Abstract
Sustainability competitions are widely used as soft governance instruments, yet organisational engagement varies considerably. This study explains this variation by examining managerial sensemaking. Drawing on interviews with senior managers from 16 European destinations, the study demonstrates that engagement is shaped by how tourist destination managers understand the purpose and relevance of competitions through identity-related interpretive logics that define what the organisation stands for, and thus its values and purpose. These logics determine whether competitions are treated as meaningful governance mechanisms or as marginal compliance or reputational exercises. We identify five sensemaking configurations that explain variation between substantive, learning-oriented engagement and selective or symbolic responses, and show that these configurations may shift over time as organisational experiences and contexts change.
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•Sustainability competitions elicit uneven engagement due to managerial sensemaking.•Competitions act as evaluative infrastructures shaping managerial attention.•Organisational identity shapes how competitions are interpreted and enacted.•Five sensemaking configurations explain varied sustainability engagement.