Stakeholder Responsible Behavior in Tourism: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

The stakeholder responsible behavior (SRB) scale is a recently developed measurement scale designed to assess individuals’ responsible behavior. The present study seeks to conceptualize and validate the SRB scale. A number of tourism stakeholders are now working together to develop sustainable tourism practices at the destination. Furthermore, only a few studies have examined stakeholder responsibilities in tourism. Therefore, this study attempts to conceptualize stakeholder responsible behavior in tourism from a multistakeholder perspective using the triple bottom line (TBL) theory. In order to assess the responsible behavior of stakeholders in a comprehensive manner, we developed a measurement scale. In the study, responses were collected from two stakeholder groups, residents and tourists. Following that, statistical techniques were used to evaluate the scale’s reliability and validity. According to the results, assessing the behavior of stakeholders in three dimensions is vital for achieving sustainability status within destinations. Based on the scale validated by this study, destination management organizations (DMOs) will be able to bring multiple stakeholders together to evaluate underlying sustainability issues and develop solutions.