The discipline of knowledge management (KM) considers knowledge as potentially the most valuable organisational asset that must be shared among staff and stakeholders and even communities in order to yield considerable returns and benefits. However, in a real-world context, managers in industries such as high technology, manufacturing and finance jealously guard their valuable knowledge and prevent other entities from gaining access to this resource. Open cases of knowledge sharing among stakeholders such as staff, customers, business partners, competitors and the public are rare. Therefore, the philosophical premise of KM — knowledge must be openly shared — is often unrealised. Knowledge of environmental sustainability is a valuable resource for ecotourism operators because they operate in natural environments such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Sipadan Marine Park in Malaysia, and depend on the quality of these environments for their ongoing success. This research provides evidence that knowledge dissemination in the form of environmental sustainability knowledge can be openly shared among staff, customers, competitors and the public, thereby linking KM and environmental education. This article provides an interpretivist analysis of knowledge sharing by innovative ecotourism operators in Australia and South East Asia (Malaysia and Thailand). Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 14 executives, field observations and analysis of company documents. Results from this research found that ecotourism managers are passionate believers of environmental sustainability and benevolently share their valuable organisational knowledge and beliefs with all stakeholders.

中文翻译：

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生态旅游和环境可持续性知识：利益相关者之间的开放知识共享方法

知识管理学科 (KM) 将知识视为潜在的最有价值的组织资产，必须在员工和利益相关者甚至社区之间共享，以产生可观的回报和收益。然而，在现实世界中，高科技、制造和金融等行业的管理者小心翼翼地保护他们的宝贵知识，并阻止其他实体获得这些资源。在员工、客户、业务合作伙伴、竞争对手和公众等利益相关者之间共享知识的公开案例很少见。因此，KM的哲学前提——知识必须公开分享——往往无法实现。环境可持续性知识是生态旅游经营者的宝贵资源，因为他们在澳大利亚的大堡礁和马来西亚的西巴丹海洋公园等自然环境中经营，并依赖这些环境的质量来取得持续的成功。这项研究提供的证据表明，以环境可持续性知识的形式传播知识可以在员工、客户、竞争对手和公众之间公开分享，从而将知识管理和环境教育联系起来。本文对澳大利亚和东南亚（马来西亚和泰国）的创新生态旅游运营商的知识共享进行了解释性分析。通过对 14 位高管的深入访谈、实地观察和对公司文件的分析收集数据。