Small Tourism Enterprises Research Articles

RESEARCH ON THE MECHANISM OF RESILIENT LEADERSHIP'S EFFECT ON THE RESILIENCE OF SMALL TOURISM ENTERPRISES

Tourism, as a strategic pillar industry in our country, is critical in promoting economic development and labor employment. During the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" period, China will fully enter the era of mass tourism. This study focuses specifically on small tourism enterprises. Based on a review of the resilience of domestic and foreign enterprises, guided by relevant theories such as dynamic capability theory and resource allocation theory, and on the basis of redefining the concept connotation and extension of small tourism enterprises' resilience, tenacious leadership, inter-organizational learning, resource restructuring and environmental complexity, This paper builds a theoretical model based on the influence mechanism of resilient leadership and resilience of small tourism enterprises, describes and statistically analyzes the basic characteristics, current situation and existing problems of resilience of small tourism enterprises, and uses case analysis and empirical analysis methods to explore the impact degree and impact path of resilient leadership on resilience of small tourism enterprises. Finally, the study proposes measures to boost the resilience of small tourism enterprises, drawing from the findings of case and empirical analysis.

Cloud Computing and Mobile Technologies as a Marketing Strategy towards Innovation and Business Growth among Small Tourism Enterprises

This study examined the impact of Cloud Computing and Mobile Technologies as marketing strategy towards innovation, business growth among small tourism enterprises (STEs). Mobile commerce is viewed as next generation, e-commerce refers to any transactions, either direct or indirect, via mobile devices, such as phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). Most significant features of mobile technology are mobility and portability. Ability to access services ubiquitously, on the move, through wireless networks, various devices. The study highlights business risk of being left behind and gives a contemporary research gap, how frequent businesses are engaging with mobile technologies and innovation marketing strategies. Positivist Paradigm- Targeted population were Southern African border countries players in STEs. Data analysis utilised SMARTPLS, Tested CFA, Model Fit, Reliability and Validity, Path Modelling and hypothesis. Raosoft calculator was used to calculate sample size. Calculation considered population of approximately 350 STEs officially registered with Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA), a 5% margin of error, 90% confidence interval & recommended 50% distribution, and returned a minimum sample size of 184 respondents. Findings revealed transactions can be business to business applications (targeted to other firms, business to consumer applications (targeted to final customers, e.g. advertisements based on SMS/ MMS) e- catalogues on what the small tourism enterprise offers and networking regionally and at global level. Keywords: cloud computing, innovation, mobile technology, tourism enterprise, marketing strategy, business growth

Competency, guanxi and growth aspirations: small tourism enterprises in dynamic environments

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how typical personal, interpersonal and environmental factors influence entrepreneurs' growth aspirations by investigating the impact mechanism of entrepreneurial competency and guanxi on the growth aspirations of small tourism entrepreneurs in a dynamic environment.Design/methodology/approachApplying social cognitive theory (SCT) and business growth theory (BGT), this research uses confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the questionnaire survey data of 371 small tourism business owners/owner-managers to test the relationship between entrepreneurial competency, guanxi and growth aspirations, with self-efficacy as a mediator and environment dynamism as a moderator.FindingsThe findings indicate that entrepreneurial competency is a more direct and significant factor than guanxi in facilitating the entrepreneurial growth aspirations in small tourism enterprises (STEs). Entrepreneurial competency and guanxi can both enhance entrepreneurs' self-efficacy, which then affects their aspirations to grow their business. Self-efficacy is a critical predictor of entrepreneurs' growth aspirations in STEs, although its effect is weakened by environmental dynamism.Originality/valueThis study expands the integrated application of SCT and BGT in tourism context, providing a more comprehensive and nuanced interpretation of the growth aspirations of entrepreneurs in STEs. It sheds more light on the effect of different entrepreneurial capital on growth aspirations and provides managerial implications accordingly.

Determinants of women-owned micro- and small tourism enterprise growth in Bale Zone, South Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Gender gaps in tourism entrepreneurship are wide in Ethiopia, and women entrepreneurs underperform more often than men entrepreneurs. This study aimed to explore the determinants that affect the growth of women-owned micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the tourism sector. Stratified random sampling was used to select 238 women-owned enterprises and analyse the data collected from them using a logit regression model. The findings show that being an older operator and operating a micro- (instead of small) enterprise have a negative effect, but family size, operator’s experience, credit access, and training received by the operator have positive effects on growth. These findings give useful information to relevant stakeholders, the Government of Ethiopia, and governments in other African countries to promote and empower women to grow their tourism MSEs.

DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS FOR MUSLIM FRIENDLY TOURISM IN MALAYSIA

Muslim friendly tourism is a tourism segment that adheres to the religious needs of Muslim tourists. It includes a wide range of services and facilities including transportation, restaurants, entertainment, and accommodations that designed for and directed at Muslims. Malaysia is one of the fastest growing countries in the Muslim friendly tourism industry sector, holding a sizeable market share. As sustainable tourism has emerged as the way forward for Muslim friendly tourism, specific sustainability indicators should be developed to be used in planning and decision-making of Muslim friendly tourism related matters. Yet, the majority of the existing sustainability indicators reflect other tourism niche such as ecotourism, small tourism enterprises, adventure tourism destinations, festival tourism, and ecological resort. Malaysia’s tourism industry contributed 12.8% to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 and contributed 23.4% to the total employment. Hence, sustaining Muslim friendly tourism as a niche tourism segment is one of the country’s priorities. This study is on-going aims to develop sustainability indicators for Muslim friendly tourism in Malaysia. For this purpose, stage 1 of this research aims to identify sustainability indicators for Muslim friendly tourism and stage 2 aims to evaluate the relative importance of the indicators identified. Findings of this study is in line with the National Tourism Policy (2020-2030), which aiming to ensure the continuity of the country’s tourism industry and will support the Malaysian government specifically Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 on “decent work and economic growth” as tourism has the potential to contribute, directly or indirectly, to this goal.

The Community Social Responsibility of Rural Small Tourism Enterprises: Scale Development and Validation

Rural small tourism enterprises (STEs) are involved in many discretionary, spontaneous, and supporting activities toward the host communities, which is labeled as community social responsibility (CoSR) in this study. This study develops and validates a scale to measure rural STEs’ CoSR. Stage 1 found four dimensions and 33 initial items through a thorough literature review and focus group discussions. In stage 2, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the dimensionality of the CoSR scale. Stage 3 used confirmatory factor analysis and supported a 22-item five-dimension scale ( promoting economic development, cultural preservation, cultural production, environmental protection, and political participation). An additional study was conducted to further assess nomological validity of the developed scale. The development of the CoSR scale provides a measurement instrument to spur additional empirical studies on CoSR. This scale also provides a useful tool for rural STE owners to measure and manage CoSR activities.

Structural embeddedness, entrepreneurial behavior, and firm performance in the industry network of small tourism enterprises: The moderating role of relational embeddedness and leadership self-efficacy

The survival and economic sustainability of small tourism enterprises (STEs) represent pressing industry issues that require attention. Drawing on network embedding theory, this paper proposes a conceptual framework that links the structural embeddedness of STEs' industry networks to entrepreneurial behavior and firm performance, while exploring the moderating roles of relational embeddedness and leadership self-efficacy. Empirical analysis using a sample of 420 STEs in China revealed several key findings: (1) STEs with a dominant position in the industry network tend to exhibit higher firm performance, and do so through timely and effective entrepreneurial behavior; (2) maintaining a dominant position in the industry network structure requires not only deep cooperation between business owners and other industry participants, but also the advisory role of family, relatives, and friends, who are close and responsible partners providing practical advice to small business owners that influence their entrepreneurial behavior; (3) however, the aforementioned benefits are conditional on entrepreneurs possessing a strong sense of leadership self-efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed in this regard.

The Small Tourism Enterprise Operators’ Networking in Dealing with the Changing Business Environment

The entrepreneur’s ability to networking is particularly critical when dealing with business turbulence, such as that affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to analyze the STE operators manage their networks during the changing business environment affected by earthquake and COVID-19 pandemic in Lombok. Data was collected from twenty-one tourism entrepreneurs through semi-structured observations and interviews, and analyzed using content analysis. The study identifies three categories: parties involved in the network (tourism managers, tourism authorities, transport operators, destination communities, and tourists), linking methods (management network approach) and collaboration objectives (management network objectives). After the earthquake (when business turbulence was still not so intense), STE managers used direct physical contact, social media, and online partners to expand their networks, developing more cooperation (rather than collaboration) to create social exchange benefits. During the COVID-19 pandemic (when business turbulence was more intense), STE managers increased their use of social media to deepen their networks and focused on developing collaborations with a limited number of partners to reap the benefits of economic exchange. This study recommends local government intervention in improving the ability of STE management networks and building online-based networks.

