Community citizenship behavior in rural tourism destinations: Scale development and validation

This study considers that hosts can be active builders in rural tourism destinations. By extending the concept of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) to rural tourism communities, this paper develops and validates a scale to measure the discretionary, spontaneous, and positive behavior of hosts towards the community and tourists, labeled as community citizenship behavior (CCB). A four-stage study with a mixed method design was conducted. Study 1 identified five dimensions and 34 initial items through an extensive literature review and conducting five focus group discussions. Study 2 (n = 225) adopted an exploratory factor analysis to filter the items. Study 3 (n = 302) provided empirical support for a 27-item and five-dimension solution to the CCB scale which consisted of helping behavior, keeping interpersonal harmony, involving behavior, protecting behavior, and recommending behavior through confirmatory factor analysis. Study 4 (n = 260) further tested nomological validity of the developed scale. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.