Networking in the Homestay Sector

Community-Based Tourism in Ecuador: Community Ventures of the Provincial and Cantonal Networks

The aim of this work is to identify community the initiatives anchored to community-based tourism (CBT) in Ecuador with the aim of providing an overview of the current reality of community tourism in the country, in addition to publicizing the product lines under development within community initiatives. The methodology used is a descriptive analysis based on the review of secondary sources, which reflect the reality of the different tourism initiatives related to the Plurinational Federation of Community Tourism of Ecuador (FEPTCE) at the level of continental Ecuador. FEPTCE groups indigenous, Afro–Ecuadorian, Montubian and mestizo communities, who depend on their territory and have identified tourism as a mechanism to continue living with dignity within these territories, due to the option of economic diversification that is generated. Within the communities that belong to the FEPTCE, living with dignity implies achieving a good quality of life, which is not based on satisfying a series of basic needs, but implies going further, achieving the idea of “Good Living”, that is to say, reaching an appreciation of well-being, based on the conception of the full set of what culture is, in order to generate comprehensive sustainability of its spaces. Among the main results, the distribution and coverage that the FEPTCE has within continental Ecuador regarding community tourism is shown and analyzed. As a formal network of community-based tourism, it is made up of five networks at the regional level and nine at the provincial or cantonal level, which are analyzed in this study. The consolidation of the initiatives launched has been difficult with only 83 of the initial 121 being active and only 18 registered as community tourist centers. This case study shows that in Ecuador the network approach as the first step in the development of the CBT worked. Therefore, the development of the CBT must be approached from a network approach in which indigenous peoples (indigenous, mestizo, Afro-descendant, etc.) participate, administrations, the private sector, civil society, NGOs and tourist destinations, to which they must to join academic institutions by contributing solid data obtained through research that helps tourism development.

A systematic mapping study on tourism business networks

Purpose

This study aims at characterizing and identifying the existing research on tourism business networks.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a systematic mapping study to identify and analyze related literature. They identified 225 primary studies, dated from 1997-2016, and classified them with respect to research focus, types of research and contribution.

Findings

Seventy four studies were identified and mapped, synthesizing the available evidence on tourism business networks. “Business networks” with 27 articles is the dominant research focus and “Network configuration” with 22 articles is the next dominant one. Regarding the research type, “Solution proposal” is the most frequently used research type. “Interview” and “Case study”, respectively, were the most used research methods. However, “Agent-based modeling”, “Delphi study” and “Non-linear time series analysis” were used less often. “Philosophical paper” was the most common research type between 1997 and 2002, and after that “Solution proposal” was the dominant research paper type. Further, the number of publications has declined between 2012 and 2014.

Originality/value

This mapping study provides the first systematic exploration of the state-of-art on tourism business networks research. The existing body of knowledge is limited to a few high quality studies.

Exploiting managerial capability for innovation in a micro-firm context

Purpose

– The paper has been developed from a critical review of available literature drawn from the micro firm, managerial capability and innovation management fields. The paper aims to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper has been developed from a critical review of available literature drawn from the micro firm, managerial capability and innovation management fields.

Findings

– Four criteria of micro firm managerial capability emerge from micro firm managerial traits in the literature namely, leadership; strategic thinking; problem solving and people relationships. The review also shows that micro firms are embedded in three resource pools which include stakeholder ties; the local community and the proximate market environment. Micro firm managerial capability is argued to emerge from the interaction of the managerial capability criteria and the resources in a process mediated by the resource based and dynamic capabilities perspectives from the strategic management literature.

Research limitations/implications

– A gap in the academic literature is identified and the proposed theoretical model is presented to address this deficiency in the literature. Future empirical research is recommended.

Practical implications

– This proposed model will allow practitioners to better conceptualise and design programmes that will assist companies in developing managerial capabilities to innovate. Deep links between hotel industry practitioners and the academic community will enable the effective dissemination of the research.

Originality/value

– Hotel micro firms play an important social and economic role. There has been little research into how they innovate and specifically into managerial capability for innovation in context. The present research uses conceptual research to map the field and identify critical avenues for future research.