Associate Professor, Department of Management

Resident Fellowship Years: 2024-2025

Faculty Profile: Yolanda Sarason

Research Focus: Tourism’s exponential growth presents challenges in terms of increased resource use, degradation of natural and cultural heritage, as well as negative social impacts, stressing the need for a shift in paradigm (United Nations World Tourism Organization, n.d.). Research in sustainable entrepreneurship has focused on how this ‘market gap’ can be addressed through entrepreneurial action (Dean and McMullen, 2007). Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of this ‘market gap’ due to the overuse of their natural resources and potential to exploit local communities (Bradley, McMullen, Artz & Simiyu, 2012). There has been an increasing focus among researchers on the unique key success factors and best practices of sustainable ventures in developing countries (e.g. Sarason, Yuthas and Linh, 2018; Sarason, Yuthas, and Aziz, 2020; Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011). However, there has been a lag in the translation of the key insights of this research to qualitative investigations, academic pedagogy, and practitioner publications. This project will address this gap by publishing an open sourced, edited book of qualitative cases that illustrate exemplar sustainable tourism ventures in Guatemala.