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This paper aims to review the state of the art for the Tourism Review special issue on “Business Models in Tourism”. The authors’ purpose is twofold: first, to contextualize the empirical and conceptual contributions featured in the special issue in relation to the state of research on business models in tourism. Second, the authors position the special issue in the broader scholarly conversation on business models to identify avenues for future research.

The authors systematically review the content of tourism-specific business model studies from leading literature databases to answer four questions relevant for future work on business models in tourism: First, how do tourism scholars define the business model concept? Second, what is the ontological stance (object, schema or tool) of existing studies of tourism business models? Third, what are the methodological preferences of existing work on business models in tourism? And finally, what qualifies as rigorous business model research?

From the critical review of 32 contributions, the authors identify a minimal consensus and dominant approach to conceptualizing the business model concept in tourism studies. In addition, the authors reveal a strong preference for small-n case study research designs. In sum, those findings point to important gaps and design decisions for future business model studies in tourism.

This review of the state of research on business models in tourism details research opportunities with regard to theory, methods and applications that tourism scholars can investigate to contribute to the theory and practice of business model management.

Business models and the business model concept have become a fixture of scholarly and managerial attention. With a focus on how actors create, capture and disseminate value, business model research holds the promise to inform the tourism sector’s search for ways to innovate and change outdated business practices. Yet, the concept has inspired little research tackling the contingencies of the tourism context. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in this review and research agenda on business models in tourism.

In this paper, the authors review and synthesize contributions from publications in EBSCO, Emerald Insight, ProQuest and Science Direct databases, that make explicit use of the business model concept in tourism (anytime up to September 2016). We conceptualize the identified articles as a coherent body of knowledge on business models in tourism with the objective of identifying common themes that characterize existing contributions.

From the review of 28 qualified articles, the authors identify four emergent themes: sector-specific configurations, the role of different value types, design themes for consistency and regulatory contingencies. These themes inform three domains in which the authors present avenues for tourism-specific studies on business models, as well as their management and innovation that the authors position in relation to the general business model literature.

This review details how researchers across disciplines conceptualize the business model. Together with the identified directions for further research, this literature review thus establishes a common conceptual basis and stock of knowledge for the study of business models in tourism research.

The purpose of this study is to test the usefulness of the literature-based innovation output (LBIO) approach to identify innovation types from press releases of hospitality firms and to evaluate if the typology captures the effect of innovation on firm value.

The LBIO approach was applied to three years of press releases from two publicly traded lodging firms in the USA announcing innovations. A database of lodging and innovation relevant terms was compiled. Starting with classifications found in the innovation literature, the researchers coded each announcement. Coded announcements were clustered into innovation types using pairwise similarity analysis. Event study analysis assessed the efficacy of the overall method to find types that were useful to measure the impact on firm value from the company’s adoption of an innovation.

Cluster analysis identified four lodging innovation types: property and location, marketing, strategic development and guest experiences. These types corresponded closely with the innovation classification suggested by the Oslo Manual. The event study found that the typology was useful in determining the market value effects of an innovation.

This study focused on innovation; future studies might test other organizational factors. The study uses data from two large, publicly traded hospitality firms and may not extend to smaller, privately held businesses. A key implication is that human coding is sufficient to identify innovation types that correspond closely with existing classifications and affect firm value.

This study successful learns from hospitality press releases to identify a hospitality innovation typology and tests type impact on firm value.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of psychological hardiness, social judgment, and “Big Five” personality dimensions on leader performance in US military academy cadets at West Point.

Army cadets were studied in two different organizational contexts, i.e. summer field training and during academic semesters. Leader performance was measured with leadership grades (supervisor ratings) aggregated over four years at West Point.

After controlling for general intellectual abilities, hierarchical regression results showed leader performance in the summer field training environment is predicted by Big Five extroversion, and hardiness, and a trend for social judgment. During the academic period context, leader performance is predicted by mental abilities, Big Five conscientiousness, and hardiness, with a trend for social judgment.

Results confirm the importance of psychological hardiness, extroversion, and conscientiousness as factors influencing leader effectiveness, and suggest that social judgment aspects of emotional intelligence can also be important. These results also show that different Big Five personality factors may influence leadership in different organizational contexts.

The study identifies personality factors related to leader performance in different types of work environments or contexts. Results can be used to improve leader selection and development programs.

