Disruptive Innovation in Sustainable Tourism: Rethinking Business Models and Sustainability Accounting Practices

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how disruptive innovation reshapes business models in the tourism industry and how sustainability accounting practices can serve as an integrative mechanism to ensure the achievement of sustainable tourism goals.

Method: This study employs a conceptual approach by synthesizing the literature on disruptive innovation, sustainable tourism, and sustainability accounting. A theoretical framework is proposed to illustrate the interrelationships between business model transformation, sustainability performance, and accounting practices.

Finding: The findings indicate that disruptive innovation drives significant changes in tourism business models, creating both opportunities and challenges for achieving sustainability. Sustainability accounting emerges as a strategic tool to measure, monitor, and report sustainability performance, thereby ensuring that disruptive innovation contributes to sustainable value creation rather than exacerbating social and environmental risks.

Novelty: This study offers a novel perspective by connecting disruptive innovation with sustainability accounting in the tourism sector. It contributes to the literature by proposing an integrative framework that highlights accounting’s role in translating innovation into sustainable outcomes.