Market Orientation Adoption among Rural Tourism Enterprises: The Effect of the Location and Characteristics of the Firm

Abstract

This paper highlighted the importance of market orientation as a strategy for the success of rural tourism enterprises. The purpose of the work was to identify an explanatory model for the market orientation adopted by rural tourism enterprises. The explanatory factors identified were as follows: category; information and communications technology use; and the entrepreneur's gender. It was also found that the location of the enterprise relative to its competitors may also influence market orientation adoption. A spatial econometric model was used that took into account the characteristics of the rural tourism enterprise and its physical location, in terms of their effect on market orientation adoption.

Entrepreneurial behaviour, firm size and financial performance: the case of rural tourism family firms

“…Rural tourism and entrepreneurship Rural tourism is characterised by small family firms (Getz & Carlsen, 2000, 2005Horobin & Long, 1996;Peters & Buhalis, 2013), which are often embedded in specific regional settings that require individual entrepreneurial behaviour to perform well (Morrison, 2006;Polo-Peña, Chica-Olmo, Frías-Jamilena, & Rodríguez-Molina, 2015). Rural tourism was traditionally developed using existing properties (e.g.…”

A Spatial Analysis of Intensity in Tourism Accommodation: An Application for Extremadura (Spain)

“…However, some studies carried out in the specific sector of tourism confirm how improvements in production are also likely to occur in this sector. This is the case of the work carried out by Polo Pena et al (2015), in which it is confirmed that space agglomeration favors the spread of the adoption of a more market-oriented strategy among rural tourism companies that are spatially grouped.…”

European rural entrepreneur and tourism‐based diversification: Does national culture matter?

“…In particular, Barbieri and Mahoney () affirm that farmer entrepreneurs who have diversified into tourism alone (on‐farm and farm‐diverse) are more motivated by a desire to create something or by a so‐called creative urge than they are by a need for additional income. On the other hand, barriers to the successful diversification of farms into tourism activities are diverse (Polo‐Peña, Olmo, Frías‐Jamilena, & Rodríguez‐Molina, ; Sharpley & Vass, ; Su, ; Vik & McElwee, ). First, farm tourism enterprises are small, with returns on significant investments being influenced by a highly seasonal market and by the “neighbourhood effects” of clusters of rural tourism enterprises.…”

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