The salience of external knowledge, leadership and action in the knowledge management life cycle of nature-based tourism operators

Submission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy to the La Trobe Business School, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

Knowledge Management (KM) in an environmental sustainability context is an under researched area within the expanding and increasingly overlapping fields of KM, Environmental Studies and Tourism. This PhD thesis investigates environmental sustainability knowledge and its management within the tourism industries of Australia, Malaysia and Thailand. The research considers the environmentally sustainable roles of nature-based tourism operators (NTOs). Environmental Sustainability Knowledge management is a core competency of NTOs due to their dependencies on the quality of the natural environments in which they operate. KM in an environmental sustainability context enables NTOs build a knowledge base about the natural environments in which they operate. It further enables them to leverage their environmental sustainability knowledge to magnify environmental sustainability, business sustainability and, by reasoned action to educate staff, customers and communities. This thesis articulates a conceptual framework for environmental sustainability knowledge and its management in tourism as underpinned by the knowledge-based view of the firm and the KM Life Cycle. A comprehensive KM Life Cycle supported by ‘systems thinking’ has been developed and tested to further existing theories on KM Life Cycle. This approach then reveals the environmental, organisational and societal impacts of the hitherto uninvestigated integration of “External Knowledge”, “Leadership” and “Action” on the overall sustainability of the business models of NTOs. A sample of NTOs in Australia, Malaysia and Thailand were investigated to analyse how they manage their environmental sustainability knowledge. Empirical data was collected through in-depth interviews of sixteen senior executives and their key staff, field observations and analysis of company documents as well as artefacts. This generated a large body of data that enabled a detailed analysis of the KM Life Cycle by incorporating the KM enablers of environmental sustainability within the conceptual framework against which the ten case studies were examined. Based on the findings, this research successfully demonstrates how environmental sustainability knowledge is created, captured, shared and applied by effectively synchronising (1) External Knowledge (Knowledge generated from outside organisations: governments and agencies); (2) Leadership (Environmental sustainability advocates and business leaders driven by environmental sustainability); and (3) Action (Inhouse environmental sustainability projects). The essence of this thesis in the current era of increasing environmental awareness and Climate Change contributes to the body of knowledge in the fields of KM and tourism in the following two areas: (1) the criticality of environmental sustainability knowledge as an organisational resource that enables NTOs implement environmental sustainability strategies and operate successfully (2) a KM Life Cycle of environmental sustainability can potentially generate a multiplier effect on the effectiveness of environmental sustainability strategies of NTOs and firms in other industries.