A systematic mapping study on tourism business networks

Purpose: This study aims at characterizing and identifying the existing research on tourism business networks. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a systematic mapping study to identify and analyze related literature. They identified 225 primary studies, dated from 1997-2016, and classified them with respect to research focus, types of research and contribution. Findings: Seventy four studies were identified and mapped, synthesizing the available evidence on tourism business networks. “Business networks” with 27 articles is the dominant research focus and “Network configuration” with 22 articles is the next dominant one. Regarding the research type, “Solution proposal” is the most frequently used research type. “Interview” and “Case study”, respectively, were the most used research methods. However, “Agent-based modeling”, “Delphi study” and “Non-linear time series analysis” were used less often. “Philosophical paper” was the most common research type between 1997 and 2002, and after that “Solution proposal” was the dominant research paper type. Further, the number of publications has declined between 2012 and 2014. Originality/value: This mapping study provides the first systematic exploration of the state-of-art on tourism business networks research. The existing body of knowledge is limited to a few high quality studies.