article · Sustainability
Digital leadership plays an essential role in fostering a sustainable competitive advantage within tourism and hospitality businesses. An examination of 323 middle-line managers across travel agencies and hotels in Saudi Arabia reveals that digital leadership directly enhances competitive advantage, green absorptive capability, and eco-innovation. In turn, both green absorptive capability and eco-innovation exert a positive influence on sustainable competitive advantage. Crucially, these two environmental dimensions serve as significant mediators connecting digital leadership practices to long-term market competitiveness. The findings offer practical relevance for managers seeking to align digital approaches with environmental practices, while contributing empirical evidence to Dynamic Capabilities Theory within the context of eco-conscious hospitality operations.
Tourism and hospitality enterprises face mounting pressure to operate sustainably. Demonstrating how digital leadership fosters internal capabilities to absorb green knowledge and implement eco-innovations helps businesses understand how management practices directly translate into lasting environmental and market advantages. This provides a clear rationale for integrating technology leadership with sustainability programmes.
The work offers strategic guidance for hotel and travel agency executives seeking to design management training and environmental transformation strategies. Because the research is an empirical survey of middle management perceptions rather than a technical tool, it provides evidence-based organisational insights ready for immediate managerial application in corporate strategy, rather than a commercialised technology product.
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This study explores the influence of digital leadership (DL) on sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in tourism and hospitality businesses, focusing on green absorptive capability (GAC) and eco-innovation (EI) as mediators. This study focused on middle-line management in travel agencies and hotels in Saudi Arabia. A total of 323 valid responses were collected and analyzed using WarpPLS 7.0, a PLS-SEM analysis tool. DL positively affected SCA, GAC, and EI. In addition, SCA was positively impacted by GAC and EI. Furthermore, this study found that GAC and EI significantly mediated the DL→SCA relationship. This study enhances the Dynamic Capabilities Theory, offering valuable insights for tourism and hospitality managers to utilize digital strategies and environmental initiatives for eco-conscious market competitiveness.
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DOI: 10.3390/su16135371
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