Open innovation in tourism micro-firms: evidence from the Italian Alps

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study examines the relationship between openness to external collaborations and innovation outcomes in tourism micro-firms, considering the variety of partners, the geographical outreach of the relationships, and the number of implemented innovation types. A quantitative analysis of tourism micro-firms located in the Italian Alps is complemented with rich qualitative evidence gathered through follow-up interviews. Our findings show that higher openness to external collaborations leads to a higher probability of introducing an innovation and to higher innovation performances. However, above a certain threshold, the returns from open innovation decrease as a firm’s openness increases. This assumption does not hold when considering openness to national and international partners, which is positively and significantly related to innovation performance. The results suggest that the purposive management of external collaborations is a central issue for tourism entrepreneurs and highlight the positive role that intermediaries can play in facilitating such dynamics.KEYWORDS: Tourism micro-firmsopen innovationopennesstourism innovationrural tourism AcknowledgmentsValentina Biconne thanks CNA Torino (the Italian Confederation of Craft Trades and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises) and Regione Piemonte (Piedmont Regional Government) for funding the Ph.D. programme in apprenticeship (Apprendistato di Alta Formazione e di Ricerca 2016-2018 di cui alla Determinazione n. 537 del 03/08/2016 e successivo aggiornamento approvato con D.D. n. 1486 del 17/12/2018). The authors also thank Interreg Alcotra Italy-France European cross-border programme 2014–2020 for funding the survey activity.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Micro-firms are defined as enterprises with fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover of two million euros at most (European Commission, Citation2015).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Interreg Alcotra Italy-France European cross-border program 2014–2020: [Grant Number 5031].