Presenting a Model of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Tourism Businesses of Mazandaran Province: A Mixed Methods Approach

The aim of the present study is to develop a model of entrepreneurial ecosystem in tourism businesses in Mazandaran province. The study is applied in terms of its purpose and considering the methodology, it is descriptive-survey with a mixed methods approach. First, using Meta-synthetic and Delphi methods, the qualitative model was developed including 34 components in six dimensions of politics, culture, support, market, financial capital, and human capital. Then, in the quantitative section, in order to assess the fitness and validity of the proposed model, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted by using Lisrel. In the qualitative and qualitative sections, sampling methods, was purposive and convenience, respectively. In the qualitative section, 15 experts and in the quantitative part, 103 entrepreneurs and people engaged in tourism businesses in Mazandaran province, participated. Results of CFA indicated that the proposed model, enjoys goodness of fit. Culture with 0.9 factor loading had the strongest effect while human capital (0.75) had the least effect on explaining the tourism entrepreneurial ecosystem structure. Additionally, to evaluate the current tourism entrepreneurial ecosystem in Mazandaran based on the same model, one sample t-test was utilized. Results of the t-test demonstrated that the tourism entrepreneurial ecosystem of Mazandaran is at its infancy. Thus, in order for the tourism entrepreneurial ecosystem to function properly, it is suggested that all sub-systems should develop and grow together so that the potency of the ecosystem may increase via synergy.