Hence, this special issue can contribute to overall research on leadership. Whereas
traditionally in leadership research attention has focused on ‘‘great men’’ and ‘‘heroic
individuals’’, the perspectives laid down in this special issue provide a networked, systemic,
and dynamic view to better understand the fulfillment of the leadership function in tourist
destinations. Between them, these perspectives differ mainly insofar as distributed
leadership emphasizes the social dimension and group dynamics in leadership (and thus
builds on LMX-theory; see Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995) and systemic leadership stresses the
emergent characteristics of leadership as a function of complex systems