Measuring innovation in tourism with Community Innovation Survey: a first step towards a more valid innovation instruments.

ABSTRACT

Researchers require more innovation surveys in tourism, but have pointed out the deficient quantitative instruments used to measure this innovation. They have questioned whether hidden innovation may explain the low innovation rates in the tourism industry. Two tourism surveys have been conducted in Norway recently. One uses the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) to measure innovation and the other a modified CIS instrument. The surveys produce quite different results. The CIS survey shows low innovation rates and the modified survey shows high innovation rates, which highlights the need for more research on the use of the CIS in tourism research. The purpose of this study is to explore and identify how the CIS can be improved and be a more valid instrument for measuring innovation in tourism. Senior managers and department managers from different tourism businesses were interviewed after having completed the CIS survey. The findings indicate that the CIS is too concerned with R&D and technology, and does not capture important innovation in relation to service characteristics. In addition, the terminology and the categorization of four innovation types might distract and confuse the respondents. Furthermore, the survey lacks procedures for capturing all innovations developed at the departmental level within the companies. Thus, the findings indicate that parts of significant innovation are hidden. The article contributes with several suggestions regarding how the CIS can be improved in a more integrative direction, and concludes that the CIS should not be dismissed as an instrument for measuring innovation, but rather should be improved.

KEYWORDS:

• Innovation in tourism
• community innovation survey (CIS)
• “hidden” innovation
• innovation iceberg

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor and Supervisor Martin Rønningen for careful feedback, supervision and collaboration through the working process. The article is a part of the PhD thesis “Measurement and Management of Innovation in Tourism.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.