Formulating the phenomenon of ‘hoarded tour guide knowledge’: the case of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Tour guides’ proprietary capital is the knowledge they disseminate during tours, and some tend to hoard it from competitors due to concerns of intense rivalry. However, prior research has largely overlooked the content and competitive potential of this knowledge. To address the research gap, this study employs the theoretical framework of tacit knowledge and uses an embedded mixed-methods design. Therefore, 42 interviews with tour guides, questionaries with 15 scholars, reviews with 189 studies, and questionaries with 419 tour guides were respectively conducted. Thus, tour guide knowledge which provides a competitive advantage was identified, the accuracy of this knowledge was evaluated, and how well this knowledge was recognized among competitors was assessed. The findings reveal that only a minority of tour guides’ knowledge is both accurate and competitively advantageous. This knowledge also transcends the existing approaches to the topic, thus concluding the study with a novel concept: ‘Hoarded tour guide knowledge’.