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Research in sustainability transformations has emphasized technological innovation and large structural changes. Less attention has been paid to enabling approaches which emphasize the role of reimagination and collaborative exploration of alternative futures, involving agency, emancipation and care. In this research we took an enabling approach to sustainability transformations and worked with stakeholders in collaborative workshops to invite their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and its transformative potential in envisioning and co-producing sustainable futures. In the workshops, stakeholders discussed their understandings of sustainable tourism development. What was evident among stakeholders was a caring for people—employees, locals, tourists. Although nature was another focus (often in the context of the new-found interest in tourism in proximate environments), care did not go all the way to redefine human and non-human relationship—missing a deep ecological understanding. This study expands knowledge on sustainability transformation and disruptive research that creates processes for re-imagination.

Despite generalised global recommendations, local communities are rarely involved in defining strategic tourism development options. Similarly, methodologies to facilitate these processes of co-creation have not been adequately implemented, tested, and generalised. This study aims to contribute to this body of knowledge by assessing the potential of a participatory planning method centred on the strategic diversification of tourism products. Focusing on the Swedish island of Gotland, where tourism dynamics partly depend on the visits to the Hanseatic town of Visby by cruise ships, a workshop based on an Open Space Methodology (OSM) was implemented, involving local entrepreneurs, representatives of organisations, students, and international researchers in tourism (an original contribution). The results revealed that these “coopetition” processes can contribute to identifying problems and determining possible solutions. In our case, these options can be framed within the concept of “penetration” (modifications and increasing promotion of existing products to the existing markets) involving aspects related to physical and digital infrastructures, along with partnerships and collaborations amongst stakeholders. Overall, this study reveals that the interaction between members and non-members of the local community appears crucial for the emergence of innovative ideas.

In this case we follow the development of a tourism business in Sweden with high sustainability ambitions. We explore how the entrepreneur started, ran, and expanded his business, which offers recreational fishing for high-end customers from all over the world. The new firm works with value propositions, dealing with the common challenges of uncertainty, trying to get external funding, and finding suitable partners, all in light of sustainability—that is, the ways the entrepreneur tries to adjust his economic activities to the maximum carrying capacity, by carefully managing the natural resources his business relies upon (wild fish stock and the pristine wilderness of his sites). He is also trying to cooperate with and provide benefits to the local community in which his business operates. This case also illustrates some of the obstacles the entrepreneur encounters: the risk of losing access to the natural resource he relies upon as the local Sámi people suddenly, by court verdict, obtain exclusive rights to the fish; the problems of hiring local staff to benefit the community as they have other unpredictable activities to attend to (reindeer herding); the way his business credibility for the high-end market is threatened when local customers are served as they comprise a very different social segment; whether it is possible to claim a sustainable business as it involves a lot of air travel. This case provides learning opportunities connected to some of the challenges involved when trying to run a business, taking as points of departure the limits of nature and contributing socially while maintaining financial viability. Through this, the student will gain insights into many sustainability challenges facing an entrepreneurial venture.

Background: There is a growing expectation that many health organisations will implement innovations. One obstacle for innovative ideas to have an impact on the healthcare system in practice seems to be difficulties in the implementation phase. There is a lack of concretization of theoretical perspectives related to implementation of innovations. The research question answered by this article is: Which enabling factors can facilitate the specific step of moving from idea generation to implementation in a healthcare context?

Methods: The research was carried out with a qualitative action research methodology where the researchers took part in the innovation implementation project. The authors of this article were part of a collaborative innovation implementation project involving approximately 54 practitioners. The project was run by five stakeholders: (1) the Division of Assistive Technology in the Dalarna County Council Regional Healthcare Administration, (2) the Habilitation Division, (3) the Division for Home Care and Social Services in the municipality of Leksand, (4) Dalarna University, and (5) Uppsala University. Through a ‘Pearl growing’ technique six implementation management perspectives were, as a framework, identified and presented for the practitioners. The practitioners worked further to concretize these six perspectives. Data was collected through five workshops and collaborations between the researchers and the practitioners. Data was clustered regarding what the managers want to achieve within these six perspectives (ideal situation) and the main means for reaching this situation.

Results: The study underlying this article generated 35 concrete enabling factors for successful innovation implementation, distributed over the initially presented six theoretical perspectives.

Conclusion: Concretizing management principles into enabling factors shows, on the one hand, that the theoretical principles have practical value, but on the other that they must be adopted to the specific circumstances of each organization, and that too abstract principles can hardly be operationalized.

In this paper, two World Heritage island destinations are compared, Gotland in the Baltic and Rapa Nui in the Pacific. Both islands deal with a growing number of tourists, which asks for rethinking of tourism development. As cultural heritage plays a major role in tourism for both destinations, it is especially important to look into sustainable cultural tourism development from the perspective of authenticity. The paper is based on a variety of materials and takes an innovative approach to methods through a student–staff collaboration. The data show that social acceptance of tourism by local communities on both islands could be achieved through the creation of authentic experiences. Furthermore, data show that it is rather potent to engage both locals and tourists in modernized authentic experiences. However, this can only be done if locals are empowered and are genuinely allowed to steer the development of tourism.