Can Tourism Social Entrepreneurship Organizations Contribute to the Development of Ecotourism and Local Communities: Understanding the Perception of Local Communities

Harshavardhan Reddy Kummitha, Naveen Kolloju, András Jancsik and Zsófia Csilla Szalók
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Harshavardhan Reddy Kummitha: Department of Tourism, Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism, Budapest Business School, H-1054 Budapest, Hungary
Naveen Kolloju: Department of Civics and Ethical Studies, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch 4400, Ethiopia
András Jancsik: Department of Tourism, Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism, Budapest Business School, H-1054 Budapest, Hungary
Zsófia Csilla Szalók: Department of Tourism, Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism, Budapest Business School, H-1054 Budapest, Hungary

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: The literature emphasizes that tourism social entrepreneurs play an important role in the adoption of sustainable strategies to achieve social, environmental, and community development. Yet, there is limited research that aims to understand the relationship between local communities and tourism social entrepreneurship empirically. Building around social exchange theory and Weber’s theory of substantive and formal rationality, this study addresses the following research question: how do local communities perceive the role of tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) in the development of ecotourism destinations? A total of 362 community employees of two ecotourism organizations in India participated in the survey. Analytically, this study validated the measurement model and tested hypotheses using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings reveal that the economic benefits and environmental sustainability are the main influencing factors that are appreciated by the communities. However, we found variance in the community perceptions with regard to several factors being studied in the two TSEs we studied. This study recommends that in order to contribute to the development of ecotourism and local communities there is an urge to build strong ties among different stakeholders at the local level.

Keywords: ecosystem sustainability; tourism-based social entrepreneurship; ecotourism; local communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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