departure, leaving with a positive attitude, feeling that everything he received is
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what he expected to get before staying, and, in addition, that he has the
confidence to return and be better served. (pg. 1)
Service quality is a concept that has been accepted by organizations in recent years, due
to the need to compete with the expansion of different service offerings in the market.
For tourists, the concept is global, that is, all the experiences gained during a visit lead
to the definition of a service that necessarily responds to the quality question with which
it is associated with the results perceived by tourists when they arrive at the hotel
(Zambrano, et al., 2021).
The maintenance of control for the quality process of a good or service is the modern
way to open up to competition with other hotel chains, taking into account that
nowadays there is great competition and it is increasingly important to create a direct
relationship with customers to achieve loyalty with the service. Clearly the territory
where it is located will play an important role in the hotel infrastructure. Since from that
an area is created with better quality to offer to the tourists.
The integral management system is that way of organizing the company to achieve its
small and big objectives, since all the parts of the company are unified in a unified way.
Integral management is understood as that set of standards and practices that include
quality management, environmental care, prevention of occupational hazards, which
when applied within the company achieve better productivity, profitability, healthy
finances and an adequate environment for the development of the company (Ramos, et
al., 2020).
They are those that allow decisions to be made to improve the company and enable it
to adapt to changes in the market in an efficient manner.
Planning model: the one where companies with controlled environments, positioned
organization and with great organization belonging to certain sectors are located. They
are managed with short term objectives and make decisions in a hierarchical manner,
usually they are always in high performance (Alvarez, 2017).
Search model: are those highly competitive companies and therefore in constant
growth, companies like these seek to attract customers through dynamic actions,
besides being flexible with the means, the worker is told what to do but it is left to his
discretion how to develop it. It always remains clear on the objective to be achieved
(Alvarez, 2017).
Scientific model: these are seen as alternative models of planning, focused on the
search for knowledge and on the consensual decision making. Here, employees act with
conviction, driven by an initiative and adhering to certain rules and parameters (Alvarez,
2017).
Discovery model: this model is flexible with means and ends, generally used with start-
up companies, so it is possible to acquire new experiences and thoughts of other useful
competencies to apply them to one's business. In certain cases it is applied in
organizations seeking to recover from a bad patch (Alvarez, 2017).
For the management of a project, a work matrix must be applied with its own objectives
already outlined in each of the areas in order to achieve them effectively.
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Process management: create the final product in the most efficient way, however, it is
not enough, the product or service must also be concerned with quality, safety or
environmental specifications.
Some indicators of how to organize it:
• Operational and support personnel. - Coordinate the efforts of the workers,
making them aware of a good ratio of time to carry out the activities.
• External collaborators. - Integrate other managers to establish work guidelines.
• Suppliers. - constant communication (how, when and where to receive the
goods).
Quality management: "the choice of the construction process depends on the quality
required by the client" (Direction and Management, 2020, n.p.).
Environmental management: it has to do with the environment in which the project will
be developed:
"The work environment and the type of project will establish the environmental
management constraints and restrictions on work processes. Depending on
whether we are working in a special protection zone, vulnerable areas or
developable areas, different measures will be adopted." (2020)
As a company you must think at all times in the primary source of income as it is in this
case; the customer. Making the customer satisfied, allows the same to visit more services
or buy more products, in addition to recommending others.
Implementing added value in hospitality services is one of the biggest challenges in the
tourism competition since they are always in constant renovation and implementation
of new services. Not to mention that the hotel competition is getting bigger and bigger
as the population increases in the place where it is located.
Customer service and follow-up after using the facilities should be part of a strategic
plan of action within the company, thus attracting the customer. Create a striking
message that encourages the customer to return to our establishments (Profima, 2018,
s/p).
• Offering a high added value to the customer: the framework of a company's
profitability must always focus on its main raison d'être and primary source of
income: the customer.
• Establish a reasonable and accessible price: a product or service with a high price
that does not consider the economic stability of its customers will generate low
income. Therefore, before determining the price of a product or service, the
following points should be taken into account:
• It must cover the expenses and costs for the production of the product
or the rendering of the service, and it must also generate profits.
• Depending on the characteristics of the product and the customer's
benefits, they should not be out of line with those determined in the
market.
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In order for a company, tourist establishment, restaurant, small business, to reach a
balance with its customers, it is very important the competitive strategy that they use.
