What counts as ESG in tourism SMEs? Stakeholder voices, quiet innovation, and destination sustainability

Abstract

This study examines what counts as ESG for tourism SMEs in an emerging economy by developing and validating a stakeholder-grounded perception scale. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, the research integrated interviews with tourism actors, expert consultation, and survey data from 391 enterprises in Vietnam. Factor analyses confirmed a four-factor structure, including environmental responsibility, social responsibility, governance integrity, and innovation orientation, with strong reliability and validity. Regression results show that environmental responsibility and innovation significantly predict perceived destination sustainability, while social responsibility has a weaker effect and governance shows no statistical influence. Narrative and affective analysis further highlighted stakeholder voices, revealing that SMEs often practise ESG informally and emotionally, without using formal ESG terminology. By theorising quiet innovation as an emergent ESG dimension, the study challenges technocratic disclosure models and advances context-sensitive ESG theory. The validated scale contributes both a diagnostic tool for developing contexts and a conceptual reframing of ESG as situated governance