IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uto/labeco/202402.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exploring the Role of Openness to Collaborations with External Stakeholders in Sustainability Adoption: A Study Of Tourism Micro-Firms

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Micro-enterprises form the backbone of rural tourism, serving as catalysts for development, providing customer experiences, and sustaining ties to particular locations. Encouraging these firms to adopt sustainability management practices could lead to significant global environmental improvements. This study examines the relationship between openness to collaborations with external stakeholders and adopting sustainability practices in rural tourism micro-firms. This study conceptualizes openness in terms of breadth (the variety of external partners), depth (the intensity of the relationships) and geographical outreach of collaborations. Data for this study were collected through a survey addressing micro-businesses operating in alpine rural tourism destinations in Italy and analyzed using ordinal generalized linear models. The findings reveal that higher openness to collaborations with external stakeholders leads to a higher diversity of sustainability practices adopted. Moreover, the variety of partners and the relationships with higher geographical outreach benefit the adoption of environmental practices, while the intensity and locality of the collaborations encourage the adoption of social ones. This study extends the literature on sustainability in the context of tourism micro-firms, which have seldom been studied alone. Furthermore, it answers calls for combined research on social and environmental management practices regarding small-sized firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Biconne, Valentina & Colombelli, Alessandra & Marullo, Cristina, 2024. "Exploring the Role of Openness to Collaborations with External Stakeholders in Sustainability Adoption: A Study Of Tourism Micro-Firms," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 202402, University of Turin.
  • Handle: RePEc:uto:labeco:202402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.est.unito.it/do/home.pl/Download?doc=/allegati/wp2024dip/wp_16_2024.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghisetti, Claudia & Marzucchi, Alberto & Montresor, Sandro, 2015. "The open eco-innovation mode. An empirical investigation of eleven European countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 1080-1093.
    2. Chrystalla Kapetaniou & Soo Hee Lee, 2019. "Geographical proximity and open innovation of SMEs in Cyprus," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 261-276, January.
    3. Banu Dincer & Caner Dincer, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility decisions: a dilemma for SME executives?," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(2), pages 177-187, May.
    4. Maria Juschten & Reinhard Hössinger, 2021. "Out of the city – but how and where? A mode-destination choice model for urban–rural tourism trips in Austria," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(10), pages 1465-1481, May.
    5. Francesco Testa & Natalia Marzia Gusmerottia & Filippo Corsini & Emilio Passetti & Fabio Iraldo, 2016. "Factors Affecting Environmental Management by Small and Micro Firms: The Importance of Entrepreneurs’ Attitudes and Environmental Investment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(6), pages 373-385, November.
    6. Jan Lepoutre & Aimé Heene, 2006. "Investigating the Impact of Firm Size on Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 257-273, September.
    7. Sangmin Lee & Donghan Kim & Sunwoo Park & Wonseok Lee, 2021. "A Study on the Strategic Decision Making Used in the Revitalization of Fishing Village Tourism: Using A’WOT Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-12, July.
    8. Heledd Jenkins, 2006. "Small Business Champions for Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 241-256, September.
    9. Francesco Perrini, 2006. "SMEs and CSR Theory: Evidence and Implications from an Italian Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 305-316, September.
    10. Olivier Boiral & Mehran Ebrahimi & Kerstin Kuyken & David Talbot, 2019. "Greening Remote SMEs: The Case of Small Regional Airports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 813-827, February.
    11. María del Mar Alonso-Almeida & Llorenç Bagur-Femenias & Josep Llach & Jordi Perramon, 2018. "Sustainability in small tourist businesses: the link between initiatives and performance," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 1-20, January.
    12. Martínez-Martínez, Aurora & Cegarra-Navarro, Juan-Gabriel & García-Pérez, Alexeis, 2015. "Environmental knowledge management: A long-term enabler of tourism development," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 281-291.
    13. Conceição Cunha & Elisabeth Kastenholz & Maria João Carneiro, 2018. "Lifestyle Entrepreneurs: The Case of Rural Tourism," Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics, in: Luísa Cagica Carvalho & Conceição Rego & M.Raquel Lucas & M. Isabel Sánchez-Hernández & Adriana Back (ed.), Entrepreneurship and Structural Change in Dynamic Territories, pages 175-188, Springer.
    14. Richard Williams, 2010. "Fitting heterogeneous choice models with oglm," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 10(4), pages 540-567, December.
    15. Jens Horbach & Vanessa Oltra & Jean Belin, 2013. "Determinants and Specificities of Eco-Innovations Compared to Other Innovations--An Econometric Analysis for the French and German Industry Based on the Community Innovation Survey-super-1," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 523-543, August.
    16. Komppula, Raija, 2014. "The role of individual entrepreneurs in the development of competitiveness for a rural tourism destination – A case study," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 361-371.
    17. Llorenç Bagur-Femenías & Jordi Martí & Alfredo Rocafort, 2015. "Impact of sustainable management policies on tourism companies' performance: the case of the metropolitan region of Madrid," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 376-390, April.