Coastal tourism entrepreneurship during COVID-19 in Estonia, Finland and Latvia

The comparative study focuses on the resilience of small tourism enterprises in coastal and marine tourism in three Baltic Sea countries - Estonia, Finland and Latvia. The research aim is to explore the response of the micro and small-scale tourism enterprises in Estonia, Finland and Latvia to COVID-19 and their development plans in the context of the pandemic. These countries share common strengths and weaknesses in tourism as well as their main tourism resources (e.g., the significance of natural resources), partially overlapping target markets. Data were collected in coastal regions in all three countries by using semi-structured interviews (Estonia N=12, Latvia N=12, Finland N= 5). Additionally, a quantitative data collection tool - a survey (N=51) was used in Finland. The content analysis generated several themes: (1) The ability of an enterprise to adapt to changes; (2) future expectations; (3) educational needs; (4) mind-set changes of entrepreneurs as a result of corona-pandemic and motivation to learn. Results suggest that more than before, coastal entrepreneurs estimate the rationality of decisions and the feasibility of investments. They report the ability to transform the design of tourism services to move towards touchless, digitized solutions as well as present an ability to produce unique service ideas under the pressure of the pandemic. Future expectations are related to the need for intensified cooperation among public and private sectors and different sectors of the economy to ensure entrepreneurial resilience and/or development. Entrepreneurs also stress their expectations regarding public (e.g. in nature areas) infrastructure development. COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the emergence of business shrinkage strategies and vigilance toward development. The pandemic aggravated the deficit of employees and is directly linked to human resource motivation programs and the lack of resources needed to maintain that. Educational needs reveal several categories of topics entrepreneurs would like to learn about such as marketing, tourism product, and service design, management, and cooperation. The results in the three countries show a lot of similarities, the biggest differences can be seen in the various educational needs, also not in all countries the pandemic increased awareness of the role of cooperation or need to improve the quality of service when facing falling demand.

Land use regulations and small tourism enterprises

Land use regulation, while critical for economic development, is complex to implement, and can lead to unintended consequences. Despite the importance of land use in tourism, there remains scarce discussion on the micro-level impact of land use regulations on tourism development. Within the regulatory impact assessment framework, this study assesses the impact of land use regulations on the economic competitiveness and growth of small tourism enterprises. Through our empirical study, we argue that despite expanded access to land use rights, the economic impact on tourism enterprises may not be entirely positive due to their increased risks, and unclear benefits to local economic development, bringing into question competitiveness and growth potential of tourism enterprises impacted by such regulations.

Innovation and creativity in a time of crisis: A perspective of small tourism enterprises from an emerging destination

Disasters and crises do not only affect tourism enterprises detrimentally but can also prompt business innovation and creativity. This positive outlook is under-studied although it can aid in understanding the speed of business recovery, especially among smaller tourism enterprises in remote and resource-scarce destinations where external assistance is limited. This study examines innovation and creativity among tourism entrepreneurs in Lombok (Indonesia), an emerging destination in Southeast Asia, through the prism of two crises, the 2018 earthquake and COVID-19. Interviews with small-sized tourism entrepreneurs (n = 21) reveal the innovative dynamic capability as a critical factor for crisis-driven business innovation. This capability is determined by generic factors, such as social capital and knowledge, but also destination-specific factors, such as local cultural values. The important role of time is also showcased: prolonged crises encourage tourism entrepreneurs to innovate sooner, while short-lived disastrous events prescribe a cautious approach to innovation.

