Disruptive network innovation in free guided tours

Abstract

This article provides an analysis on how disruptive innovation is spurred by the dynamics of digital and analogue networks in the sharing economy. The analysis builds on a free guided-tour company in Copenhagen. Data is collected in a bottom-up reiterative process, drawing on theories on disruptive innovation and network theory. Between 2013 and 2016, one of the free tour companies in Copenhagen was followed by means of participant observations, interviews with tour guides and interpretation of online documents. Results show that free guided tours based on tips alone and orchestrated within the frame of the sharing economy are not merely a product innovation. More importantly, they entail disruptive market innovations that circumvent traditional industry structures and ultimately produce disruptive organizational innovations where trust in network is the crux. Free guided-tour companies operate as communitarian organizations in extractive business models, and they are game changers in the field of guided tours, and ultimately in the field of tourism.

Glocalization strategies and current transformations of innovative city tours of Sofia, Bulgaria

“…Although the free walking tour concept is associated with collaborative economy [2,7,20], the present study results clearly indicate that, as in traditional economy, central to the business model is profit. All of the interviewees see the concept as a business: people start it with the idea that they can make money (either as a main or additional source of income), although many of them have other motives as well.…”

“…While SNE operates as a transnational corporation with a classical top-down structure [7], innovative city tours of Sofia are provided by independent local entrepreneurs some of which are trade companies and others are NGOs opting for co-ownership and collective management. The existence of various providers is seen as an advantage in terms of product development, since "everyone comes up with their own ideas and some innovative products [such as the Balkan Bites Free Food Tour] would otherwise not have been created".…”

“…On the other hand, the concept implements the principles of sharing economy by providing everyone with easy access to affordable products. Consequently, in academic literature it is seen as a hybrid of capitalist and collaborative economy practices that represents a nontechnological innovation [2] as well as a disruptive network innovation [7].…”

“…Generally, innovative city tour providers following the above model are newcomers to the tourism industry and are far from well-studied, despite of their global market success and increasing impacts on local tourism development. Deeper understanding of both their mechanisms of operation and underpinning philosophies has recently been called for [1,2,7]. Since such understanding refers to a global concept implemented in various local contexts, one particular sphere of interest might be that of specific glocalization strategies applied in different countries, which would also respond to the call for investigating the process of glocalization in regards to the conceptual application of innovations such as the alternative economy [8].…”

How to Avoid a COVID-19 Research Paper Tsunami? A Tourism System Approach

“…They had been studied in a variety of contexts, covering innovative, social, market, or environmental disruption. Innovative disruption caused by the emergence of the sharing economy were discussed by Guttentag (2015), Sovani and Jayawardena (2017), Widtfeldt Meged and Zillinger (2018), and Dogru, Mody, and Suess (2019). Veiga et al (2017) describe disruption of tourism markets by the changes of consumer preferences through the generational shift of millennials.…”