Sharing Knowledge is Sharing Power : A case study on inter-organizational knowledge transfer within a destination

Abstract: The key to an organization's long-term success is a sustainable competitive advantage. In a global market characterized by fierce competition, organizations differentiate themselves no longer through their competitive position or technological or human resources but through knowledge. Such a decisive economic resource needs to be managed, giving rise to the theory of Knowledge Management (KM). Because knowledge is created and shared through social interactions, knowledge transfer is the most critical part of KM. Especially in tourist destinations, the diversity of stakeholders, each with unique skills and knowledge, represents great opportunities for innovation and the sustainable development of destinations but also great challenges. Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are responsible to maintain the attractiveness of a destination by encouraging competing and complementary organizations to collaborate to exchange knowledge. Ultimately, the tourist experience and image of a destination are created interdependently by the tourism stakeholders. By conducting a case study in the destination of Kalmar, this paper aimed to explain to what extent a DMO manages inter-organizational knowledge transfer within a tourist destination. An explanatory sequence was used to gather primary data in three steps. First, a survey was conducted with local tourism stakeholders. Then, the local DMO and the university were interviewed. The data collected from 32 local tourism stakeholders suggest that tourism stakeholders, primarily SMEs, are lacking the resources to engage in knowledge transfer and overlook the value of external sources of knowledge. The findings of the interviews point to that there is a need to support tourism stakeholders with digitalization, to encourage tourism stakeholders to join a destination network and to close the knowledge gap through research produced by universities. This study contributes to gaining a broader understanding of the opportunities and challenges of inter-organizational knowledge transfer within the destination of Kalmar.