Tourism research and career: opening the black box

The academia competitive landscape has made research increasingly important. Extant literature has studied specific dimensions of research performance and conducting good research. This exploratory study examines the habits and routine behaviour in conducting good research, guided by a constructivist grounded theory approach. Thirty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with academics of different seniorities from six tourism schools, followed by content analyses and drawing relevant theories from calling, grit and self-determination, leading to a theory-based emerging framework. Five habits and twenty-seven routine behaviours were identified with implications on academic career management, institutional planning, and recruitment.