Community change through tourism social entrepreneurship

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is increasingly adopted as a tourism development strategy that promises positive community change. Through employing dual case study and grounded theory approaches, this study delineates the processes of community change induced by tourism social entrepreneurship on host communities in the Philippines. It proposes a model that theorises community change processes namely, diagnosing, envisioning, controlling, demonstrating, coping, and institutional response. It contributes to knowledge by illustrating the dynamic interactions between tourism social enterprises, host communities and local institutions and their activities, which act both as enablers and barriers to positive community change. It enriches understanding of the logic adopted by tourism social enterprises, and the community-embedded responses to external inputs and subsequent changes.