Rural development and forest owner innovativeness in a country in transition: Qualitative and quantitative insights from tourism in Poland

Poland's share of private forests is relatively small compared with that of other European countries. Private Polish forests are in poor condition and have been under great economic stress. This situation has changed somewhat with respect to rural development since Poland's accession to the European Union. However, many antecedents to the innovativeness of forest owners remain unaddressed by scholars. The objective of this paper is to study the effect of forest owners' attitudes towards risk, social responsibility, learning orientation and institutional support on their innovativeness. Additionally, we aim to analyse the forest owners' attitudes towards start-ups based on nature-based tourism, which is a relatively new activity in Poland. We used both quantitative and qualitative approaches in this study and collected data via face-to-face interviews with 105 forest owners. The results showed that, although a forest owner's attitudes towards risk, social responsibility and learning orientation positively impacted the owner's innovativeness, institutional support did not. In the qualitative portion of this study, we examine nature-based tourism as a relatively new phenomenon and the factors affecting an owner's decision to initiate this type of business. The results imply that private forest owners in Poland require greater institutional support to start tourism businesses related to their forest land. However, the present support policies do not seem to have a direct positive effect on the forest owners' innovativeness. Nevertheless, policies that limit risk, promote learning and encourage social responsibility among Polish forest owners can stimulate them to become more innovative. Previous research has shown that this change, in turn, results in better economic performance and enhanced rural vitality.

► We found that learning orientation, a positive attitude towards risk and a feeling of social responsibility have positive and significant effects on innovativeness.
► We did not find that institutional support had a significant or direct effect on the forest owners' innovativeness.
► Seven of 105 forest owners had started nature-based tourism businesses, and 20 forest owners were considering starting such businesses.
► The most common reasons for not initiating new activities were a pessimistic attitude, traditional habits and aversion to risk.
► We found that private forest owners in Poland require greater institutional support to start tourism businesses.