Risk Types and Coping Mechanisms for Ethical Tourism Entrepreneurs: A New Conceptual Framework

Risk is a widely accepted entrepreneurial construct and entrepreneurship is a key feature of the tourism industry. Yet, investigating types of risks and calls for research on ethical entrepreneurship in tourism have largely been neglected. This research provides an original contribution to academia about risk-types and subsequent coping mechanisms as faced by ethical tourism entrepreneurs. Using methods from Personal Construct Theory, 15 in-depth interviews with self-defined ethical tourism entrepreneurs were conducted. An existing consumer risk-framework (monetary, functional, social and psychological risk) provided a priori themes for analysis. Through constant comparison of data, different forms of intelligence (survival, system, emotional and spiritual) have emerged as coping mechanisms. These in vivo themes have been paired with risk-types to develop an original conceptual framework for risk faced by ethical tourism entrepreneurs. The implications of this framework are significant in providing support to nascent entrepreneurs, government start-up initiatives and entrepreneurial incubator programs.