Cooperative Business Organizations: Intrinsic in Every Strategically Functional Tourism Industry

Relationships between organizations sharing the same domain (such as a marketplace) can take the form of competition, cooperation, coexistence, or a combination of such. An article previously published inTourism, Culture & Communicationsuggested that competition and cooperation are mutually exclusive. That is, business organizations cannot simultaneously compete and cooperate. This critique from Leiper, Lamont, and Hing critically discusses the notions of "competition" and "cooperation," and presents evidence supporting a contention that business organizations commonly compete and cooperate on a concurrent basis. This review also seeks to clarify the notion of industrial cooperation by identifying and discussing two forms of industrial cooperation: intraindustry, and interindustry. The importance of both intraindustry and interindustry cooperation in understanding the structure of tourism industries is also highlighted. Readers should note that this article was initially composed as a counterargument paper (and almost completed!!) by Professor Neil Leiper in his study on the east coast of Australia. The article has been read as an "in progress" work by Lamont and Hing, who had worked closely with Professor Leiper over recent years. Lamont and Hing have sought to work with precision to retain and strengthen the core ideas of their colleague, Professor Leiper. In certain places, they have drawn on their long knowledge of the Leiper manifesto for relevant and strategic Tourism Management/Tourism Development decision making to round off the interpretations that Professor Leiper was in process of finalizing at his untimely passing. (Abstract by the Critical Review Editor)