Abstract
Originality is an important goal of research. However, relatively little is known about
the characteristics and motivations of individual researchers or about the facilitating or
hindering factors that, in combination, can lead to original research outputs; a gap this study
aims to fill. Interviews with twenty highly original academics (identified by their peers) active
in the field of tourism identify four shared main traits amongst such researchers –
nonconformism, commitment, self-confidence and interdisciplinarity – and the importance of
situational factors. The findings also show that there is no single optimum way of “becoming
original” and, therefore, efforts to “replicate” originality may constrain rather than enable
originality. From a managerial perspective, this suggests that it is easier to remove barriers
than to positively facilitate original research