'Managing Rural Tourism Innovation Networks for Enhanced Firm Competitiveness.'

One dominant theme that continuously appears to emerge from national reports is that, in order for rural firms to surmount the detrimental effects of lost competitiveness, emphasis must be directed at the creation and management of innovation networks amongst rural companies (CAP Rural Development Plan, 2007-2013).  Convergent evidence from multiple disciplines has clearly demonstrated that innovation and networks essentially belong together for enhanced competitiveness (Hakansson and Ford, 2000). Indeed, the aim of a rural innovation network is to reduce uncertainty through cooperation with other rural stakeholders, with different competencies, in order to create new knowledge and firm competitiveness. Currently, the variables that impact on rural innovation networks have been identified (see Murdoch, 2000), but the development of a managerial model to maximise the involvement of rural stakeholders has not. Since prescription models detailing how rural tourism firms should develop and manage networked innovation are scarce, it is proposed to adopt a qualitative case study methodology that draws on the actual innovation management practices employed by a rural network and who have demonstrated best practice. The justification for adopting a case study approach is grounded in the belief that the type of research objectives posed by this study are exploratory and require a methodological approach that will allow disentanglement of a complex set of factors and their inter-relationships in order to understand the possible drivers and inhibitors in the development and management of rural tourism innovation networks. The outcome of the research will be a managerial model that should guide best practice in the area. Indeed, it maybe found that there are low levels of rural networking for innovation, which would have key policy implications for the use of partnering models and would provide an impetus for the use of the managerial model developed in the current research.