Study on Ecological Value Co-Creation of Tourism Enterprises in Protected Areas: Scale Development and Test

The ecological value co-creation of protected areas needs to be constructed in a multi-dimensional way. By referring to relevant foreign and domestic literature reviews, it is found that value co-creation theory has not been applied in eco-tourism research yet. The ecological value of protected areas is a combination of environmental value, social value and economic value. Stakeholders in protected areas including the government, stewardship agency, local community, tourism enterprises, tourists and so on interact with each other with different interests and have an impact on the ecosystem, eventually influencing the whole ecological value of protected areas. Among them, tourism enterprises play an important role and function as a double-edged sword. On one hand, they bring human resource, logistics, capital flow, information flow and energy into the ecosystem to create social and economic benefits. On the other hand, they pursue maximum profits which may cause the irreversible destruction of natural resources. The fact that all the stakeholders rely largely on natural resources and the other stakeholders makes ecological value co-creation become the possible best solution for the sustainable development of protected areas. The key is to study the characteristics and patterns of value co-creation behaviors of those tourism enterprises; thus, its scale development is of great importance. On the basis of the literature review and in-depth interviews with stewardship agencies and tourism enterprises in protected areas, this study develops a scale of ecological value co-creation behaviors from the perspective of small tourism enterprises. Then, with an investigation of tourism enterprises in protected areas, it validates ecological value co-creation behaviors by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The results show that tourism enterprise ecological value co-creation behavior is a construct consisting of four dimensions: environmental citizenship behavior, dialogue and communication behavior, knowledge-sharing behavior and co-petition behavior, which could be measured by 12 items. The reliability and validity test presents good internal consistency, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the scale. In the end, the relationship of interdependency between tourism enterprises and other stakeholders in the protected area with ecological value co-creation behaviors is examined, which shows good predictive validity of the scale. Given these results above, this scale can not only be used as a measuring tool in future research but can also be provided as a reference to authorities to manage the tourism enterprises in protected areas. Finally, the study discusses the limitations and future research directions.

Can protection motivation theory predict pro-environmental behaviour of small rural tourism enterprises? An extended model including community involvement

ABSTRACT This study explained the generation and implementation of pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) of small rural tourism enterprises (SRTEs) based on protection motivation theory (PMT), and discussed the effect of the contextual variable of community involvement on PEB of SRTEs. The results showed that: (a) the vulnerability to risks, severity of risks, response efficacy, and self-efficacy have significant effects on the pro-environmental behavioural intention (PEBI) of SRTEs; (b) SRTEs’ PEBI further significantly affects their PEB; and (c) community involvement can not only directly affect the PEB of SRTEs, but also positively moderate the relationship between PEBI and PEB of SRTEs.

Restoration path of small tourism enterprise managers’ confidence in the COVID-19 period

ABSTRACT Although the government contributes to the tourism recovery, the influence of the government on the micro-perceptions of tourism managers remains limited. The results of 415 samples demonstrate that government crisis management restores managers’ confidence through different mediation of the sense of gain. Information and communication management improve only their sense of spiritual gain, while human resource development enhance merely their sense of material gain. Moreover, environmental uncertainty shows no moderation on restoring the managers’ confidence. This study develops a theoretical framework for tourism crisis management and provides policy implications for the development of small tourism enterprises in times of crisis.

Organizational Learning Capacity and Sustainability Challenges in Times of Crisis: A Study on Tourism SMEs in Galicia (Spain)

The COVID-19 crisis has encouraged a major shift towards greater environmental awareness and sustainable consumption. However, in times of severe crisis, SMEs primarily look to return to normalcy and their own survival rather than implementing a sustainable agenda. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the learning problems faced by small tourism enterprises in a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores the learning capacity of SMEs and the importance of establishing mechanisms that provide SMEs with the keys to organizational learning as a source of continuous knowledge. Open-ended semi-structured interviews with 39 tourism SMEs managers in Galicia (Spain) were conducted during the toughest months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that SMEs have not been fully involved in the learning process, which is mainly related to knowledge transfer and integration. DMOs can act as promoters of knowledge management for organizational preparedness by providing SMEs with learning mechanisms and strategies to go beyond simple problem solving when they arise.

Clasterization tendences of Ukraine's tourism sphere and way out of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

The article considers the clustering trends in ukraine's tourism sector, aimed at a further rise of the tourism industry, overcoming its negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and achieving sustainable development. The need to create tourism clusters and other topics on the organization of tourism with state executive authorities as well as professional tourism associations on attracting investment and providing institutional and consulting assistance to small tourism enterprises is being investigated. The foreign experience was analyzed, as well as the distribution of tourist groups in Ukraine by tourist types in the period 2019-2020. Method: analysis and synthesis, systematization of materials, historical and logical, comparative, systemic and structural, which allowed to study the trends in the tourism industry. Conclusions. The grouping of the sphere of tourism in Ukraine must be developed under the close attention of the government, state and local authorities, public figures, civil society, companies, because it requires not only the containment of the pandemic, but also the development of forms of tourism competitiveness, investment in this industry, the provision of jobs for workers dismissed during the pandemic, the use of the most advanced innovative technologies for the development of creative tourism industries, which will help to get the industry out of the crisis.

