IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jtourh/v1y2020i1p4-58d461750.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Demystifying Members’ Social Capital and Networks within an Agritourism Association: A Social Network Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Jing Li

    (Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA)

  • Carla Barbieri

    (Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA)

Abstract

Membership associations are vital to build social capital and networks among their members through the exchange of information and resources, roles especially valuable for emerging entrepreneurs. That is the case of associations catering to professionals in agritourism, an enterprise bringing farming and tourism together. However, whether the exchange of information and resources among members holds true within agritourism associations is yet to be known. Filling this knowledge gap is critical given the stated benefits agritourism delivers to society and farmers’ necessity to expand their business networks to increase entrepreneurial success. Therefore, this study evaluated the extent of social capital and networks within a prominent agritourism-focused association in North America. Data were collected from members using a web-based survey in 2016. Analyses included descriptive statistical tests and Social Network Analysis (SNA). Results showed high levels of social capital among members, especially related to its relational dimension (e.g., share professional advice), as well as strong bi-directional (to/from) trust, cooperation, and reciprocity among members. SNA indicated members were well connected and had a healthy information exchange, without the organization intervention. Study results are discussed to provide managerial intelligence towards strengthening social capital and networks within associations catering to agritourism and other niche-tourism professionals.

Suggested Citation

  • Jing Li & Carla Barbieri, 2020. "Demystifying Members’ Social Capital and Networks within an Agritourism Association: A Social Network Analysis," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jtourh:v:1:y:2020:i:1:p:4-58:d:461750
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/1/1/4/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/1/1/4/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pretty, Jules & Ward, Hugh, 2001. "Social Capital and the Environment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 209-227, February.
    2. Tew, Christine & Barbieri, Carla, 2012. "The perceived benefits of agritourism: The provider’s perspective," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 215-224.
    3. Uphoff, Norman & Wijayaratna, C. M., 2000. "Demonstrated Benefits from Social Capital: The Productivity of Farmer Organizations in Gal Oya, Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1875-1890, November.
    4. Chris Phelan & Richard Sharpley, 2012. "Exploring entrepreneurial skills and competencies in farm tourism," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 27(2), pages 103-118, March.
    5. Donna Marie De Carolis & Patrick Saparito, 2006. "Social Capital, Cognition, and Entrepreneurial Opportunities: A Theoretical Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(1), pages 41-56, January.
    6. Woolcock, Michael & Narayan, Deepa, 2000. "Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 15(2), pages 225-249, August.
    7. Krishna, Anirudh, 2001. "Moving from the Stock of Social Capital to the Flow of Benefits: The Role of Agency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 925-943, June.
    8. Sriya Iyer & Michael Kitson & Bernard Toh, 2005. "Social capital, economic growth and regional development," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(8), pages 1015-1040.
    9. Platania, M., 2014. "Agritourism Farms and the Web. An Exploratory Evaluation of their Websites," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 6(3), pages 1-8, September.
    10. Gil Arroyo, Claudia & Knollenberg, Whitney & Barbieri, Carla, 2021. "Inputs and outputs of craft beverage tourism: The Destination Resources Acceleration Framework," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Shuangyu Xu & Carla Barbieri & Erin Seekamp, 2020. "Social Capital along Wine Trails: Spilling the Wine to Residents?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, February.
    12. Gil Arroyo, Claudia & Barbieri, Carla & Rozier Rich, Samantha, 2013. "Defining agritourism: A comparative study of stakeholders' perceptions in Missouri and North Carolina," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 39-47.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nesrine Khazami & Zoltan Lakner, 2022. "The Development of Social Capital during the Process of Starting an Agritourism Business," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-15, February.
    2. H. Carolyn Peach Brown & James P. Lassoie & Steven A. Wolf, 2007. "An analytic approach to structuring co–management of community forests in Cameroon," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 7(2), pages 135-154, April.
    3. Andreas Tsounis & Despoina Xanthopoulou & Evangelia Demerouti & Konstantinos Kafetsios & Ioannis Tsaousis, 2023. "Workplace Social Capital: Redefining and Measuring the Construct," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 555-583, January.
    4. Dubois, Charline & Cawley, Mary & Schmitz, Serge, 2017. "The tourist on the farm: A ‘muddled’ image," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 298-311.
    5. Thomas Streifeneder & Christian Hoffmann & Philipp Corradini, 2023. "The future of agritourism? A review of current trends of touristic commercialisation in rural areas," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 71(1), pages 93-119, August.
    6. Barham, James & Chitemi, Clarence, 2008. "Collective action initiatives to improve marketing performance: Lessons from farmer groups in Tanzania," CAPRi working papers 74, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Barham, James & Chitemi, Clarence, 2009. "Collective action initiatives to improve marketing performance: Lessons from farmer groups in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 53-59, February.
    8. Caoile, Roella Grace U & Ceria, Eleonor Joy C. & Jacinto, Christine Joy S. & Salome, Angel Veronica R. & Covita, Mayvelyn S., 2024. "Farming for the Future: Assessing Sustainable Practices among Farm Tourism Sites in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(9), pages 3665-3702, September.
    9. Alieh Abadi & Mehdi Khakzand, 2022. "Extracting the qualitative dimensions of agritourism for the sustainable development of Charqoli village in Iran: the promotion of vernacular entrepreneurship and environment-oriented preservation per," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12609-12671, November.
    10. Dufhues, Thomas & Buchenrieder, Gertrud & Munkung, Nuchanata, 2012. "Individual social capital and access to formal credit in Thailand," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 123401, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Ghazala Mansuri, 2004. "Community-Based and -Driven Development: A Critical Review," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 19(1), pages 1-39.
    12. Haddad, Lawrence James & Maluccio, John A., 2002. "Trust, membership in groups, and household welfare," FCND briefs 135, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Harry Anthony Patrinos & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2007. "Economic Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples in Latin America : Conference Edition," World Bank Publications - Reports 8019, The World Bank Group.
    14. Calvo, Thomas & Lavallée, Emmanuelle & Razafindrakoto, Mireille & Roubaud, François, 2020. "Fear Not For Man? Armed conflict and social capital in Mali," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 251-276.
    15. M. Farzana Halim & Carla Barbieri & Duarte B. Morais & Susan Jakes & Erin Seekamp, 2020. "Beyond Economic Earnings: The Holistic Meaning of Success for Women in Agritourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, June.
    16. Salvatore Ammirato & Alberto Michele Felicetti & Cinzia Raso & Bruno Antonio Pansera & Antonio Violi, 2020. "Agritourism and Sustainability: What We Can Learn from a Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    17. Gerrit Rooks & Kim Klyver & Arthur Sserwanga, 2016. "The Context of Social Capital: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Entrepreneurs in Uganda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(1), pages 111-130, January.
    18. R.W.M.N. Gunasekara & S.P. Premaratne & H.M.S. Priyanath, 2017. "Impact of Social Capital on Livelihood Success of the Members of Community Based Organizations in Sri Lanka," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(12), pages 1156-1167, December.
    19. Agnès Durrande-Moreau & François Courvoisier & Anne-Marie Bocquet, 2017. "The new integrated agritourism, a sustainable tourism trend [Le nouvel agritourisme intégré, une tendance du tourisme durable]," Post-Print hal-01555233, HAL.
    20. Dufhues, Thomas & Buchenrieder, Gertrud & Fischer, Isabel, 2006. "Social capital and rural development: literature review and current state of the art [Sozialkapital und ländliche Entwicklung: Literaturüberblick und gegenwärtiger Stand der Forschung]," IAMO Discussion Papers 96, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jtourh:v:1:y:2020:i:1:p:4-58:d:461750. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.