Purpose: This study aims to identify the structural relationship among social capital, knowledge sharing, innovation and performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a tourism cluster.Design/methodology/approach: A total of 199 valid questionnaires are collected from SMEs in the Bomun tourism cluster in South Korea. A structural equation modeling approach is used to test the research hypotheses.Findings: The findings suggest that social capital constructs, including network density of structural capital, relational capital and cognitive capital, all positively influence knowledge sharing among SMEs in the cluster. This implies that creating social capital is critical to enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs. This study confirms that knowledge sharing positively affects SME performance through innovation.Research limitations/implications: This study suggests that social capital, consisting of structural, cognitive and relational capital, facilitates increased knowledge sharing and innovation in a tourism cluster, which in turn enhances SME business performance.Practical/implications: This study suggests that tourism cluster policies should focus on how to create a friendly operational climate to build social capital and support SME innovation.Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on social capital and innovation as well as the discourse on tourism clusters by addressing knowledge sharing among SMEs in a tourism cluster. It also expands the knowledge sharing and innovation literature by focusing on inter-organizational social networking among SMEs.

This empirical study uses nudge theory to develop conceptual models to predict the pro-sustainable behaviors of visitors. Two sets of antecedents, including the destination level (i.e. destination social responsibility [DSR]) and the individual level (climate change perception), were used as configurations to stimulate the pro-sustainable behavioral intentions of visitors in terms of willingness to sacrifice, eco-behaviors, and localism. The proposed models were tested using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate the net effect of the antecedents and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore complex configurations leading to the pro-sustainable behavioral intentions of visitors. An interview study with experts was also conducted to develop a framework illustrating transformational drivers of actual pro-sustainable behaviors. Climate change concerns and environmentally responsible destinations appear to be significant predictors of visitors’ willingness to sacrifice, localism, and eco-behaviors. Climate change awareness, beliefs, and concerns are necessary for pro-sustainable behavioral intentions. The results highlight the importance of nudge theory and creative practices to enact pro-sustainable behavioral change. The proposed framework offers guidelines at the tactical, strategic, and structural levels to stimulate visitors’ actual behaviors toward climate change actions.

This study investigates the relationship among tourism, poverty, and economic development in developing countries. The empirical model is set up using unbalanced panel observations for 69 developing countries for the period 1995–2012. The findings show that tourism has heterogeneous effects on the poverty ratio in terms of a country’s income per capita: the positive effect of tourism on poverty alleviation switches to being negative after a certain threshold of a country’s income level. The results of this study indicate that only the least developed countries (those with an income per capita below international dollar 3400) have benefited from the tourism industry in terms of reducing their poverty ratios.

Using a large-scale visitors' survey data, this study empirically investigates the question of who is a tourist from the tourist's perspective, and contrasts the findings with elements of more formal definitions. the study contributes to the literature on tourism definition and measurement by demon strating how tripographic and socioeconomic factors affect visitors' propensity to self-categorize as tourists. the results point to a clear distance threshold of around 75 miles and provide support for the technical approach to the definition of tourism. First-time visitors, visitors whose main purpose was pleasure, women, and lower middle class income are more inclined to self-categorize as tourists, while those who visit friends and relatives are not. these findings could be used to further improve the definition and measurement of tourism, as well as enhance destination marketing practices.