This is the first study to examine the influence of psychological hardiness together with Big Five personality factors on leader performance. It identifies hardiness as an important predictor of leadership, while also showing that organizational context makes a difference for what Big Five personality factors influence leader performance: extroversion appears to be more influential in highly social and active work environments, whereas conscientiousness has greater salience in academic and business settings.

The hospitality industry in developed countries is under pressure due to labor shortages and it is likely more food and beverage operations will have to be automated in the future. This research investigates the public’s perceptions of the use of robots in food and beverage operations to learn about how the public perceives automation in food and beverage.

Data were collected from a survey disseminated online in 12 languages, resulting in a sample of 1,579 respondents. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and OLS regressions.

The data also reveal that generally positive attitudes toward the use of robots in tourism and hospitality is a strong indicator of positive attitudes toward the use of robots in an F&B setting. The data also illustrate that the public’s perception of appropriateness of the use of robots in F&B operations is positively related to robots’ perceived reliability, functionality and advantages compared to human employees.

The implications illustrate that the public seems to be generally accepting robots in food and beverage operations, even considering the public’s understanding and acceptance of the limitations of such technologies.

The research suggests that a critical element in terms of incorporating automation into future food and beverage operations is encouraging consumers to have generally positive attitudes toward the use of robots in hospitality and tourism industries.

This survey is based upon the data gathered in multiple countries to learn about how individuals perceive the use of robots in food and beverage operations, illustrating the attitudes that will assist or hinder the automation of this service industry.

This paper aims to investigate potential consumers’ willingness to pay for robot-delivered services in travel, tourism and hospitality, and the factors that shape their willingness to pay.

An online survey yielded a sample of 1,573 respondents from 99 countries. Independent samples t-test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA), cluster, factor and regression analyses were used.

Respondents expected to pay less for robot-delivered services than human-delivered services. Two clusters were identified: one cluster willing to pay nearly the same price for robotic services as for human-delivered services, whilst the other expected deep discounts for robotic services. The willingness-to-pay was positively associated with the attitudes towards robots in tourism, robotic service experience expectations, men and household size. It was negatively associated to travel frequency, age and education.

The paper’s main limitation is its exploratory nature and the use of a hypothetical scenario in measuring respondents’ willingness to pay. The data were gathered prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and do not reflect the potential changes in perceptions of robots due to the pandemic.

Practitioners need to focus on improving the attitudes towards robots in tourism because they are strongly and positively related to the willingness to pay. The marketing messages need to form positive expectations about robotic services.

This is one of the first papers to investigate consumers’ willingness to pay for robot-delivered services in travel, tourism and hospitality and factors that shape their willingness to pay.

This paper aims to track the evolution of an innovative Aboriginal tourism business model with deliberate social and community enterprise objectives in a remote setting.

It adopts an in-depth exploratory case study approach to discover key characteristics of an emerging tourism enterprise. The qualitative data sources include publically available planning, promotional and organizational materials, in-depth interviews with key informants and on-site observations. Yunus et al.’s (2010) social business model provides the framework for the case analysis.

Findings highlight the gradual deepening of Indigenous engagement – from simply providing a place for a non-Indigenous tourism business – to running a fully Indigenous-controlled, staffed and themed on-country tourism business. Complementing existing non-Indigenous tourism experiences reduced the need for start-up infrastructure and market recognition, thus reducing business risk for the Traditional Owners. Despite substantial changes in the business structure in response to political and maturation factors, the core motivations seemed to remain strong. The business model facilitates value creation to stakeholders in varying ways.

The contextual nature of Indigenous tourism reflects limitations of qualitative case study methodology.

The resulting business model provides a contextually appropriate structure to engage in tourism for achieving cultural and societal goals. It mitigates against the identified risk of low market demand for Indigenous tourism experiences by connecting with established non-Indigenous tourism products, while also allowing for product offering independent thereof.

Social benefits are high and have potential for replication in similar contexts elsewhere.

The paper contributes to the emerging research on culturally appropriate business models in Indigenous tourism contexts and validates a strategy to overcome low demand. It offers a model that for the tourist facilitates a sustainable experience which enables co-production while for the hosts fosters community resilience, intergenerational learning and improved livelihoods. The case highlights opportunities for further research into the interrelationship, dependencies and thresholds between the social and economic profit equations, particularly in the context of the culture conservation economy.

