Sustainable tourism development for small islands from social exchange theory perspective: The case of Vietnam Islands

This study investigates the direct influence of residents’ perceptions about sustainable tourism development on their satisfaction. Besides, the author tests life satisfaction (LS) as a mediator in the effect of residents’ perceptions on their support for sustainable tourism development (SU). The author uses Structural Equation Modeling to examine the hypotheses and employ bootstrapping method to test the mediating role of LS. The research concludes that residents’ positive perceptions of sustainable tourism development (PP) positively affect LS, and PP, residents’ negative perceptions of sustainable tourism development (NP) and LS also significantly influence their SU. Moreover, the author confirms that LS partially mediates the relationship between their PP and SU.