Cultural Tourism Clusters: Social Capital, Relations with Institutions, and Radical Innovation

Abstract

Radical innovation is a key factor for competitiveness in cultural tourism clusters. There is an open debate about the specific effect of relationships with cluster agents (bonding capital) on radical innovation due to redundancy of information and lock-in. This article aims to identify factors that influence radical innovation in the context of cultural tourism clusters. The empirical study uses original data on 215 firms located in UNESCO World Heritage Cities in Spain. The findings show that relationships with firms outside a cluster (bridging capital) reinforce the positive effect of relationships with agents within a cluster on radical innovation. However, relationships with local institutions weaken this effect. Combining relationships with internal agents and external ones is suggested. This study also advocates a more active role for local institutions as bridging agents.