Why do start-up tourism small and medium-sized enterprises imitate? A mixed-methods research design

Entrepreneurial tourism activities are strongly embedded in their regional context. The causes behind the imitative behaviors of start-up tourism small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs) are complicated and need further exploration. This study aims to identify causal configurations of tourism SMEs’ imitative entrepreneurship to address the core question: "Why do start-up tourism SMEs imitate?" by employing a mixed-methods approach. Qualitative data were gathered via in-depth interviews of 25 tourism entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that the imitative entrepreneurship of start-up tourism SMEs can be influenced by individual, organizational, and environmental factors, including entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial learning, entrepreneurial strategy, environmental competitiveness, environmental dynamics, and industrial development. We obtained quantitative data through a questionnaire survey (n = 77) targeting tourism SMEs for configuration analysis. The results of the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) reveal that the configuration paths of imitative entrepreneurship in tourism SMEs can be classified as market-driven, cost-driven, or inertia-driven. Our findings have theoretical and practical implications for the development of tourism start-up SMEs.