| Author: | Wu, Ying |
| Title: | The tri-value of a lifestyle entrepreneur : constructing sustainable business models in local tourism settings |
| Advisors: | Xiao, Honggen (SHTM) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Tourism Small business Entrepreneurship Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | 224 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The perceived value of tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs (TLE) has been an international academic topic for over twenty years. This type of entrepreneur has pursued to realize a work-and-life balance by doing the tourism business. Their contributions to the attractiveness of a place are significant in the early stage of tourist area development. However, their business value and practice are not strong to maintain when commercial-oriented actors follow and enable unsustainable tourism. The study on the TLE is also covered by the theme of small tourism businesses and sustainable tourism. These studies lacked an agency and cultural perspective. This thesis focuses on the TLEs whose projects contribute to sustainable (alternative) tourism. They are potential business innovators for creating sustainable value (the tri-value) instead of commercial value for profit maximization. Then, this research applies the sustainable business model (SBM), precisely the SBM's generic structure, to explore insights on how to sustain a TLE's business. The SBM study needs more evidence-based research projects to narrow the design-implementation gap. It is known that the TLE's business and the SBM are embedded in a local place. The concept of locality is thinly applied in the TLE and the SBM research. It is also brought into consideration. Thus, the research questions are claimed: What happens to the outputs of generic SBM structure within a TLE's business practice in the locality? Next, what causes the results? The thesis applies a participatory action research approach to collect data in two comparable villages. It is an unusual research method in tourism studies, even the studies in SBM scholarship. The generic SBM structure in this research is immersed in the open system (i.e., reality). According to the guide of action research dissertation (Herr & Anderson, 2014) and the handbook of qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship (Neergaard & Ulhøi, 2007), the author justifies critical realism as the research paradigm to construe findings in a case study (Easton, 2010) with PAR approach, which is applicable to serve the research question to obtain insightful information and experience. The researcher experienced 14 PAR cycles with different TLEs in two case sites. She played an outsider in Er-Keng village, given the TLEs and other actors (i.e., indigenous residents, the commercial entrepreneurs, and the local governments) regarded her as an outside expert. Then, she became an insider interacting with the TLEs and other actors in Qi-Xi village since she had a chance and successfully applied to develop a visitor center built by the local government. After narrating the process of PAR fieldwork, critical events, data categorization and findings are presented to discuss the detailed outputs regarding the generic SBM structure of the researcher's start-up project in the locality's production. The thesis confirms and claims that TLEs can pioneer sustainable tourism, such as rural tourism, eco-tourism, and community-based tourism, driven by the de-growth value proposition. TLEs can take leadership to develop a sustainable business system while simultaneously making an ecological place, connecting and cultivating responsible visitors and local stakeholders. This research also proposes two structures of casual relationships in critical realist rhetoric. First, the tendency regards the conformity of the generic SBM structure, customers' experience value, and TLE's fulfillment. It explains a TLE's practice that conforms with the SBM structure, the TLE can achieve their perceived value given by the environmental and social impacts do not overrun the costs on the economic value layer. The condition comes out from the powers, including the TLE's perceived value, creative tri-value experience, organization, and leadership. Second, the tendency regards the tri-value coherences in the SBM and the locality's production status. It emphasizes the susses of an SBM construction needs a synergized locality, given by the powers, such as the scale of TLEs, regular activities, organization, and sustainable knowledge as common sense. Then thesis researcher constructs an SBM for her start-up project. The research results are useful for an actor to narrow the SBM's design-implementation gap. More importantly, the actors will consciously embed their sustainable business actions into the locality to establish and maintain appropriateness connecting with nature, society, and the individual. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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