Knowledge sharing between academic researchers and tourism practitioners: a Japanese study of the practical value of embeddedness, trust and co-creation

ABSTRACT

Nature-based tourism (NBT) practitioners urgently need to develop more and better quality products through including the findings of tourism and other scientific researchers. However, in many cases, NBT enterprises do not have enough resources to invest in building a sustainable relationship with such researchers. This paper reports on the long-term involvement of university researchers in value co-creation – producing a new value in tourist experiences – jointly with tourism practitioners, encouraging significant and innovative NBT outcomes. It articulates how knowledge sharing was achievable between these parties in their shared practices, focusing on the importance of tacit knowledge sharing. A case study approach was complemented by long-term monitoring from 2011 to 2015; data was collected by interview and participant observation and qualitatively analysed. The results vividly depict that the key factor for effective tacit knowledge sharing and long-term co-creation is largely related to embeddedness, and also to trust, long-term partnerships, and the creation of win-win situations for all sides. Although limited to one set of actors and one socio-cultural context, one Japanese university and one enterprise, this study pioneers empirical research on the relationships between co-creation, knowledge sharing, and embeddedness in sustainable tourism that could be replicated in other situations.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge sharing
• tacit knowledge
• co-creation
• nature-based tourism (NBT)
• embeddedness

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to GSES and HRT members who helped the authors collect data during the research, and also to thank Assistant Professor Gregory Trencher for his insightful comments and Taylor Bearden for proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yukari Higuchi

Yukari Higuchi is a doctoral student in GSES at Hokkaido University, Japan. She obtained her MS from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, USA.

Yasuhiro Yamanaka

Yasuhiro Yamanaka is the director of the Centre for Sustainable Science in Hokkaido University and the vice-representative of the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development acknowledged by United Nations University. His research interests include environmental education, sustainable tourism, and numerical simulation of marine biogeochemical cycles.