    18. Nicole Darnall & Irene Henriques & Perry Sadorsky, 2010. "Adopting Proactive Environmental Strategy: The Influence of Stakeholders and Firm Size," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1072-1094, September.
    19. Antonín Vaishar & Milada Šťastná, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural tourism in Czechia Preliminary considerations," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 187-191, January.
    20. Garay, Lluís & Font, Xavier & Pereira-Moliner, Jorge, 2017. "Understanding sustainability behaviour: The relationship between information acquisition, proactivity and performance," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 418-429.
    21. Aija Leiponen & Constance E. Helfat, 2010. "Innovation objectives, knowledge sources, and the benefits of breadth," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 224-236, February.
    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. Silvia Cantele & Alessandro Zardini, 2020. "What drives small and medium enterprises towards sustainability? Role of interactions between pressures, barriers, and benefits," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 126-136, January.
    2. Richard M. Crossley & Mohamed H. Elmagrhi & Collins G. Ntim, 2021. "Sustainability and legitimacy theory: The case of sustainable social and environmental practices of small and medium‐sized enterprises," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3740-3762, December.
    3. Lirios Alos-Simo & Antonio J. Verdu-Jover & Jose M. Gomez-Gras, 2020. "Knowledge Transfer in Sustainable Contexts: A Comparative Analysis of Periods of Financial Recession and Expansion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-24, June.
    4. Caroline Danièle Mothe & Thuc Uyen Nguyen-Thi, 2017. "Persistent openness and environmental innovation: An empirical analysis of French manufacturing firms," Post-Print hal-01609129, HAL.
    5. Brigitte Hoogendoorn & Daniela Guerra & Peter Zwan, 2015. "What drives environmental practices of SMEs?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 759-781, April.
    6. Andrea Stübner & Svenja Jarchow, 2023. "Family oblige: the link between CSR and succession intention in small and medium family firms," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 389-431, April.
    7. Adrienn Reisinger & Roland Z. Szabó, 2024. "The event‐driven social responsibility in small and medium‐sized enterprises," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 3927-3939, September.
    8. Sarit Nisim & Orly Benjamin, 2008. "Power and Size of Firms as Reflected in Cleaning Subcontractors’ Practices of Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 673-683, December.
    9. Mercedes Rubio‐Andrés & María del Mar Ramos‐González & Miguel Ángel Sastre‐Castillo & Ignacio Danvila‐del‐Valle, 2020. "Exploring sustainability, good governance, and social responsibility in small and medium enterprises," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 852-869, March.
    10. Maria Jesus Munoz-Torres & Maria Angeles Fernandez-Izquierdo & Luisa Nieto-Soria & Juana Maria Rivera-Lirio & Elena Escrig-Olmedo & Raul Leon-Soriano, 2009. "SMEs and corporate social responsibility. The perspective from Spanish companies," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(3), pages 270-288.
    11. Leon Guillén & Afcha Sergio & Chu Manuel, 2022. "Research on social responsibility of small and medium enterprises: a bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 857-909, September.
    12. Cuadrado Ballesteros, Beatriz & García Rubio, Raquel & Martínez Ferrero, Jennifer, 2015. "Efecto de la composición del consejo de administración en las prácticas de responsabilidad social corporativa," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 20-31.
    13. Ki‐Hoon Lee & David M. Herold & Ae‐Li Yu, 2016. "Small and Medium Enterprises and Corporate Social Responsibility Practice: A Swedish Perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 88-99, March.
    14. Guillén León, 2017. "Evaluation of the perception and application of social responsibility practices in micro, small and medium companies in Barranquilla. An analysis from the theory of Stakeholders," Estudios Gerenciales, Universidad Icesi, vol. 33(144), pages 261-270, August.
    15. Loan Thi-Hong Van & Phuong Anh Nguyen, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility and SMEs in Vietnam: A Study in the Textile and Garment Industry," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, November.
    16. Daniel RUSU, 2021. "PERFORMANCE AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN SMEs," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 15(1), pages 638-646, November.
    17. Rajat Panwar & Erlend Nybakk & Eric Hansen & Jonatan Pinkse, 2017. "Does the Business Case Matter? The Effect of a Perceived Business Case on Small Firms’ Social Engagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 597-608, September.
    18. Maria Jesus Bonilla‐Priego & Juan‐José Nájera‐Sánchez & Xavier Font, 2022. "Beyond ethics: The transformational power of overlapping motivations in implementing strategic sustainability actions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 685-697, March.
    19. Silvia Cantele & Silvia Vernizzi & Bettina Campedelli, 2020. "Untangling the Origins of Sustainable Commitment: New Insights on the Small vs. Large Firms’ Debate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-12, January.
    20. Matteo Pedrini & Valentina Bramanti & Benedetto Cannatelli, 2016. "The impact of national culture and social capital on corporate social responsibility attitude among immigrants entrepreneurs," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 20(4), pages 759-787, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:uto:labeco:202402. 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: Piero Cavaleri or Marina Grazioli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/leifrit.html .

    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.