Co-Opetition as a Pathway to Sustainability: How Bed and Breakfast Clusters Achieve Competitive Advantage in High-Density Tourism Destinations

Zirui Nie () and Siobhan Cronin
Additional contact information
Zirui Nie: Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo 192-0364, Japan
Siobhan Cronin: Brunel London School, North China University of Technology, Beijing 100143, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-21

Abstract: This study examines co-opetition mechanisms in China’s rapidly expanding bed and breakfast (B&B) sector, where intense competition drives operators to collaborate with rivals. A co-opetition model incorporating size classifications was tested using survey data from 500 clustered B&Bs. Data were analyzed with SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 23.0 through descriptive statistics, reliability testing, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results show that perceived benefit (β = 0.230, p < 0.01), cooperation orientation (β = 0.223, p < 0.01), and prior experience (β = 0.232, p < 0.01) significantly drive co-opetition, whereas mutual trust and strategic fit are not significant. Co-opetition strongly enhances sustainable competitive advantage (β = 0.521, p < 0.001), indicating that strategic collaboration can mitigate homogenization in dense markets. The study contributes to co-opetition theory by (1) identifying antecedents specific to small-scale hospitality businesses, (2) challenging conventional assumptions about the role of trust, and (3) establishing empirical links between co-opetition and long-term competitiveness. Practically, the findings provide B&B operators with strategies for navigating competitive yet interdependent environments and offer policymakers evidence-based guidance to foster sustainable tourism clusters through institutional support for cooperative networks.

Keywords: bed and breakfasts; co-opetition; sustainable competitive advantage; Moganshan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9562/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9562/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:21:p:9562-:d:1780966

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().