Entrepreneurship in Tourism: A Discussion on Successful Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Organizational Culture, and Customer Satisfaction

Programme:	Business & Tourism Management
Level:	Level 5	Module Title:	Entrepreneurship in Tourism
Modulecode:	BTM5EIT	Module leader/s:	Dr. Mojola Alabi
Assignment No:	1	Assignment Type:	Presentation–Group
Assignment weighting %:	100%	Assignment Word Count:(or equivalent)	4000
Summative Submission Due Date:	Monday, October 28th, 2024, 2pm
Penalties	All penalties that are listed at the end of this document in the Table of Penalties.

Student Names:

Introduction

The term business enterprise refers to an endeavour in which the primary objective is to generate profits rather than the mere employment of owners and other individuals (Blank and Dorf, 2020). However, Burns (2022) defined entrepreneurship as a range of activities performed by individuals to set up a business organisation by taking into account as the financial risks related to profit generation. This presentation aims at discussing entrepreneurship as well as the significance that entrepreneurship holds within the tourism field. On the other hand, the objectives of the presentation are conducting a discussion and evaluation of tourism as a development strategy within the UK context. Another objective is the attainment of entrepreneurship knowledge within the entrepreneurial journey. The objectives of the presentation also involve the determination of the influence that entrepreneurial innovation has on the tourism industry and observe the steps required for the attainment of strong organisational culture. In this presentation, the contents have been structured by starting with an evaluation of successful entrepreneur characteristics and innovation in tourism followed by discussion on organisational culture and leadership roles within organisational culture. Customer satisfaction and validation will be discussed at the end.

In the present situation of business all over the world, tourism is one of the leading and fastest growing sectors. As stated by Statista (2024a), the total market size identified for the tourism sector that operates all over the world enhanced by a value of 1.9 trillion USD in 2023 relative to 2022. As per forecasts, the total market size is going to undergo a further increase in the year 2024, thereby reaching a value of 2 trillion USD. One of the primary reasons due to which the tourism sector advancing and its total market size is increasing rapidly in tourism entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is indicating a huge level of support to the tourism sector’s growth while improving its economic development.

When it comes to the tourism sector, entrepreneurship is concerned with beginning a new business enterprise by accepting a range of risks. As opined by Solvoll, Alsos and Bulanova (2015), tourism entrepreneurs refer to the people who begin a new business enterprise, which provides tourism services and operates in the tourism sector. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are the two primary examples of entrepreneurs operating all over the world. Both these entrepreneurs possessed a public feud, which led them towards transforming the way in which people interact as well as share data and information. However, Stephen Kaufer and Langley Steinert are people who serve as examples for entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. In the year 2000, the two entrepreneurs collaborated for starting a tourism venture, which was named TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor is currently one of the world’s leading and most popular tourism businesses.

Case Study Summary

TripAdvisor is presently one of the most growing and popular companies operating in the tourism sector. The company provides a go-to platform for diverse sorts of tourists who have an interest in the comparison of tourist prices and reviews when they book best-in-class experiences (TripAdvisor, 2024). Stephen Kaufer and Langley Steinert are the entrepreneurs who were responsible for the starting of this tourism company. Both these entrepreneurs are gradates from the Harvard. The aim behind developing this tourism company was creating a central travel repository, which involves guidebook reviews. Analysing the journey that the two entrepreneurs undertook and the way in which the tourism company accomplished success enables in determining the characteristic features of the entrepreneurs. These features have led the tourism company towards accomplishing success.

On the contrary, a strong business model is observed on being present within the context of TripAdvisor. This business model concerns matching the demands that are made for travel by consumers who have diverse travel partners by offering services, which involve accommodation, food, transportation and others. TripAdvisor is presently one of the few most innovative entrepreneurial companies that have revolutionised planning for online travel. This is because this company introduced an entirely new business model, based on two core pillars, which involve traveller reviews and vertical search engine. The two core pillars enable this company in terms of extending a social experience to all customers.

Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are of different types. However, not all entrepreneurs are successful. Successful entrepreneurs have certain distinct characteristics. In this context, Mat et al. (2020) stated that risk-taking is a primary characteristic present in all successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs take into account diverse kinds of risks so that they can ensure effective performance of their venture and accomplish success. This characteristic existing in successful entrepreneurs enables them to accomplish success and overcome failures by choosing risky opportunities. The approach adopted by successful entrepreneurs towards the handling and management of risks is usually differentiated. However, there is a readiness identified within them in terms of investing time and funds towards different risky affairs by keeping a backup plan in hand.

As opined by Hastuti (2020), vision is yet another primary characteristic present in all successful entrepreneurs. To reach what an entrepreneur wants to accomplish, vision is essential. It enables them to accomplish their aims and objectives. This vision serves as a compass, which ensures that business ventures can point out the direction towards the accomplishment of opportunities that no one has been able to accomplish until now. However, innovation is also an important characteristic present in all successful entrepreneurs. Whenever innovation is present in entrepreneurs, they are able to create new business ideas that can help in generating profits. This can be proved through the Drucker’s entrepreneurship theory. According to Kurpayanidi (2021), this theory highlights the roles that innovation has in entrepreneurship. The theory highlights seven fundamental sources of innovative opportunities in organisations, which are –

• The unexpected – All kinds of unexpected failures, success and external events can prove to be the symptom of unique opportunities.

• The incongruity – Innovative opportunities are developed due to the differences occurring in between the reality and what had been assumed or in between the reality and the results supposed.

• New knowledge – Creation of new markets and products due to advancements in scientific as well as non-scientific knowledge.

• Demographics – Determination of innovative opportunities due to factors such as changing age structure, changing consumption and population along with changing income, education and employment levels.

• Changes in the market or industry structure – Occurrence of opportunities are created for innovative products, services and approaches whenever there is shift in the market or industry’s foundation.

• Innovation depending on process needs – Opportunities available are determined for individuals who aim to supply the links that are missing between available opportunities and things needed to be done to avail the opportunities.

• Changes in mood, meaning and perception – Creation of innovative opportunities take place whenever changes take place in societal attitudes, assumptions and beliefs.

However, there are five main principles on which this theory are based, which are the following –

• Starting with opportunity analysis

• Analysing opportunities to determine people’s interest towards innovation

• Innovation should be simple but clearly focused

• Focusing on market leadership

• Efficient innovation generally begins from a small size

Applying this theory turns to be helpful for summarising that innovation is one the main characteristic traits present in entrepreneurs. Due to this, apart from risk-taking and vision, innovation is a primary characteristic that makes entrepreneurs successful. All the theories and characteristics that can be observed for entrepreneurship can be linked easily with Stephen Kaufer and Langley Steinert, the entrepreneurs of TripAdvisor. Vision of the entrepreneurs can be identified since both of them started the tourism company with the aim of making it a central travel repository consisting millions of guidebook reviews. Risk-taking is another characteristic in them as they identified the needs of tourists for crowdfunded reviews and took the risk of introducing such reviews in the company.

However, innovation is the most significant characteristic determined in the two entrepreneurs. It is because these entrepreneurs led to the introduction of two entirely new concepts within the tourism sector, one of which is traveller reviews and another one is vertical search engine. Drucker’s entrepreneurship theory also proves the existence of innovation in the two entrepreneurs. It is because the two entrepreneurs determined that there is great opportunity for using expert reviews to help individuals in planning their travel, based on which they started TripAdvisor. However, as and when they identified that online reviews attract tourists to plan their travel, the entrepreneurs expanded and changed its concept. They constantly kept evolving and expanding, thereby revolutionising the entire travel planning concept and accomplishing market leadership.

Innovation in Tourism

Stephen Kaufer and Langley Steinert, the two entrepreneurs of TripAdvisor, helped in determining in the context of tourism entrepreneurship, innovation is an important element. According to Morrison, Rimmington and Williams (2016), entrepreneurial innovation is indicated as a practice followed in companies for developing diverse kinds of new ideas for business along with business plans. All these new ideas and plans for business are developed with motives such as attainment of business goals, generation of profits and providing aids to the community. Entrepreneurial innovation also consists of process through which business ideas can be altered to solutions through which different real-life issues and problems can be addressed. It is also concerned with the use of different kinds of opportunities.

