A Study On The Capital Configuration Effect Of Tourism Entrepreneurship In Rural Destinations

Entrepreneurship is a process of integrating resources and identifying and exploiting opportunities to create a business.As an important socioeconomic phenomenon,entrepreneurship has become a key driver of economic development.Capital is an important resource for entrepreneurs to start enterprises and promote the sustainable development of enterprises.The tourism and hospitality industry has been a fertile ground for entrepreneurial business.In the context of rural revitalization strategy,an important national strategy to promote rural development,more rural residents are actively participating in the entrepreneurial boom.Tourism entrepreneurship has become an important path to realizing the recovery and development of rural economy.A thorough understanding of tourism entrepreneurship in rural destinations has become an important research topic that needs to be strengthened.At present,research has deeply explored the capital factors that affect tourism entrepreneurship,the existing research mainly focuses on the independent effects of factors influencing tourism entrepreneurship,which limits the understanding of the synergistic configuration effect among multiple factors.Therefore,based on the capital framework,this study summarizes the factors that affect tourism entrepreneurship in rural destinations into seven capital factors,human capital,natural capital,physical capital,financial capital,social capital,political capital and psychological capital.In order to explore the impact mechanism of synergistic effect and interaction relationship between different types of capital on tourism entrepreneurship in rural destinations,an indicator system was designed to measure the capital of rural tourism enterprises.Eight rural destinations which are adjacent to the Laoshan Scenic Area were selected as the study sites,and data were collected by surveying the owners of tourism enterprises in the region.Finally,140 valid questionnaires were collected and the capital allocation model of rural destination tourism entrepreneurs was established by using the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA).The study found four capital configurations,and drew the following conclusions between multiple configurations:(1)this paper revealed four capital configurations that promote tourism entrepreneurship in rural destinations,reflecting the multiple paths of rural tourism entrepreneurship.(2)All investigated capital factors to be relevant to tourism entrepreneurship,any single capital factor is neither necessary nor sufficient condition to promote tourism entrepreneurship,but they can only result in tourism entrepreneurship when combined.(3)All the four configurations that facilitated rural tourism entrepreneurship included human and physical capitals,indicating that the human capital,as well as the physical resources owned by entrepreneurs,is key to tourism entrepreneurship.(4)Under certain circumstances,there is a substitutive relationship between financial capital and political capital of rural tourism entrepreneurs.Our findings provide a guideline for evaluating the entrepreneurial potential and possibility of tourism entrepreneurship in rural destinations,and deepened the understanding of the factors influencing tourism entrepreneurship using the capital framework.These findings provide several practical implications:(1)entrepreneurs and governments recognize that there are multiple ways to promote tourism entrepreneurship in rural destinations.The lack of a single capital/resource does not shackle tourism entrepreneurship.(2)This study revealed that the success of tourism entrepreneurship depends on the entrepreneur ’ s ability to combine the various forms of capital and resources.Governments and entrepreneurs must shift their focus from a single capital perspective to a holistic one that considers the synergy between multiple capital forms.(3)under the circumstance of limited venture capital and resources,local managers should give priority support to human capital and physical capital.Managers can improve the capabilities of rural entrepreneurs through entrepreneurial education and skills training.At the same time,managers should improve and enhance the level of physical resources for entrepreneurship through policy support.(4)Financial capital is an important initial resource to carry out entrepreneurial activities,but in most cases the initial funds of entrepreneurs are not sufficient,so the government departments can relax the credit conditions by formulating favorable policies to improve the opportunities for entrepreneurs to obtain entrepreneurial funds.