Orchestrating innovation networks in e-tourism: A case study

In the traditional perspective of industrial policy, technology becomes the main driver for economic innovation. Innovation-Networks literature, while rich in descriptions of innovation dynamics and typologies, is mostly technology focused. A recent and growing literature sees how non-technological innovations are becoming crucial (for instance, learning by doing) and the tourism sector is not an exception in this regard. Non-technological innovations in services can also arise from investment in intangible inputs (for example, strategic networking). The aim of this paper is to analyze the innovation processes in e-Tourism driven by networking processes. It shows that e-Tourism innovation networks, although composed of micro-firms, can exert international reach, to the extent that intra-network peer coaching and Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) play a key role in innovation transfer to SMEs.