In this context, Walmsley (2019) opined that innovation and entrepreneurship are currently the two most relevant factors identified within the context of tourism. An impeccable role is also seen within the continuous success and development of the entire tourism sector regionally as well as internationally. In the tourism sector, innovation is leading to the improvement of tourism services as well as tourist experiences through the continuous adaptation of innovative strategies. Innovation is also turning out to be advantageous and important in terms of improving customer experiences and responding to the change in their needs. In this industry, entrepreneurial innovation provides allowance to tourism companies so that costs can be kept down and competitive edge can be accomplished and maintained.

There are different examples of tourism innovation. For example, providing allowance to travellers and tourists all over the globe for booking accommodation facilities, transportation tickets, cabs and other digital platforms for booking is a primary example of innovation in tourism. Similarly, virtual tours are now being organised for tourists. This innovation helps in the simulation of an existing location for tourists in any part of the world via videos and images. AI-driven customer service is also a key innovation within the tourism sector. It helps tourism companies to extend highly personalised services to customers. Innovative entrepreneurial businesses that operate in the tourism sector are leading to a generation of huge income for the sector. This is because these innovative entrepreneurial businesses are leading to the improvement of customer satisfaction through extension of personalised customer experiences. These businesses also show great contribution towards the sustainability, competitiveness and growth of tourist destinations and businesses.

On the other hand, technological advancements taking place within the tourism sector are backed by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs help in the determination of diverse new approaches in the tourism sector that help in the development of innovative products and business models so that existing issues can be resolved. However, innovation within the tourism sector is also driven by consumer trends. All these trends are helpful for the identification and capitalisation of the unmet needs of the society along with the changes occurring in the marketplace. In the tourism sector, Airbnb is one of the main examples of innovative entrepreneurial ventures. Established in the year 2008, Airbnb revolutionised the entire tourism sector by introducing an entirely new concept for accommodation. It led to the introduction of a new platform from which tourists can book their stay at home properties. These properties largely replaced the stay that tourists made at hotels and helped in cutting down their accommodation costs as well. Airbnb offers affordable as well as comfortable experiences and it is an example showing the manner in which consumer trends has an influence on innovation.

TripAdvisor is also a primary example of entrepreneurial innovation. It is considered as one of the most important examples of entrepreneurial innovation within tourism since it led to the revolution of the entire concept of travel planning. Moreover, it led to the introduction of two entirely new concepts within the tourism sector, one of which is traveller reviews and another one is vertical search engine. However, TripAdvisor is an example of showing the manner in which technological advancement has an influence on innovation. Hence, it can be recognised that entrepreneurial innovation has led to a positive influence on the tourism sector and has ended up benefitting both the sector and tourists.

Organisational Culture

There are different kinds of factors on which entrepreneurial success is dependent. As opined by Tran (2021), one of the most significant factors contributing to entrepreneurial success is organisational culture. The culture of an organisation is important since it has an influence on all its staff members. According to Oriade et al. (2021), organisational culture can be defined as the particular set of rules, beliefs, attitudes and systems followed in companies, which not only influence but also outline the attitude and behaviour of their staff. Organisational culture has a significant influence on the manner in which employees, vendors, customers, suppliers and all stakeholder groups have an experience of being related to a company and its brand.

In this context, Cherian et al. (2021) opined that a positive and strong organisational culture is important within companies because it is helpful in the maintenance of an alignment of the behaviours of staff members. Besides this, a positive and strong organisational culture is needed within companies, especially entrepreneurial ventures, for the maintenance of a positive influence over staff. As mentioned by Paais and Pattiruhu (2020), there cannot be an understatement of the importance that organisational culture holds within an organisation. For instance, within the context of TripAdvisor, a positive and strong organisational culture is needed and essential for the maintenance of good employee retention and improvement of staff engagement. This is because such an organisational culture keeps staff members motivated and ensures that they care towards their work. A cohesive workforce is also created due to a positive and strong organisational culture. In this manner, a positive and strong organisational culture contributes considerably to organisational success.

