Last modified: 2012-02-10
Abstract
This paper deals with innovation practices and sustainability in Nordic nature based tourism. The focus of the paper is how innovation-actors in marine wildlife tourism are informed by the rhetorics of sustainability in developing their service offerings. The paper draws on the literature of corporate social responsibility in order to contextualise the ways in which the ethics of sustainability are potentially delivered in innovation practices. Based on case studies from Iceland and Norway, the paper argues that, although a strong concern for the environmental agenda in general, and the rhetoric of sustainability in particular, exists, the ways in which these are translated into action, varies widely. This stems in part from a lack of understanding of what constitutes and moulds the sustainability demands of nature based tourism. The paper argues that, what determines the success of nature-based tourism firms adapting to this demand, is the way they reflect upon their role of responsibility towards the environment. The more nuanced the understanding thereof, the greater the place of sustainable innovation and scope for action will be.
Extended AbstractThis paper will examine how sustainability plays a role in the innovation strategy and processes of Nordic nature based tourism firms by qualitatively studying a small sample of Icelandic and Norwegian whale-watching firms.
Experiences occur when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event (Pine and Gilmore 1998). Although experiences have typically been lumped in with services, they are a distinct economic offering, as different from services as services are from goods (Pine and Gilmore 1998). This paper focuses on a subsector of the experience economy: nature based tourism. Nature based tourism (NBT) can be understood as tourism 'primarily concerned with the direct enjoyment of some relatively undisturbed phenomena of nature' (Valentine 1992). For example kayaking in Norwegian Fjords, hiking in Swedish national parks or whale-watching in Icelandic waters. Tourism firms and destinations offering these kinds of experiences are depending on the quality and quantity of their natural resources to create experiences for their customer. Hence, their innovative practices are intricately linked to issues of sustainability, which on the grandest scale include climate change, loss of biodiversity, environmental degradation and global economic fluctuations (Papatheodoru et al, 2010). These, along with a host of regional and local environmental issues, influence tourist demands and attitudes, inversely triggering the learning and innovation capacities of firms to anticipate and adapt accordingly (Halme 2001).
Sustainability is an ethical concept, aimed at the humanistic survival of mankind and intra- and inter-generational equity (WCED 1997; Jamieson 1998). Since the release of the Brundtland report, the interaction of environmental, economic and socio-political development, defines the concept of sustainability (World Commission on, Development et al. 1987). Sustainable development requires technical, organizational and institutional changes to make the step from rhetoric to practices. The innovative practices of nature-based tourism firms in adapting to the demands of tourists, influenced by the rhetoric of sustainability are to a large extent, driven by voluntary business approaches, the continuous need for quality improvement, and, policy measures and regulations (Hallenga-Brink and Brezet 2005). However, innovation cannot be seen as ultimate mean to achieve sustainable goals; it is a continuous process. The paper suggests that 'sustainable innovation' is to be understood in terms of adjusting, or adapting products or processes, to the social or natural environment (Jorna, 2006). In this sense nature-based tourism innovation can be understood as a strategic reflexive process where actors reflect upon and interpret their environment while engaged in the practice meeting demand (Sundbo 1997; Sundbo and Fuglsang 2002).
Although the roles of regulation and quality improvement are important driving forces for sustainable innovation, the focus of the paper is on how voluntary business-approaches drive innovation. The strategic reflexive approach to innovation means that ethics become part and parcel of the interpretive framework of innovation-actors. Therefore, sustainable innovation can be conceptualized as a form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in terms of incorporating ethics as a sense-making tool in interpreting and reflecting upon the environment. Simon (2005) argues that human beings apply ethics when making (economic) decisions because they have an innate propensity for non-reciprocal altruism. Sustainability can be seen as an example of this kind of altruism, which means giving up short-term individual interest in order to balance the interests of people, planet and profit, now and in the future.
In order to develop an understanding of sustainable innovation, the question revolves around whose viewpoints matter, as the interpretation of sustainability depends on the values, motives and political interests of different actors (see also (Cunningham, Huijbens et al. 2011). Hence, eco- or nature-based tourism firms can have a wide range of interpretations of sustainability and understandings of what constitutes responsible behaviour. The paper adopts a framework presented in Pearce (1993) and Turner (1994) in order to make sense of these varying interpretations. This framework talks about weak and strong sustainability (Pearce and Atkinson 1993; Acott, Trobe et al. 1998). This provides a fitting base for engaging with the apparent difference between sustainability rhetoric and actions. The paper will be based on empirical qualitative data from Nordic nature based tourism, where it seems that despite their shared rhetoric on strong sustainability, firms apply different sustainability typologies (from very weak to very strong) in their innovation practices. In other words, firms don't always practice what they preach on their websites and in interviews. Sustainable practices need sincerity: only strong internal sustainability values will result in sustainability enhancing actions. Weak internal values seem to lead to window-dressing and sustainability rhetoric that is hardly translated into measures to enhance environmental or social quality. Firms recognize the importance of sustainability-rhetoric as a marketing tool but seem not always willing to implement what it truly means. Only strong intrinsic values will be enacted upon because many activities relevant for sustainability cannot be controlled, nor be extrinsically motivated, by sanctions or monetary incentives (Siebenhuner 2000).
The main research question is what typologies of sustainability underlie the rhetoric and practice of innovation in Nordic nature based tourism firms.
Empirical, qualitative data from 3 Icelandic and 1 Norwegian whale-watching firm will be analysed and interpreted in order to answer this question. The research will be framed in the sustainable innovation and eco-tourism literature.
References
Dopfer, K. (2005). The Evolutionary Foundations of Economics, Cambridge University Press.
Sundbo, J. and L. Fuglsang (2002). Innovation as strategic reflexivity. London, Routledge.
Valentine, P. S., Ed. (1992). Review. Nature-based tourism. . Special interest tourism. London, Belhaven Press.