Struggling in silence? The formation mechanism of implicit conflict in rural tourism communities

Abstract

This study explored the formation and influencing factors of the understudied implicit conflict in rural tourism communities from a social capital perspective. An exploratory sequential mixed-method approach was used, including semi-structured interviews and household surveys with rural tourism community residents. The study identifies the formation mechanism of implicit conflicts and examines the influencing factors that drive conflict intentions. Findings revealed that residents experienced three stages of development: potential opposition, cognitive engagement, and conflict intention. The influencing factors, such as formal institutional disembedding, network disembedding, and loss of relational trust, positively affected rural community residents' conflict-related cognitive engagement and informal institutional embedding, which further positively influenced residents' conflict intentions. This study contributes to a better understanding and measurement of implicit conflict in rural tourism communities. It also provides significant implications for stakeholders to develop more comprehensive tourism planning and management strategies to enhance residents’ support for tourism.