Abstract

This study aims to investigate the intersection between organizational learning (OL) and knowledge management (KM) in the tourism and hospitality sector by conducting a bibliometric analysis. A total of 628 publications from 293 various sources and 1468 different authors were included in the analysis between 2001 and 2021. Open-source statistical R software was utilized to conduct the bibliometric analysis, specifically, the Bibliometrix R library and the Biblioshiny version. The VOSviewer program was also used to display the keyword co-occurrence network. The findings show that the implication of KM and OL has been widely recognized as critical learning facilitators and as strategic tools for gaining competitive advantage that recognizes opportunities and threats for possible alignment with environmental change. Organizational learning and KM are particularly relevant for sustainable tourism and hospitality solutions, cutting-edge technologies, and organizational service innovations. Four research clusters were identified that provide critical future research paths.

Introduction

Tourism and hospitality are important economic sectors in terms of overall contribution to GDP and employment (López-Bonilla & López-Bonilla, 2021). Although tourism and hospitality have been investigated from a variety of research perspectives (Harrison, 2007), knowledge management (KM) and organizational learning (OL) are relatively new to tourism studies (Ghaderi & Paraskevas, 2021). This late adoption originates from multiple constraints in the sector, such as the substantial presence of small and family businesses with limited managerial expertise, heterogeneity of supply, a large short-term and seasonal workforce, and a high rate of business and workforce turnover (Cooper, 2006; 2015; 2018). Nevertheless, there is a growing recognition of the importance of knowledge to the success and competitive advantage of enterprises (Paraskevas et al., 2013). The knowledge economy emerged in the 1990s (Cooper, 2015), where knowledge management and organizational learning was recognized as one of the most crucial resources and capabilities of firms to achieve competitive advantage (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Grant, 1996). The knowledge economy differs from conventional economic theory because it is based upon innovation and intellectual capital to generate value, recognizing that knowledge is more than simply information: rather it is a resource to be valued and managed (OECD, 1996). Since the 1990s, knowledge as an intangible resource, and KM itself, has attracted the interest of business management researchers (Gaviria-Marin et al., 2019) and led to the emergence of learning organizations. These are firms that successfully implement and integrate KM and OL capabilities to achieve competitive advantage and superior performance (Pemberton & Stonehouse, 2000; Sun & Scott, 2003). In addition, KM has helped hospitality organizations to internationalize as this could enhance their learning competences related to organizational ambidexterity and positively influence performance (Ubeda-Garcia et al., 2021).

Discussion and conclusions

This study implemented bibliometric methods to investigate the intersection between OL and KM in tourism and hospitality research over two decades. From the results, several conclusions can be extracted. First, while these fields of research have been well-established in other disciplines, our findings point to the immaturity of the tourism, and hospitality field with fewer citations in tourism and hospitality up until a growth stage from 2017 onwards (almost 17% annually). In other words, research on KM and OL emerged relatively late in tourism and hospitality. This is likely explained by the growing understanding of the significant role of KM and OL in enhancing organizations’ performance and competitive advantage (Hassi, 2019), organizational innovation and sustainability, and crisis management practices. These topics have been at the frontline of much research, especially in the second decade of the Second, as discussed, social capital is highlighted as a key organizational success factor that is significantly attributed to the application of KM and OL through network creation and knowledge sharing (Kim & Shim, 2018; Paraskevas et al., 2013). Both OL and KM can boost social capital and improve human resource capabilities.