Correspondence: Felicity Kelliher, School of Business, Waterford Institute of Technology, Main Campus, Cork Road, Waterford, Ireland. E-mail: fkelliher@wit.ie

¹is a senior lecturer in management studies and Programme Director of the MBS in the Management of Change at Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland. She did her PhD in employee learning in a micro-firm setting, and her current research interests include individual and organisational learning in the small firm environment. She has published in the Journal of European Industrial Training and the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.

²is attached to the Waterford Crystal Centre for Marketing Studies at the School of Business in Waterford Institute of Technology. His research interests include marketing strategy, and services and tourism marketing. He has published in the Journal of Strategic Marketing and the Journal of Brand Management.

³is Programme Manager with the School of Business at Waterford Institute of Technology. She has managed large-scale projects at both national and international level across several sectors. She has a particular interest in the area of business development within the tourism and hospitality sector and is currently managing the Fáilte Ireland Tourism Learning Network programme in the South and South East.

Received 13 August 2008; Revised 13 August 2008.

Abstract

This paper examines the operationalisation of a small firm learning network model within the Fáilte Ireland (Irish tourism development agency) Tourism Learning Network (TLN) programme. Emerging from multiple calls for small firm training interventions to be based on helping entrepreneurs to learn, this model is based on an action learning ethos, involving small tourism operators and relevant support agencies and incorporating local learning sets, a web community, and a series of learning interventions. The applied action research method offers insights into the workings of the TLN, and findings suggest that this approach facilitates the development of organisational capabilities and has resulted in active and substantial TLN involvement among participating tourism enterprises.