Entrepreneurial intentions toward sustainable growth: The case of micro, small, and medium tourism establishments

Sustainable entrepreneurship has become one of the most important issues today especially in the case of tourism industries, as they are considered as the direct utilizers and benefactors of not only the economic, but the environmental and social environment as well. Meanwhile, entrepreneurial intention has shown to explain the entrepreneurial behavior. It is therefore imperative to look into the intention of the tourism establishments towards their sustainable growth. The literature is replete in the studies on entrepreneurial intention though this study sought to view intention not just in terms of start-up but on sustainable growth of the firms by using the Triple Bottom Line, and incorporated the perceived desirability and feasibility as probable antecedents of intention, while considering firm innovativeness as having a moderating effect. Anchored on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the primary objective of the study is to determine what drives the entrepreneurs, particularly those involved in small tourism enterprises, to intend towards sustainable growth for their business. The data gathered was analyzed through hierarchical regression.Results showed that the tourism establishment owners find the province moderately desirable and feasible for sustainable growth. Cognitive profile was found to be the least to contribute to their desirability while they perceived themselves as most effective in financial control. Majority of the firms have practices firm innovativeness. The owners were found to be moderately intending towards overall sustainable growth, as well as economic, social and environmental sustainability. The results further revealed that the owners were most likely intending towards environmental sustainability and least likely towards social sustainability.Perceived desirability and perceived feasibility as a whole was found a significant factor in the owners sustainability intentions. However, when taken individually, in terms of perceived desirability, overall sustainability and economic sustainability intentions are explained by the owners perception of cognitive profiles, social sustainability intention is affected by the owners perception of normative profile, while environmental sustainability intention is affected by their perception of cognitive profile. For the perceived feasibility, overall sustainability intention can be explained by innovation and financial control while both the economic and the social sustainability intention is affected by financial control only. On the other hand, environmental sustainability intention can be explained by marketing, innovation, and financial control. Only the financial control was found significant across all the perceived feasibility dimensions. It was also found that firm innovativeness as a whole does not moderate perceived desirability, feasibility and intentions, however, specific types of firm innovativeness were found to have moderating effects.Considering the results, it is recommended that government entities and policy makers concerned should design programs that could help in improving the tourism industry, not just in the locale, but in the other parts of the country as well, especially those involved in rural tourism. It is also recommended that policymakers should also emphasize the sustainable development policies that will shape the specific programs of the government and various entities involve which is particularly true not just for the national level but for the local government units as well. Furthermore, it is recommended that the micro, small, and medium tourism establishments realign their strategies and include sustainable development as an integral aspect of their operations. Along this line, it is recommended that the tourism establishments be able to balance their inclination towards sustainable growth and also focus on economic aspects of sustainable growth and in protecting the local culture and the employee welfare as well