Tangible objectives for the clients, which must be set based on certain criteria, which
are the following:
• Cost: expenses incurred in administration, Rodrigo (2022), mentions that costs
should be understood as the monetary value (what they cost) of inputs, raw
materials, salaries, etc.
• Time: the time it takes to serve a customer.
• Breadth or range: that which is being offered, For a more stable positioning in
the market it is important to be able to offer a variety of products in order to
reach the public thus increasing our customer base (Castillo, 2019).
• Innovation: implement certain changes that promote an attraction for the place.
It consists of bringing to the market new improved products or finding more
effective ways and that this is accepted by the consumer to
achieve the goal and conquer the market.
• Consistency: results from the actions taken, brand consistency is the ability of an
organization to keep its actions and online communication aligned with the
company's values and identity.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
When we talk about scientific research methodology, we emphasize the development
of a previous research, analysis of data that have been previously investigated or recently
obtained. The design of this research is quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional,
exploratory and descriptive. Descriptive analysis, as its name indicates, consists of
describing key trends in existing data and observing situations that lead to new facts.
This method is based on one or more research questions and does not have a
hypothesis. Which was analyzed and classified a population on the way to a certain
undertaking. For data collection, some texts previously analyzed by other authors were
studied, as well as consultations in web magazines that have been cited during the work.
The focus of this research is to describe the elements of integral business management
to improve the community enterprises of the EPS (ECONOMIA POPULAR Y
SOLIDARIA), Tourism Sector of the Canton La Troncal. The population chosen was all
those who have inns in the canton. The study of the research methods used are the
documentary technique through the inquiry of information, the bibliographic technique
for the review of books, magazines, scientific articles. Consequently, the fieldwork
technique will be the survey, which will be applied to the owners of the enterprises,
which was applied online through the application of Microsoft Forms.
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For the elaboration of the survey, questions were formulated, which were divided into
two sections: the profile of the respondent (age, position within the company and years
in the establishment) and knowledge of the variables of the research work.
Thus, the Likert scale and the value determined for each of the responses contemplated
in the design of the measurement instrument is: (5) Strongly agree, (4) Agree, (3) Neither
agree nor disagree, (2) Disagree and (1) Strongly disagree.
RESULTS
The data collected in the survey are presented below.
First section: respondent profile
Figure 1. Age
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
Figure 2. Position
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
50%
25%
25%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
25 - 30
30 - 37
37 - 45
Age Range
25%
25%
50%
0%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Gerente
Accionista
socio
Jefe departamental
Position held
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Figure 3. Years of establishment
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
As a result, the majority responded that they have a partner position within the
company. With an age of 25 to 30 years representing 50%. Following this we have that
there are more percentage in the companies with more years in the market.
Figure 4. Considers that the mission and vision influence the fulfillment of its goals.
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
0%
0%
25%
0%
75%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
1 -2
2 - 3
3 - 6
6 - 9
10 - mas
Years of establishment
4
5
4 4
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 1
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Figure 5. According to your point of view, implementing new services increases the
profitability of your business.
Figure 6. From your point of view, how profitable do you consider your business to be?
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
5
3
5 5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 2
4 4 4
5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 3
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Figure 7. Take into account the opinion of your guests.
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
Figure 8. You have conducted a market survey.
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
5 5
3 3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 4
5
3
5
3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 5
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Figure 9. It has prices that are accessible to the general public.
Figure 10. Keeps track of food.
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
5 5 5
4
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 6
4 4 4 4
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,5
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 7
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Figure 11. Conducts meetings with its employees.
Source: Survey applied to company representatives.
The elements of integrated management allow us to optimize available resources,
improve organization, reduce costs and consequently improve business performance.
Holding meetings at least once a month with the workers of the establishment should
be a priority within a company, which in this survey only two respondents do. According
to the results, these companies accept that they have an accessible price for all public.
However, only two of these companies have conducted a market study.
CONCLUSIONS
The objectives of the research were achieved, in relation to the general objective was
achieved by knowing the implementation in integrated management in business with
respect to economic development, knowing that the elements of integrated management
help us to set new goals, decision making, greater involvement of staff, optimization of
resources and processes, best practices, orientation to total quality, increased
productivity and modernization in the structure of the company).
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5
4
3
5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Hotel Sweet Dreams Cabañas del Sol La Cascada Las Aras del Paraiso
Item 8
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