IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v12y2003i1p49-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ‘greening’ of tourism micro‐businesses: outcomes of focus group investigations in South East Cornwall

Author

Listed:
  • Jon Vernon
  • Stephen Essex
  • David Pinder
  • Kaja Curry

Abstract

The response of micro‐businesses to sustainability issues, and their use of environmental management tools and systems, are often presented as simply scaled‐down versions of those of larger businesses in the small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) sector as a whole. This paper presents the findings of a series of focus groups with the owners of tourism micro‐businesses in South East Cornwall about their awareness, understanding and adoption of sustainable tourism practices. The results reveal a complex and diverse response to the concept that resists such generalizations. A genuine need for measures to increase awareness and integrate sustainability issues within business practice is highlighted. Initiatives that do not account for the heterogeneity of the sector are likely to have only limited success. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jon Vernon & Stephen Essex & David Pinder & Kaja Curry, 2003. "The ‘greening’ of tourism micro‐businesses: outcomes of focus group investigations in South East Cornwall," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 49-69, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:12:y:2003:i:1:p:49-69
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.348
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.348
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.348?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Quentin Merritt, 1998. "EM into SME won't go? Attitudes, awareness and practices in the London Borough of Croydon," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 90-100, May.
    2. Minna Halme, 2001. "Learning for sustainable development in tourism networks," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 100-114, March.
    3. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    4. Forsyth, Tim, 1997. "Environmental responsibility and business regulation: the case of sustainable tourism," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 4733, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. S. J. Carter & D. F. Ball & P. J. Baron & D. Elliott, 1995. "Environmental auditing: Management strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 86-94, April.
    6. Richard Welford & Bjarne Ytterhus & Jason Eligh, 1999. "Tourism and sustainable development: an analysis of policy and guidelines for managing provision and consumption," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(4), pages 165-177.
    7. Judith Petts & Andrew Herd & Simon Gerrard & Chris Horne, 1999. "The climate and culture of environmental compliance within SMEs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 14-30, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tindara Abbate & Angelo Presenza & Milena Viassone, 2017. "The development of sustainable tourism through market-based sources of innovation in the "albergo diffuso"," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(3), pages 41-60.
    2. Jung-Fa Tsai & Phi-Hung Nguyen & Ming-Hua Lin & Duy-Van Nguyen & Hsu-Hao Lin & Anh-Tuan Ngo, 2021. "Impacts of Environmental Certificate and Pollution Abatement Equipment on SMEs’ Performance: An Empirical Case in Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Axenbeck, Janna, 2019. "Environmental innovation and firm profitability: An analysis with respect to firm size," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-033, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Ana Ispas & Elena Nicoleta Untaru & Adina Nicoleta Candrea, 2019. "Environmental Management Practices within Agritourism Boarding Houses in Romania: A Qualitative Study Among Managers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-25, July.
    5. Francisco Dias & Alexandra Meira Lavaredas & Patrícia Esteves, 2024. "What Is the Value of an Environmental Certification Label in Tourism Industry? Is It Worth the Effort?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-19, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iwona Escher & Pawel Brzustewicz, 2020. "Inter-Organizational Collaboration on Projects Supporting Sustainable Development Goals: The Company Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-26, June.
    2. Jan Lepoutre & Aimé Heene, 2006. "Investigating the Impact of Firm Size on Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 257-273, September.
    3. Erkuş-Öztürk, Hilal & Eraydın, Ayda, 2010. "Environmental governance for sustainable tourism development: Collaborative networks and organisation building in the Antalya tourism region," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 113-124.
    4. Gary Lynch-Wood & David Williamson, 2014. "Civil Regulation, the Environment and the Compliance Orientations of SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 467-480, December.
    5. Stephen Brammer & Stefan Hoejmose & Kerry Marchant, 2012. "Environmental Management in SMEs in the UK: Practices, Pressures and Perceived Benefits," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(7), pages 423-434, November.
    6. Xavier Font & Richard Tapper & Karen Schwartz & Marianna Kornilaki, 2008. "Sustainable supply chain management in tourism," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(4), pages 260-271, May.
    7. Christopher D. H. Wilson & Ian David Williams & Simon Kemp, 2012. "An Evaluation of the Impact and Effectiveness of Environmental Legislation in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: Experiences from the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 141-156, March.
    8. Banjo Roxas & Val Lindsay, 2012. "Social Desirability Bias in Survey Research on Sustainable Development in Small Firms: an Exploratory Analysis of Survey Mode Effect," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 223-235, May.
    9. Lorraine Uhlaner & Marta Berent-Braun & Ronald Jeurissen & Gerrit Wit, 2012. "Beyond Size: Predicting Engagement in Environmental Management Practices of Dutch SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(4), pages 411-429, September.
    10. Sudath Weerasiri, 2012. "Attitudes and Awareness towards Environmental Management and its Impact on Environmental Management Practices (EMPs) of SMEs in Sri Lanka," Journal of Social and Development Sciences, AMH International, vol. 3(1), pages 16-23.
    11. Wang, Fangjun & Wang, Xuanzi & Li, Boying & Liu, Yang S., 2023. "Ownership structure and eco-innovation: Evidence from Chinese family firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Kittiya Yongvanich & James Guthrie, 2006. "An extended performance reporting framework for social and environmental accounting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 309-321, September.
    13. Peter Roberts, 2002. "The Scottish strategic and spatial context for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(3), pages 131-139.
    14. Maite Cubas‐Díaz & Miguel Ángel Martínez Sedano, 2018. "Measures for Sustainable Investment Decisions and Business Strategy – A Triple Bottom Line Approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 16-38, January.
    15. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    16. Claire Woods & Roger Urwin, 2010. "Putting Sustainable Investing into Practice: A Governance Framework for Pension Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(1), pages 1-19, April.
    17. Cornelis Leeuwen & Jos Frijns & Annemarie Wezel & Frans Ven, 2012. "City Blueprints: 24 Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of the Urban Water Cycle," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(8), pages 2177-2197, June.
    18. Pero, Margherita & Bottani, Eleonora & Bigliardi, Barbara, 2014. "Exploring Sustainability in Construction Supply Chains," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), Next Generation Supply Chains: Trends and Opportunities. Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), Vol. 18, volume 18, pages 161-182, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    19. Euston Quah, 2015. "Pursuing Economic Growth in Asia: The Environmental Challenge," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(10), pages 1487-1504, October.
    20. CHEN, Helen S.Y., 2020. "Designing Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains," OSF Preprints m82ar, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:12:y:2003:i:1:p:49-69. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.