Knowledge Dynamics in the Tourism-Social Entrepreneurship Nexus
Giang Thi Phi, Michelle Whitford, and Dianne Dredge
Abstract Tourism is often employed as a vehicle for facilitating social-economic development, however its usefulness has been somewhat limited in relation to addressing social issues, and in particular, those issues relating to poverty. This is partly due to the lack of cross-sectoral interactions and knowledge exchange between private, public and third sectors that are needed to create effective and appropriate initiatives to leverage tourism for social benefits. Such traditional sectoral boundaries can be broken down through social entrepreneurship approaches which concomitantly, facilitate the creation and synergizing of social innovation that addresses persistent social issues. Yet to date, the utility of crosssectoral knowledge dynamics still remains largely under-researched in both the social entrepreneurship and tourism literature. This chapter introduces readers to the concept of knowledge dynamics and discusses knowledge dynamics in the tourism and social entrepreneurship nexus via a case study of community-based tourism in Mai Hich, Vietnam. We argue that by gaining an enhanced understanding of cross-sectoral knowledge dynamics, we can strengthen the overall praxis of tourism and social entrepreneurship, and in particular, assist policymakers in fostering conditions that generate increased innovation.
Keywords Knowledge • Innovation • Tourism • Networks • Gatekeeper • Boundary spanner • Interventions
G.T. Phi (*) • M. Whitford
Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ; This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it D. Dredge
Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark e-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
P.J. Sheldon, R. Daniele (eds.), Social Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Tourism on the Verge, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-46518-0_9
