Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 39 (2022) 100555 2213-0780/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Research Article The internal competitive advantage of adventure tourism operators: An exploratory approach Paulo Rosa a, * , Pedro Bento b , Telmo Teot´ onio c a Sport Sciences School of Rio Maior - Polytechnic Institute of Santar´ em, CiTUR- Centre for Tourism Research, Development and Innovation, Avenida Dr. M´ ario Soares, 2040 - 413, Rio Maior, Portugal b School of Education - Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Rua Pedro Soares, 7800-295, Beja, Portugal c Sport Sciences School of Rio Maior - Polytechnic Institute of Santar´ em, Avenida Dr. M´ ario Soares, 2040-413, Rio Maior, Portugal A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Adventure tourism Competitive advantage Resource-based view ABSTRACT This article, in the feld of the strategic management, addresses specifcally with the competitiveness of tourism frms. It aimed to analyze the perception of companies operating in adventure tourism in Portugal, focusing on the factors that provide them a competitive advantage, through the lens of a Resource-Based View (RBV) approach. Semiestructured interviews were conducted with 38 Adventure Tourism Operators (ATO). These ATOs were able to identify a wide range of factors that, in their perception, can provide internal competitive advan- tage, Human Resources being the most mentioned factor. It was noticed that the focus of competitive advantage relies mainly on Resources and Operational Capabilities. Dynamic Capabilities are not frequently referred by frms. Due to the characteristics of this sector in Portugal, we concluded that achieving competitive advantage in Adventure Tourism must be diffcult and that these ATOs are in competitive parity. Management implications: This article focuses on competitiveness in Adventure Tourism Operators (ATO) in Portugal, a subject that we considered under studied, more specifcally, in the internal perspective of competitive advantage. The results highlight that ATOs effectively recognize some competitive advantage factors, but these are mainly based on resources and operational capabilities that are not rare or inimitable. Considering that Adventure Tourism is a predominantly service sector, competitive advantage might rely on the improvement of dynamic capabilities in order to make frms able to better explore their resources and develop dynamic com- petences, like innovation, partnership development and strategic thinking. 1. Introduction The competitive advantage of companies is related to the way they are organized and carry out their activities. This operational dimension includes several operations (e.g. attracting customers; product devel- opment; research; etc.) and it is through these that companies create potential value for their customers. However, the number and diversity of competitors has led them to have the need to offer, higher value products (in relation to their competitors) and thereby to build a competitive position that allows for superior economic performance and a gain in market share. This description represents the basic Porter’s competitiveness defnition (Porter, 1998). Tourism, as a lively and highly dynamic economic sector is no exception to these principles and that is why the analysis of competi- tiveness in this sector is particularly relevant. Tourism has also been subject to enormous and constant changes over time and this change forces companies in the industry to rethink their daily operations and to improve their organizational structure and business models, as well as new ways to communicate and interact with customers and stakeholders (Teodorescu et al., 2015). This is probably one of the main reasons why special attention has been devoted to assessing competitiveness in tourism destinations (Goff & Cucculelli, 2019). A particular phenomenon of tourism growth has been adventure tourism to which this work is devoted. Along with a remarkable growth and evidence to continue so (Cheng et al., 2018; Janowski et al., 2021) it has also been undergoing a shift in their participants profle (ATTA, 2017). These changes in consumer patterns pose considerable chal- lenges to the adventure tourism industry, since small-based companies, the heart of the industry, are continuously responsible for developing memorable experiences, assuring quality, safety and customer * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: prosa@esdrm.ipsantarem.pt (P. Rosa), pbento@ipbeja.pt (P. Bento), tteotonio@esdrm.ipsantarem.pt (T. Teot´ onio). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jort https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2022.100555 Received 3 February 2022; Received in revised form 25 May 2022; Accepted 26 June 2022