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Stakeholder collaboration provides the necessary foundation for learning processes and dynamic capabilities that are essential for a successful ecological transformation in tourism destinations.
The study identifies three specific sustainable innovation capabilities—community engagement, collaborative cohesion, and a strong sense of sustainability—as key drivers of green change.
These collaborative structures give rise to concrete environmental innovations, ranging from sustainable products and services to new management processes.
The collective capabilities are key factors in determining whether a destination achieves profound systemic changes in management or merely makes isolated product adjustments.
Summary of this study
This study examines the role of stakeholder collaboration in promoting ecological innovations in community-model tourism destinations. As destinations face increasing environmental challenges, it is essential to understand how various stakeholders facilitate the adoption of sustainability practices. Despite a growing body of literature on the economic dimensions of destination development, the specific mechanisms through which stakeholder collaborations catalyze environmentally relevant innovations have received less scholarly attention to date.
Using a Flexible Pattern Matching Approach (FPMA) and qualitative interviews in Austrian destinations, this study demonstrates how learning processes and dynamic capabilities—including experience accumulation, knowledge integration, and strategic visioning—serve as drivers of sustainable innovation capabilities. The results demonstrate that cooperative relationships facilitate knowledge exchange, build trust, mobilize resources, and align sustainability interests. This leads to concrete ecological innovations such as energy communities, sustainable mobility, and slow food travel initiatives.
By further developing the Strategic Net framework, the study offers practical insights for destination managers and policymakers. It highlights how collaborative efforts and supportive policy frameworks can align economic, social, and ecological goals to ensure the long-term sustainability of tourism destinations.
Key findings of the study
- Collaboration as a Foundation: Cooperation among stakeholders both within and outside the tourism sector forms the essential foundation for learning processes and dynamic management skills that make ecological transformation possible in the first place.
- Sustainable innovation capabilities: The study identifies three specific capabilities—the involvement of the local community, collaborative cohesion, and a strong awareness of sustainability—as key drivers of green change.
- Practical ecological innovations: These cooperative structures yield concrete results ranging from sustainable services (such as Slow Food Travel initiatives) to systemic management processes (such as the establishment of local energy communities).
- Quality of innovations: The intensity and presence of these collective capabilities are key determinants of whether a destination merely makes isolated product adjustments or achieves profound, sustainable systemic changes in management.