A realist evaluation on SMEs in sustainable tourism: how can the socialization of learning re-shape

旅游业占全球碳排放量的8%，是全球增长最快的行业之一，预计每年增长4%。2013年，欧盟委员会启动了可持续目的地管理的欧洲旅游指标体系（ETIS），这是欧洲2020战略的一部分，但直到最近，一些城市才将可持续发展指标作为评估其绩效和为决策提供信息的工具。即便如此，地方机构或机构也没有仔细评估或分享这些行动的结果。鉴于对旅游中小企业项目实际评价的研究有限，本研究将对知识作出宝贵贡献。本研究选择的案例研究是巴塞罗那省，那里的超地方政府Diputació de Barcelona （DIBA）最近推出了一项“可持续发展承诺”计划，该计划涉及约500家小型旅游公司，根据其地理位置分为11个集群。本研究的总体目标是从政府干预导致的组织学习和行为改变的角度调查当地中小企业参与可持续发展实践的情况。

Tourism is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions, it is one of the fastest growing sectors worldwide and it is forecasted to grow by 4% annually. In 2013 the European Commission launched the European Tourism Indicator System for sustainable destination management (ETIS), which forms part of the Europe 2020 Strategy, however only recently have a number of cities introduced sustainability indicators as a tool to evaluate their performance and to inform policy-making. Even so, local bodies or institutions have not meticulously assessed nor shared the results of such actions. Given the limited studies on actual evaluation of projects that have been carried out in tourism small and medium 4 / 15 enterprises (SMEs), this research will make a valuable contribution to knowledge.The case study chosen for this research is the province of Barcelona, where the supra-local government, Diputació de Barcelona (DIBA), recently introduced a "Sustainability Commitment" programme which involves about 500 small tourism firms grouped in 11 clusters based on their geographical location. The overall objective of this study is to investigate local SMEs' engagement with sustainability practices from the point of view of organisational learning and behaviour change as a result of government interventions.