旅游服务文化：澳大利亚原住民旅游商业模式的演变

本文追踪了以社会及社区企业为主的偏远地区的创新原住民旅游商业模式的演变。具

本研究采用深入的探索性案例研究方法来发现新兴旅游企业的关键特征。定性数据包括可公开获得的计划, 促销和组织资料, 与主要信息提供者的深入访谈以及现场观察。 Yunus等人（2010）的社会商业模型提供了案例分析的框架。

调查结果凸显了土著人参与度的逐步深化–从简单地为非土著人旅游业务提供场所, 到经营完全由土著人控制, 配备人员以及进行主题化的国家旅游业务。丰富现有的非土著旅游体验, 可以减少对启动基础设施和市场认可的需求, 从而降低了传统业主的业务风险。尽管由于政治和成熟因素, 业务结构发生了重大变化, 但核心动机似乎仍然很强。研究得出的商业模型通过各种方式促进了利益相关者的价值创造。

土著旅游的性质反映了定性案例研究方法的局限性。

本研究中的商业模型为通过旅游业实现文化和社会目标提供了一种适当情景下的结构。通过与成熟的非土著旅游产品建立联系, 目的地缓解了针对土著旅游体验的低市场需求风险。同时本文之方案还为其独立旅游产品开发提供了可能。

此商业模式的社会效益很高, 并且有可能在其他类似情况的地方进行复制。

本文为土著旅游背景下文化相关的商业模式的新兴研究做出了贡献, 并提出并验证了克服低需求的策略。它为游客提供了一种可持续发展的体验模式, 使人们可以实现体验共创, 同时为居民提供的模式则可以提高社区的适应能力, 代际学习机会和改善生计的途径。该案例强调了进一步研究社会与经济利益之间的相互关系, 依存关系和阈值的机会, 尤其是在文化保护经济的背景下。

土著旅游, 价值创造, 共创, 文化保护经济, 社会企业, 金伯利地区

Turismo para servir a la cultura: la evolución de un modelo de negocio de Turismo Aborigen en Australia

Este documento analiza la evolución de un modelo de negocio del Turismo Aborigen innovador, con un objetivo social común y empresarial determinado en un entorno remoto.

Adopta un enfoque profundo y exploratorio de estudio de caso para descubrir las características claves de una empresa turística emergente. Las fuentes de datos cualitativos, incluyen materiales de planificación, promoción y organización de acceso público, así como entrevistas en profundidad con informantes claves y observaciones in situ. El modelo de negocio social de Yunus et al. (2010) proporciona el marco para el análisis de casos.

Los hallazgos destacan la profundización gradual de la implicación indígena, desde proporcionar simplemente un lugar para un negocio de turismo no indígena, hasta un total control de la gestión del negocio turístico con personal y temática indígena. Complementando las experiencias existentes de turismo no indígena, se redujo las necesidades iniciales de infraestructuras y reconocimiento del mercado, disminuyendo así el riesgo comercial para los Propietarios Tradicionales. A pesar de los cambios sustanciales en la estructura empresarial que los factores políticos y de maduración provocan, las motivaciones centrales parecían mantenerse fuertes. El modelo de negocios facilita la creación de valor a las partes interesadas de diversas formas.

La naturaleza contextual del turismo indígena refleja las limitaciones de la metodología de estudio de caso cualitativa.

El modelo de negocio resultante proporciona una estructura contextualmente apropiada para la implicación de las comunidades indígenas en el turismo y poder lograr objetivos culturales y sociales. Mitiga el riesgo identificado de la baja demanda del mercado de experiencias de turismo indígena, al relacionarse con productos turísticos no indígenas establecidos, al tiempo que permite la oferta de productos independientes de los mismos.

Los beneficios sociales son altos y tienen potencial de replicación en contextos similares en otros lugares.

El documento contribuye a la investigación emergente sobre modelos de negocio apropiados, desde el punto de vista cultural, en contextos de turismo indígena y valida una estrategia para superar la baja demanda. Ofrece un modelo que por un lado, facilita al turista una experiencia sostenible permitiendo la coproducción, mientras que para los anfitriones, fomenta la resiliencia comunitaria, el aprendizaje intergeneracional y mejora los medios de ganarse la vida. El caso resalta las oportunidades para una mayor investigación sobre la interrelación, las dependencias y los límites entre la ecuación de beneficios sociales y económicos, particularmente en el contexto de la economía de preservación cultural.

Turismo indígena, creación de valor, coproducción, economía de preservación cultural, empresa social, región de kimberley

Trabajo de investigación