Entrepreneurial tourism activities are strongly embedded in their regional context. The causes behind the imitative behaviors of start-up tourism small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs) are complicated and need further exploration. This study aims to identify causal configurations of tourism SMEs’ imitative entrepreneurship to address the core question: "Why do start-up tourism SMEs imitate?" by employing a mixed-methods approach. Qualitative data were gathered via in-depth interviews of 25 tourism entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that the imitative entrepreneurship of start-up tourism SMEs can be influenced by individual, organizational, and environmental factors, including entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial learning, entrepreneurial strategy, environmental competitiveness, environmental dynamics, and industrial development. We obtained quantitative data through a questionnaire survey (n = 77) targeting tourism SMEs for configuration analysis. The results of the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) reveal that the configuration paths of imitative entrepreneurship in tourism SMEs can be classified as market-driven, cost-driven, or inertia-driven. Our findings have theoretical and practical implications for the development of tourism start-up SMEs.

中文翻译：

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创业旅游中小企业为什么要模仿？混合方法研究设计


创业旅游活动深深植根于其区域环境中。初创旅游中小企业 （SME） 模仿行为背后的原因很复杂，需要进一步探索。本研究旨在确定旅游中小企业模仿创业的因果关系，以通过采用混合方法解决核心问题：“为什么初创旅游中小企业会模仿？通过对 25 位旅游企业家的深入访谈收集了定性数据。研究结果表明，初创旅游中小企业的模仿创业会受到个人、组织和环境因素的影响，包括创业动机、创业学习、创业战略、环境竞争力、环境动态和工业发展。我们通过针对旅游中小企业的问卷调查 （n = 77） 获得定量数据以进行配置分析。模糊集定性比较分析 （fsQCA） 的结果表明，旅游中小企业模仿创业的配置路径可分为市场驱动、成本驱动或惯性驱动。我们的研究结果对旅游初创企业的发展具有理论和实践意义。