Emerging economy entrepreneurs and open data: Decision-making for natural disaster resilience

Authors

  • Ieva Žebrytė ISM University of Management and Economics, Lithuania, & Universidad de La Frontera
  • Francisca Fonseca-Vasquez Local Development Consultant
  • Ricardo Hartley Universidad Central de Chile

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the role of Open Data in entrepreneurial decision-making in a destination threatened by natural disasters and located in an emerging economy. The region of La Araucanía, in Chile, was chosen because it constantly faces the threat of devastating natural disasters and is also the poorest region of Chile. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and awareness-building workshops, with a convenience sample of 32 entrepreneurs out of 150 registered for Federation of Tourism Businesses (FEDETUR’s CET) program. The study found that local entrepreneurs are reasonably aware of the advantages and disadvantages of platforms that link supply and demand for tourism services. However, they express little interest or trust in publicly available information, and use terms like ‘internet data’ and ‘technology’ interchangeably with ‘information’ and ‘platforms’. We conclude that in order for entrepreneurs in emerging economies to strengthen their businesses’ resilience to natural disasters in the digital economy era, adjustments in their decision-making processes need to be made. Tourism-dependent places situated in emerging economies rely heavily on micro and small businesses. Greater awareness of how future economies are both ‘atom-enabled’ (landscape and other tourism resources) and ‘bit-dependent’ (digitalization of tourism) would benefit tourism entrepreneurs facing natural disaster-induced business disruptions by enabling timely and more appropriate responses. The study opens the academic debate on the role that open data could come to play in entrepreneurial decision-making within emerging economies when tourism businesses are disrupted by natural disasters.

Downloads

Published

2019-04-03

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2019)

Section

Special Section

License

The Journal of Small Business Strategy (the “Publisher”) and the Author(s) agree as follows:
 
1.Author(s) hereby grant to Publisher all right, title, and interest in and to the Work, including copyright to all means of expression by any method now known or hereafter developed, including electronic format. If Publisher does not publish the Work within two (2) years of the Effective Date, copyright shall revert back to the Author. Publisher agrees to always credit Author(s) as the author(s) of the Work.
 
2.Publisher hereby grants Author a royalty-free, limited license for the following purposes, provided the Work is always identified as having first been published by Publisher.
    •The right to make and distribute copies of all or part of the Work for use in teaching;
    •The right to use all or part of the material contained in the Work in a book by the Author(s), or in a collection of the Author(s)’s work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work internally at the Author(s)’s place of employment, and for promotion and any other non-commercial purposes;
    •The right to use figures and tables from the Work for any purpose;
    •The right to make presentations of material from the Work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work on the Author(s)’s Web site and on the Author(s)’s university’s institute repository;
Such license shall be effective when the Work is first published in the Journal of Small Business Strategy.
 
3.The Author(s) represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author(s)’s original work and that Author(s) has full power to enter into this agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property right of another; (c) contains no materials which is obscene, libelous, defamatory or violates another’s civil right, right of privacy, or is otherwise unlawful; and (d) has not been previously published, in whole or in part. Author(s) shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss or expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.

How to Cite

Emerging economy entrepreneurs and open data: Decision-making for natural disaster resilience. (2019). Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 29(1), 43-54. https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/1358