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2023/2024  AO-ASTHV1012U  Collaborative Business Models in Tourism and Hospitality

English Title
Collaborative Business Models in Tourism and Hospitality

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Master
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Third Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
AO Study Board for cand.soc.
Course coordinator
  • Szilvia Gyimothy Mørup-Petersen - Department of Marketing (Marketing)
Main academic disciplines
  • Customer behaviour
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 26-06-2023

Relevant links

Learning objectives
This course aims to consolidate strategic managerial insights to collaborative (sharing and platform) business models in a tourism and hospitality context – with a specific focus on balancing between economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability. The specific learning objectives of the course are the following:
  • Describe and to discuss the assumptions that underlie collaborative consumption by combining insights from sustainable operations management, organisation theory and service management.
  • Identify and analyse the relationship between relevant models, concepts and theories from the curriculum.
  • Analyse and explain the differences between the business models and operations of corporate and cooperative platforms and their relationships to collaborative consumption and resource management.
  • Evaluate different organisational solutions to build, enhance and repair trust among the actors of peer-to-peer networks
  • Apply these models and concepts, singly or combined to fit a concrete case situation under study and critically assess the value and relevance of models, concepts and theories presented throughout the course in relation to their practical application in a relevant case.
  • To follow academic conventions in the written presentation.
Course prerequisites
Please note: an advanced level knowledge of the basic principles of consumer behaviour in tourism is expected of all students.
Examination
Collaborative Business Models in Tourism and Hospitality:
Exam ECTS 5
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance, see also the rules about examination forms in the programme regulations.
Individual or group exam Oral group exam based on written group product
Number of people in the group 2-3
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Case based assignment
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Spring and Spring
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

The exam is an oral group examination (based on a written product of a maximum of 10 pages). Throughout the entire duration of the course, students will work on a self-selected mini-project within the topic of collaborative consumption. The preparation of the written project follows the principles of problem-based-learning (PBL) and peer assessment (in paired buddy groups), which will facilitate students’ synthesizing knowledge gained through the course and to apply them on a specific empirical case.

Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

This course explores the character, scope, opportunities and challenges of the sharing economy, and offers both theoretical and practical insights into the digital and collaborative prospects of tourism management. Emergent collaborative (sharing or platform) business models have radically disrupted and transformed tourism businesses. Global platform corporations and local cooperatives facilitate short-term accommodation rental, house swapping, ridesharing, free guided tours, couch-surfing, dinner hosting and similar peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions between host communities and guests. This course will provide students with an advanced understanding of strategic and operational aspects of these new collaborative business models, enabling them to analyse and design peer-to-peer platforms in different contexts. Students will develop in-depth knowledge of organizational perspectives, such as the institutionalization of trust mechanisms, peer rating and meritocratic reputational systems. They will critically discuss extant managerial challenges in conceiving, consolidating and upscaling collaborative concepts, with regards to mobilizing labour and material resources. Students will discuss competitive strategies by addressing diverse cases of sharing economy disruptions and business failures. By working with complex ethical dilemmas related to new sustainable practices offered by sharing business models, students will develop leadership values to overcome them.

This elective is a cross-disciplinary and research-based course, integrating the latest advances from sustainable operations management, organisation theory and service management. The diverse thematic and theoretical perspectives will be synthesised in a competitive case format, where students in groups will explore and solve a sustainable design challenge for a given hospitality business.

Description of the teaching methods
Through providing an overview of relevant literature about content and methods, as well as some hands-on insights from research practice the course is designed to be highly interactive. The course builds upon the principles of problem-based learning (PBL). Students are expected to devise their own learning trajectory, by analysing a self-selected empirical case of sharing platform (ranging from global platform corporations) to local platform cooperatives. In class activities entail group exercises and two workshops on sharing economy operations. The introductory session informs about the aims and structure of the course, the compulsory and recommended readings as well as the workshop exercises. The final module entails an in-class feedback session and briefing about the exam.
Feedback during the teaching period
Students will receive feedback in various forms during the course: through discussions in class, group assignments with oral feedback, and written feedback after the exam.
Student workload
Attending class 22 hours
Preparation 67,5 hours
Exam 48 hours
In total 137,5 hours
Expected literature

10-12 selected academic journal articles

 

Module 1.  
An introduction to and conceptualization of the sharing economy. History and related concepts (2 hours) 
Gyimóthy, S., & Dredge, D. (2017). Definitions and mapping the landscape in the collaborative economy. In Collaborative economy and tourism (pp. 15-30). Springer, Cham.

Module 2.  
Why do we share? Understanding collaborative consumption and sharing cultures (3 hours) 
Belk, R. (2014). You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1595-1600.
Arnould, E. J., & Rose, A. S. (2016). Mutuality: Critique and substitute for Belk’s “sharing”. Marketing Theory, 16(1), 75-99.
Belk, R. (2010). Sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5), 715-734.

Module 3. 
A diversifying market: platformcoops and platform corporations business models  (3 hours) 
Petruzzi, M. A., Sheppard, V., & Marques, C. (2022). Positioning Airbnb and Fairbnb in the sharing-exchange continuum. Current issues in Tourism, 25(19), 3106-3109.

Module 4. 
Study tour Copenhagen: Sharing urban spaces with tourists, visitors and citizens (2 hours)
McLaren, D & Agyeman, J.(2015) Sharing Cities : A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities, MIT Press (accessible on CBS library) (pages 78-190), 
•    Chapter 2 Sharing production: The city as a collective commons 
•    Chapter 3 Sharing Politics: The City as Public Realm  

Module 5. 
Consumer misbehaviour and negative externalities in the sharing economy (3 hours) 
Camilleri, & Neuhofer, B. (2017). Value co-creation and co-destruction in the Airbnb sharing economy. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(9), 2322–2340.
Harris, C. L., & Daunt, K. (2013). Managing customer misbehavior: challenges and strategies. The Journal of Services Marketing, 27(4), 281–293.
Jia, L., Liu, X., Liu, Y., (2018). Impact of Different Stakeholders of Bike-Sharing Industry on Users’ Intention of Civilized Use of Bike-Sharing. Sustainability, 10, 1437.
Schaefers, T., Wittkowski, K., Benoit (née Moeller), S., & Ferraro, R. (2016). Contagious effects of customer misbehavior in access-based services. Journal of Service Research, 19(1), 3-21.

Module 6. 
Co-lab workshop: How to deal with consumer misbehavior in the collaborative consumption?  (2 hours) 
(Same readings as above)

Module 7. 
Trust mechanisms and reputation systems: Evaluating different organisational solutions to build, enhance and repair trust in different collaborative business models (3 hours)
Räisänen, J., Ojala, A., & Tuovinen, T. (2021). Building trust in the sharing economy: Current approaches and future considerations. Journal of Cleaner Production, 279, 123724
Yang, S. B., Lee, K., Lee, H., & Koo, C. (2019). In Airbnb we trust: Understanding consumers’ trust-attachment building mechanisms in the sharing economy. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 83, 198-209.
Tussyadiah, I. P., & Park, S. (2018). When guests trust hosts for their words: Host description and trust in sharing economy. Tourism Management, 67, 261-272.

Module 8. 
Co-lab workshop: Collaborative affordances Designing robust and sustainable platforms – challenges and opportunities  (2 hours)
Tomej, K., & Xiang, Z. (2020). Affordances for tourism service design. Annals of Tourism Research, 85, 103029.
 
Module 9: Summing-Up + exam briefing (2 hours)

Last updated on 26-06-2023