However, there are different kinds or categories into which organisational culture can be divided. As stated by Kotková St?íteská and Sein (2021), performance-driven organisational culture is a specific kind of organisational culture. In this type of a culture, there is an organisational environment created, which is beneficial for encouraging better performance, achievement as well as productivity in companies. Such an organisational culture also maintains a focus on factors that involve willingness to adapt to new patterns of work, accountability and results. For example, Zappos is a real-life company wherein a performance-driven organisational culture exists. This kind of a culture is followed and maintained in the company through being focused on customers as well as customer experiences. It provides freedom to staff members for the extension of exceptional services to customers without usage of any script. This company and its culture is promoted in the industry through the holacracy that the company uses as an alternate form of organisational structure. The structure allows staff members to choose their own roles and make decisions accordingly.

Similarly, Netflix is another real-life company wherein a performance-driven organisational culture exists. This culture is seen in the organisation since its leaders and staff members are considered as adults who are provided with incentives and rewards, for example, unlimited paid holidays. It helps the company to ascertain the best performance of staff members. This company and its culture are promoted in the industry by providing both freedom and responsibilities to staff members present in the workplace. However, Google is another real-life company wherein a performance-driven organisational culture exists. Google is popular all over the world due to its various kinds of incentives and rewards offered to staff members depending on their performance. It provides innovative benefits and its staff members are offered with cash bonuses, meals and vacations. This company and its culture is promoted in the industry through its culture and image of supporting change and encouraging the existence of openness between staff members.

On the other hand, Hubspot is another real-life company wherein a performance-driven organisational culture exists. The culture existing in this company is defined as HEART – Humble, Empathetic, Adaptable, Remarkable and Transparent. In this company, there is not just a placing of trust on staff members but they are also held responsible for its performance and growth. This company and its culture is promoted in the industry based on its workforce consisting of growth-minded and amazing people with values of judging and solving customer issues. Apart from all these companies, TripAdvisor is the real-life company in the tourism sector wherein a performance-driven organisational culture exists. This company and its leadership team are extremely focused on providing employees different kinds of benefits, rewards as well as compensations. It also provides its staff members with diverse happiness categories so that a positive culture can be developed and all of them can be kept happy. This company and its culture are promoted in the industry depending on various elements, which involve transparency, development and collaboration.

Role of Leaders in Organisational Culture

The importance of good organisational culture in tourism companies such as TripAdvisor could be identified. However, for accomplishing a positive and strong organisational culture, leadership has huge significance. As opined by Oh and Han (2020), leadership is one of the main factors underlying in the accomplishment of a positive and strong organisational culture. The leaders working in a company are the individuals who hold the responsibility of improving as well as shaping the culture existing in the workplace. However, for maintenance and creation of a positive and strong organisational culture, the following are the primary steps that need to be taken –

• Defining the organisational strategy

• Determining the present organisational culture

• Identifying the areas for improvement

• Creating an action plan

• Measuring organisational progress

• Ensuring regular re-evaluations

The different types of discussions, which have been conducted in the class, helped in identifying the above steps taken by leaders. Leaders also show a pivotal role in terms of the definition of an organisation’s strategy and creation of an idea regarding its present organisational culture. Another important role identified on being played by leaders are making progress depending on the action plans developed while re-evaluating organisational progress and performance regularly. Moreover, leaders also have a key role in terms of determining areas for improvement and creating appropriate action plans. Practical experiences of working in real-life organisations help in the determination of the fact all these steps are essential for maintenance of a positive and strong organisational culture.

Cisco and PepsiCo are the two primary examples of companies wherein leaders have an impeccable role in terms of developing and shaping organisational culture. The company Cisco has a great organisational culture with strong leadership roles and activities. Leaders working in this company help in the creation of a cultural experience, which encourages its employees in interacting with one another, which helps to ensure employee satisfaction and boost employee productivity. The leaders of the company also acknowledge the strengths of employees, thereby developing fully engaged and high-performing teams. Contrastingly, PepsiCo is one of the most popular companies in the world based on its leadership roles and strong culture of quality, loyalty, respect and transparency. All leaders working in this company ensure that its employees are closely tied to the company’s culture. This culture of quality, loyalty, respect and transparency has enabled the company in terms of taking down all false claims against it in the market while maintaining a leading position in the industry.

