Sustained Competitive Advantage for Sustainable Hospitality and Tourism Development: A Stakeholder Causal Scope Analysis

Abstract

The hospitality and tourism industry “presents challenges that need to be addressed, including how to manage their growth sustainably, so as not to dimin-ish its potential” which solicits the “need to move toward more sustainable prac-tices” (World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], 2017. The call for papers for this special issue was received with much enthusiasm, as illustrated by the large number of submissions covering a wide range of topics on the interface of hospitality and tourism, stakeholder engagement and sustainability. Accordingly, papers accepted for inclusion in this special issue represent the diversity of submissions, with each making a unique contribution to the existing knowledge base.To start with, Fang, Nguyyen, and Armstrong strive to initiate a conversation on how the collective leadership capacity can assist in balancing the economic needs of a destination with the environmental and social goals. By drawing on leadership and tourism literature, their findings show that tourism-based leadership programs have the capacity to initiate the development of collective leadership capacity, a necessary element for building effective stakeholder net-works that drive change at tourism destination, workplace, and community levels.Vrontis et examined how the business model of the tourism sector that is used in Italy’s Langhe region is aligned to the promotion of a “sustained, inclu-sive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and