Income and Employment Potential for Youth and Women in Tanzania’s Micro, Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises

Abstract This paper looks into the income and employment potential for youth and women in tourism micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME s). The survey data collected from seven regions of Tanzania during September–October 2018 is used. Analyses are focused on two main issues: estimation of determinants of income in tourism MSME s and implications for youth and women employment; and examination of perceived youth employment potential in the tourism industry of Tanzania. Quantile regression approach is applied in estimation of determinants of income; and the ratios of perceived employment potential and constraints to the youth employment are analysed. The findings demonstrate earning as the leading employment incentive and is determined by education of the owners of MSME s, inter alia. Larger proportion of enterprises owned by youth than those owned by elderly people are informal, which has a negative bearing on incomes of youth. Women and youth owned enterprises are constrained in terms of credit access. Policy implications include the need to address the social problem of gender inequality, enhancing requisite skills and knowledge for tourism sector professions, and formalisation and scaling up of credit access for the youth and women.

Empowerment of Digital Inclusive Finance and Development of Tourism Industry-Empirical Evidence from Prefecture-level Cities

Based on the panel data of 297 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2018, this paper uses fixed effect model to empirically analyze the relationship between digital inclusive finance and development of tourism industry. The results show that, First, digital inclusive finance has significantly promoted the development of tourism industry, and this promotion effect is more obvious in the inbound tourism market compared to the domestic tourism market. Second, dimensional heterogeneity analysis shows that the coverage and popularization of digital inclusive finance have improved the possibility of vulnerable groups obtaining tourism financial services. The deepening of its use has met the escalating demand of mainstream market for the tourism consumption, and lowered the financing difficulty for micro and small tourism enterprises. Third, the analysis of regional heterogeneity shows that the promotion of digital inclusive finance to tourism industry is only reflected in the eastern and western China. For the domestic tourism market, digital inclusive finance has produced stronger benefits in the east than in the west, while for the inbound tourism market, it shows the opposite conclusion.

The Effect of Green Human Resource Management on Environmental Performance in Small Tourism Enterprises: Mediating Role of Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Research on the interrelationship between green human resource management (GHRM), employee pro-environmental behaviors, and environmental performance remains very limited, especially in relation to small tourism enterprises. This research bridges a knowledge gap and examines the direct effect of GHRM on environmental performance in small tourism enterprises and the indirect effect through employee pro-environmental behaviors. For this purpose, a quantitative research approach was adopted using a pre-tested instrument. A questionnaire was handed to employees in small hotels and travel agencies in Greater Cairo, Egypt. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) showed a positive significant effect of GHRM on both types of pro-environmental behaviors (tasked-related and proactive). However, the results, surprisingly, showed no significant direct effect of GHRM on environmental performance. Notwithstanding, there was an indirect, positive, and significant effect of GHRM on environmental performance through tasked-related and proactive pro-environmental behaviors. This reflects the value and vital role of employee pro-environmental behaviors in the relationship between GHRM and environmental performance in small tourism enterprises. The research provided various implications for tourism scholars and practitioners, especially those related to small tourism enterprises. Research limitations and opportunities for further research are also discussed.

Responses to COVID-19: The role of performance in the relationship between small hospitality enterprises' resilience and sustainable tourism development.

Tourism is one of the hardest-hit industries by the global pandemic of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Small tourism enterprises have been heavily affected and have had difficulty in business recovery. This research is an early attempt to explore the direct impact of small hospitality enterprises’ resilience on sustainable tourism development as well as indirect impact through performance. A pre-tested questionnaire survey was self-administered to owner-managers of small hospitality enterprises in Greater Cairo, Egypt. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS showed a positive, direct, and significant impact of resilience (planned and adaptive) on sustainable tourism development and indirect influence through performance. The results of the multi-group analysis showed that enterprise type has a significant effect on the results, where restaurant owner-managers expressed more resilience than their hotel counterparts. Several theoretical (for scholars) and practical implications for tourism policy-makers and owner-managers have been discussed and elaborated.