Third-Party Engagement Cycle : The Cases of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site Conservation Initiatives

Taguchi Takashi, Oyabu Akira, and Shoji Masato

Purpose: UNESCU World Cultural Heritage sites is required to conserve for the future, then it need stakeholders to involve these conservation initiatives. Although existing tourism literatures focus mainly on the relationship between the site administrators and government agencies or residents (e.g., Aas et al. 2005; Abdelgadir et al. 2017; Billore 2021), it pays little attention to the relationship between the administrators and third-parties, and the triad relationship containing their visitors as well. The purpose of this study is to reveal the aspects of third-party engagement with conservation of World Cultural Heritage sites. Study design/Methodology/Approach: We conduct interviews with third-party organizations in the triad relationships from Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic perspective. Two third-parties engaged with UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, Shirakawa-go and Himeji castle in Japan are selected through convenience sampling, bringing data from the interviews, observation, and documents. We analyze these qualitative and secondary data. Findings: We find three self-reinforcing cycles of the administrator’s value proposition cycle, the visitor’s value co-creation cycle, and third-party’s engagement cycle in the triad relationship among the sites, visitors, and third-parties in World Cultural Heritage sites. Third-parties engage with the conservation initiatives of the heritage sites to interact with residents or to attract visitors on site. Originality/Value: We focus on third-party engagement in the context of conserving World Cultural Heritage sites. We also develop the conceptual framework of three self-reinforcing cycles consisting of value proposition cycle of the administrators, value co-creation cycle of visitors, and engagement cycle of third-parties for maintaining and conserving UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites. Research Limitations/Implications: there are a few of limitation in this research. First, we interviewed only two administrators, as such we couldn’t get data from various cultural sites such as industrial heritage and temple other than house and castle. Second, we didn’t interview with any visitor of World Cultural Heritage sites. It is required to collect from visitors to explain value cocreation among administrators, visitors, and third-party for further research. However, our research has some theoretical implications. First, our framework represents that value proposition, value co-creation, and third-party engagement are circulatory processes, especially reinforcing cycles, rather than liner one. Second, third-party plays the role as a catalyst to co-create value between administrators and visitors on site. They are not only just outsourcing agencies, but operators in co-creating value by visitors while improving density of value proposition presented by the sites. Practical implications: Third-parties should develop capabilities to identify the problems on site and to create and present proactive value propositions for overcoming these problems. It is important for third-parties to have the control over the interaction between the visitors and the residents on site for improving visitors experience in local culture.

The 8th Naples Forum on Service, Service Dominant Logic, Network & Systems Theory and Service Science: Integrating three Perspectives for a New Service Agenda

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