Open innovation in tourism micro-firms: evidence from the Italian Alps

This study examines the relationship between openness to external collaborations and innovation outcomes in tourism micro-firms, considering the variety of partners, the geographical outreach of the relationships, and the number of implemented innovation types. A quantitative analysis of tourism micro-firms located in the Italian Alps is complemented with rich qualitative evidence gathered through follow-up interviews. Our findings show that higher openness to external collaborations leads to a higher probability of introducing an innovation and to higher innovation performances. However, above a certain threshold, the returns from open innovation decrease as a firm's openness increases. This assumption does not hold when considering openness to national and international partners, which is positively and significantly related to innovation performance. The results suggest that the purposive management of external collaborations is a central issue for tourism entrepreneurs and highlight the positive role that intermediaries can play in facilitating such dynamics.