Wendy Anzules-Falcones, Diana Caamana, Xavier Davalos
This study presents the relationships between business management and market dynamism, social capital and market dynamism and social capital and resource exploitation. We use data from a sample of 72 community tourism establishments located in the Cotacachi-Cayapas reserve in Ecuador, a place that is home to great biodiversity and ethnic groups who maintain their traditions. We model structural equations and, through non-linear regression analysis, find that increased market dynamism encourages small tourism enterprises to improve their business management, that although social capital exists, the resources generated from networks are not sufficiently exploited and that a sustained increase in market dynamics puts pressure on businesses to improve their social capital by increasing cohesion and strong and diverse ties. It is recommended that tourism business venture develops market strategies and capacity building programmes to cope with market dynamism, as well as formulate strategies to better exploit resources from networks.