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The purpose of this paper is to examine stakeholder power and engagement within an increasingly competitive English seaside resort setting. It aims to adopt a structuralist and functionalist perspective and develop an enabling conceptualisation of power that incorporates structural and agency components in stakeholders’ reasons for engaging. Based on the conceptual interdependencies between stakeholder power and engagement, this study aims to present the limitations of previous studies on destination leadership in this area, and this paper also seeks to discuss implications for destination leadership.

As a qualitative and exploratory study, mixed-method research was adopted using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with destination stakeholders from a prominent tourism action group. The primary research was carried out in an English seaside resort between 2010 and 2011. Data are used to draw a stakeholder map as a visual tool.

Eight elements of enabling power are confirmed to be of importance in identifying stakeholder power and engagement. The level of power varies depending on stakeholders’ position within a network. These findings direct attention towards adopting a complexity leadership approach in an increasingly competitive destination environment.

The paper focuses on an English seaside resort, although results can be transferred to other similar-sized destinations where the focus is on local tourism policy development.

The paper provides an innovative conceptualisation of power in stakeholder theory by drawing primarily on a sociological understanding of power as an enabler and not as an inhibitor for development, leadership and change in seaside resorts. This paper uses leadership theories to interpret data and infer implications for destination leadership.

To extend the limited yet conflicting results of prior studies, this paper hypothesizes and statistically tests alternative, structurally different models of likely positive impacts of activity-based costing (ABC) on organizational performance (OP). It also tests moderating effects of business type and business size.

To test the models' abilities to explain the data, this comparative study uses survey data from 191 Thai firms, measures validated in the study and structural equation modeling (SEM).

Extensive use of ABC for cost analysis, cost strategy and cost evaluation directly improves operational performance (OPP); it also indirectly improves financial performance (FP) through improving OPP. The results are similar for manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms and for large firms and small-medium enterprises (SMEs).

Future studies could test the alternative models in other geographical and industrial contexts and could widen the range of control variables.

Monitoring of the effects of ABC use on OPP is crucial to achieving positive financial outcomes. The cross-functional nature of ABC is apparent; for it to be effective managers must ensure cooperation from departments and employees involved in the design and implementation of ABC systems.

This research arbitrates prior inconsistent findings by adopting an original approach of testing structurally different models in a single comparative study, using measures validated in the study. It provides new evidence that extends knowledge about impacts of ABC on OP. Further, it demonstrates its applicability in the context of developing economies.