KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BIG DATA: IMPLICATIONS FOR SMART TOURISM DESTINATIONS

The paper aims to contribute at the debate on the Knowledge-intensive Entrepreneurship at the light of the emerging paradigm of Big Data. Focusing on tourism, as knowledge-intensive industry with several implications for the regional growth, the study shows as the huge amount of data available for, from and about tourists can nurture the process of Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship and sustain the creation of a Smart Tourism Destination. The paper presents the empirical evidences related to Apulia, a Southern European region and destination of growing popularity. By adopting a mixed methodological approach based on action research and business analytics, the study proposes the comparative analysis of digital tourism initiatives related to unconventional tourism experiences to demonstrate how it is possible to create and capture social Big Data produced by stakeholders in a certain destination for supporting knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial processes.