Abstract
This study aims to critically understand the process of designing collective sustainability-oriented innovations (SOIs) in tourism destinations based on the city of Barcelona as a case study. The study explores how formal and informal institutions influence destination stakeholders' capacity to engage in collective actions to solve sustainability challenges through institutional innovation. The study implements a participatory action research approach to jointly co-create SOIs with the stakeholders by utilizing a novel combination of complexity science and design methods. To this end, a partnership with the City Council of Barcelona was established through its industry and civil society advisory board: Consell de Turisme i Ciutat. Data collection comprised three phases. The first phase included interviews with destination stakeholders to explore linkages between sustainability and innovation and assess the institutional environment. The second phase focused on a participatory system mapping workshop for stakeholders to visually represent the complexity of innovation and sustainability systems. The third phase was an SOI design workshop to collectively formulate SOIs for the destination. Data analysis followed a systematic examination of existing and co-created SOIs by combining the Four Levels of Social Analysis (FLSA) and the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework (IAD). This provides insights on how stakeholder’s conceptualization of sustainability and innovation affect the SOI process, SOI drivers and barriers in tourism destinations, SOI dilemmas, and business models of co-created SOIs. Further, underpinned in collective action and self-governance theories, findings are compared among the three data collection events to delve deep into stakeholders’ interactions of designing SOIs. This allows examining SOIs using the design principles of collective management systems applied to tourism. Findings highlight the importance of (i) allowing wide and democratic participation of public, private and civils sectors in SOIs, (ii) providing opportunities for stakeholders to design their own formal and informal rules through legitimized governance structures, (iii) considering responsible monitoring, graduated sanctions, and clear roles of stakeholders as part of SOI design, (iv) acknowledging legitimacy as a central factor to motivate collaboration and potential diffusion of SOIs, (v) highlighting the role of nurturing trust and reciprocity to diminish incentives to free-ride, and (vi) recognizing the need to develop management-oriented SOIs that embed a sustainability mindset in all types of stakeholders.