Developing a Rural Innovation Network in the Irish Tourism Sector (RIKON Group)

The aim of a rural innovation network (RIN) is to reduce uncertainty through cooperation with other rural stakeholders, with different competencies, in order to create new knowledge and enhance firm competitiveness. The variables that impact on RINs have been identified(Murdoch, 2000), but the development of a managerial model to maximise the involvement of rural stakeholders has not, resulting in a significant knowledge gap in substantive literature. Based on first stage results, this paper presents, as a primary step to achieving a rural innovation network, a pragmatic (‘how-to’) framework on developing and managing a rural tourism network.