Customers Satisfaction and Validation

According to Hochstein et al. (2020), customers are one of the key factors that lead companies towards the accomplishment of success, as they drive revenues, provide feedback, influence others, develop loyalty and create competitive edge. However, for maintaining a good customer base, customer satisfaction and validation is essential. As stated by Ginting et al. (2023), customer satisfaction indicates the measurement of the happiness present in the customers of a company regarding its products, services along with capabilities. Contrastingly, Nulab (2024) defined customer validation as a sort of process that is concerned with testing the products and services of a company. To ensure customer satisfaction, customer validation is largely important. It considerably assists in terms of addressing all the needs and expectations of customers while influencing the company’s decisions regarding the process of product development. Customer validation is also helpful for the avoidance of product development for which there is no existence of any market need.

The decisions that are made within the context of TripAdvisor are considerably affected because of customer validation. For instance, customer validation is utilised within this company to make strategic decisions regarding product or service development, market penetration, changing business models and cost optimisation. It is also used for making a range of data-driven decisions in the company for the development of new services, which enhances user experience and creates customer loyalty. Customer validation is also advantageous for the company to move forward within its product development cycle. In such a manner, different types of important decisions in TripAdvisor are made through customer validation. This is because customer validation leads to the identification of pain points and problems of the company and recognition of suitable solutions. The insights gained from the company’s management due to the customer validation process turns out being helpful for the development of new services for tourists in addition to iteration of services.

However, other than customer validation, the tourism sector also shows huge significance of customer reviews. As stated by Kamisa, Putri and Novita (2022), customer reviews indicate the opinions of customers posted by them on the internet related to a company and its different kinds of offerings. At TripAdvisor, there is a usage of customer reviews for determining the customers of a company and their various kinds of unmet needs. Considering customer reviews also enables this company to make decisions regarding how its goods and services can be adjusted so that customer expectations can be addressed. Apart from this, reviews turn out being a validation for the services provided by the organisation via determination of areas for improvement and services through which customers’ unmet needs can be met. TripAdvisor follows the six key steps mentioned below for the improvement of its customer feedback –

• Collecting feedback

• Analysing feedback

• Involving all customers

• Making providing feedback easy

• Efficiently acting on feedback

• Developing trust

In various websites such as Trustpilot, there are various examples available on customer feedback regarding TripAdvisor. Recently, Dawn Fritz, a customer of TripAdvisor has provided a feedback regarding the tourism company with a 5 star rating. According to TrustPilot (2024), this customer has mentioned that the company organises fabulous and incredible tours. In this website, highest reference is provided to this tour agency and its guides. This kind of high rate and positive customer feedback is helpful for determining TripAdvisor as a tourism company or brand has a positive and strong reputation.

Conclusion

Therefore, the discussions, which have been conducted in the presentation, assist in realising that in the present scenario, entrepreneurship has huge significance within the tourism sector. Risk taking, vision and innovation could be recognised as the most important characteristics present in the two entrepreneurs of the company TripAdvisor. Stephen Kaufer and Langley Steinert could be determined as successful tourism entrepreneurs and innovation was identified as a significant factor within the tourism sector. Other than this, organisational culture was determined as a significant element contributing towards the leadership and success of a company. The usefulness and importance of customer satisfaction and validation to the company TripAdvisor could be determined as well.

In this group presentation, there are four group members. However, all the four group members are four different kinds or categories of tourists. For instance, Group Member 1 is a sustainable or green tourist whereas Group Member 2 is a sports tourist and does not have interest in sustainable tourism. Contrastingly, Group Member 3 is a kind of cultural tourist whereas Group Member 4 is an adventure tourist. This presentation assignment has turned out to be extremely helpful in the accomplishment of a practical understanding regarding the theoretical concepts present within tourism entrepreneurship. The findings also seemed interesting, as it helped in learning diverse entrepreneurial skills, traits and theories such as risk taking, vision, innovation, Drucker’s entrepreneurship theory and leadership roles in organisational culture.

Reference List

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Presentation Script

Group Members	Speaking parts
Group Member 1	Briefing before the presentation, Introduction and Case Study Summary
Group Member 2	Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs
Group Member 3	Innovation in Tourism and Organisational Culture
Group Member 4	Role of Leaders in Organisational Culture, Customers Satisfaction and Validation and Conclusion

Appendix 2: PPT slides