THE EXPERIMENTAL PHASE: KNOWLEDGE NAVIGATION

In this early phase, the entrepreneurs offering a new adventure tourism activity have to produce and navigate in a new knowledge landscape. They start out businesses based on an idea that this activity could work as an experience product, but with

little associated knowledge. Both the knowing what and the knowing how of producing this particular commercial adventurous activity must be developed. With a totally new activity, as in the case of Encounter Kaikoura, the entrepreneurs are basically on their own is this process. In early imitation there is an urgent need for localizing knowledgeable resource persons.

Both in the sense of business and knowledge development this is a period of exploration, where the new activity has to find its specific expression. The entrepreneurs have to find out what the activity is all about, or what they want it to be all about. In addition, there are all the practical questions to be answered: Where and when can you find the dolphins, and how do you approach them? How do you steer a raft and which section of the river is suitable for commercial rafting? What part of the experience should be highlighted, and what is it imperative to avoid? Where do you get hold of guides or instructors for this type of activity and what kind of training do they need? What equipment and transport is necessary?

With no manuals or guidelines to follow, knowledge development happens through experiential learning, trial and error. The Mangaweka Adventure entrepreneur describes it as learning by doing:

“But it was learning by doing really. No one really knew what they were doing a lot of the time. They thought they did, but things went wrong occasionally”.

The early phase of Encounter Kaikoura is described in a similar manner by the marketing director:

“But back then there was no, there were no routines (…). Back then they were really just trying things out, to see what worked at the time”.

In addition to the business side of it, the embodied knowledge necessary to offer these activities must be developed. With no course manuals and few if any experts to turn to, a lot of trial and error is the only option. The phase is in that respect characterised by informality, testing and learning by doing.

While the challenges above mainly relate to the knowing how of how to skilfully provide the adventure tourism activity, there are also important elements of knowing what concerning the development of a new commercial activity. When the Mangaweka Adventure entrepreneur and his colleagues from the rafting wanted to start out with bungy jumping, there was a different set of challenges facing them. The technical details of the bungy cord and the safety set-up are not at all self- evident, and as can be imagined, must be well thought through! The following interview extract shows how they got their first information about the technicalities of the bungy cord:

“And he says; well yeah. I suppose we could do that, but he said, we don’t know where to get the rubber and stuff from. And I said no, but maybe we can work it out. And it’s incredible, you are not gonna believe this, but we went up there on…when

they weren’t working and picked up scratches of rubber off the ground. To see what it was. Little strands” (C5:1).

Aldrich (1999) highlights the importance for early entrants to a new industry to converge around a dominant design. Without such early agreements, the organizational knowledge will be ‘fleeting’ (Ibid:235) and the boundaries of the population remain ambiguous. While clearly competition may hamper such cooperative initiatives, being able to agree on standards and designs will both make it easier for new entrants as they to a higher degree can base their business on imitation, and raise the credibility of the population in relation to the external environment (Ibid).

The Mangaweka Adventure entrepreneur describes early initiatives of cooperation: “Really right from the start it wasn’t long before there was an outcry wanting some sorts of control over the thing. I sat down at the first meeting there ever was of, kind of aspiring rafting businesses in 1981 (...). I remember there were 8 entities that sat down at this meeting. And we tried to put together some guidelines for how to do it. But it was impossible to reach an agreement I think. And it was pretty wild for a few years” (C5:1).

When the Mangaweka Adventure entrepreneur sits down with the early rafting founders in NZ, it is a way of strengthening rafting as a business. They know that they are competitors but as their product is imitable anyway, cooperative action is thought to pay off. While the addition of more businesses offering the same product means stronger competition, it also means that more people become aware of the product.

In the explorative stage, there is a lot to learn and the businesses struggle to develop routines and well-functioning businesses. In addition to the challenges of developing knowledge resources within the businesses, there is little support to gain from the surroundings; the activity lacks legitimacy both as a tourism product and as an industry locally.

9.2.2. LEGITIMACY: “WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED IN DOING