Smarter Technologies, Innovation, and Managerial Capabilities Driving Hotel Sustainability: The Integration of Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

This research explores the impact of dynamic innovation capabilities on firm performance, investigating how alliances and networks improve the focal firm’s capabilities. We examine four innovation capabilities and their effect on profitability, performance, and growth of companies in the food industry. Drawing on the extant literature on innovation and dynamic capabilities theory, we develop six hypotheses to explain the relationship between different innovation capabilities and firm performance. We test the proposed research model and hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with primary data from the food industry in Greece. Results indicate that dynamic innovation capabilities play a crucial role in improving profitability, growth, and overall firm performance through ordinary innovation capabilities. This study provides critical insights into innovation capabilities in the food industry. These insights are significant because prior studies have not investigated the relative effects of different innovation capabilities on profitability, growth, and overall firm performance, particularly the interrelationships between dynamic and ordinary innovation capabilities. The generalization of the study results may be limited due to the sample size.KeywordsInnovationDynamic CapabilitiesPLS-SEMFood industryGreece

This article aims to advance theoretical knowledge of the international opportunity recognition in international new ventures (INVs) from a dynamic capabilities perspective with particular focus on the emergent perspective of dynamic managerial capabilities. Building the extant literature on international opportunity recognition, dynamic capabilities theory, this paper presents a conceptual framework explaining how dynamic capabilities of the firm can be created and enacted through the entrepreneur’s dynamic managerial capabilities and actions for international opportunity identification for international firm growth. Drawing on the dynamic capabilities theory and more recent dynamic managerial capabilities perspective, this article enriches understanding of how opportunities are identified for the venture’s international development and growth. The article concludes with theoretical and research implications.

Artificial intelligence and innovation capability: A dynamic capabilities perspective

PurposeManagers play a critical role in shaping the development of firms due to the risky and long-term nature of innovation. Although the managerial effect on strategic change has long been factored into organizational theories, scholars still lack a complete understanding of the specific managerial capabilities that drive innovation in today's digital economy. The present study builds on dynamic managerial capabilities theory to close this research gap. The paper proposes managers' dynamic capabilities and their three underlying drivers – managerial human capital, social capital, and cognition – as a direct antecedent to digital firms' innovativeness.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on survey data from German Industry 4.0 manufacturing firms, which were analyzed using regression analysis.FindingsThe results confirm managers' dynamic capabilities as facilitators of innovation. In contrast to previous research on nondigital industries, the findings demonstrate that only the complete portfolio of managers' dynamic capabilities promotes innovativeness in digital firms. The study provides evidence for the importance of dynamic managerial capabilities in the digital economy yet contradicts previous research on nondigital industries related to the advantageousness of managers' human capital, social capital, and cognition for innovation.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by being the first to holistically test the effects of dynamic managerial capabilities on innovation in digital firms. The results offer a nuanced account of managers' dynamic capabilities, thereby expanding dynamic managerial capabilities theory to the digital economy.

Corporate sustainability has emerged as a critical imperative for firms navigating volatile markets and ecological constraints, yet the mechanisms linking organizational practices to sustainability outcomes remain underexplored, particularly in developing economies. Drawing on the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory, this paper examines how transformational leadership and knowledge sharing synergistically enhance innovation capability, which in turn fosters environmental dynamism and corporate sustainability performance. Using a structured questionnaire within a cross-sectional design to gather data from 140 Moroccan SMEs, data were collected via an online questionnaire from 140 Moroccan SME owners and managers, with hypotheses tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that knowledge sharing, and transformational leadership significantly strengthen innovation capability. Innovation capability further drives environmental dynamism, which positively impacts sustainability performance. These findings advance theory by integrating knowledge-based, leadership, and dynamic capability perspectives into a novel pathway for achieving sustainability goals. The study underscores the necessity for SMEs in developing nations to cultivate leadership that inspires knowledge exchange and adaptive innovation, enabling resilience amid ecological and market shifts. By highlighting these internal drivers, the research offers actionable insights for SMEs and policymakers seeking to align business innovation strategies with sustainability objectives and pro-environmental transformation in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This study investigates the effect of digital transformation on the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), highlighting the mediating role of innovation capability. Grounded in the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the research develops and empirically tests a structural model that links digital transformation, innovation capability, and SME competitiveness. A quantitative survey was administered to 400 SMEs operating in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, and data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that digital transformation has a significant positive impact on both innovation capability and SME competitiveness. Furthermore, innovation capability exerts a positive influence on competitiveness and partially mediates the relationship between digital transformation and SME competitiveness. The findings emphasize that digital transformation alone is insufficient to enhance competitive performance unless firms simultaneously develop their innovation capabilities. This study contributes to the growing body of research on digitalization in emerging economies and provides practical insights for SME managers and policymakers aiming to foster digital readiness and innovation-driven competitiveness. Policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed.

In the face of accelerating digital transformation and AI-driven innovations in the post-COVID-19 era, the effectiveness of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) is critical to organizational resilience and sustainable digital transformation in highly regulated sectors. This study examines how information quality, executive innovativeness, and staff IT capabilities influence HRIS effectiveness and evaluates the mediating role of Information System (IS) Ambidexterity, defined as an organization’s ability to explore and exploit its IS resources concurrently. By confirming the impact of organizational enablers on HRIS effectiveness, the study provides theoretical grounding for digital transformation strategies rooted in Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS was employed for its strength in modeling complex relationships and validating latent constructs in organizational contexts. Empirical data were gathered from 157 HR leaders across financial institutions in Pakistan. The results confirm that the identified enablers significantly impact both IS Ambidexterity and HRIS effectiveness and also emerge as strategic levers for building resilient, data-driven HRIS frameworks. IS Ambidexterity, a relatively underexplored construct in information systems research, enhances the strategic contribution of HRIS by serving as a dynamic capability that enables organizations to adapt and create sustained value in evolving digital environments. HRIS effectiveness contributes to efficiency, agility, strategic responsiveness, and cost optimization in financial institutions. The findings contribute to theory by integrating IS enablers with dynamic capability mediation, enriching the RBV-DCT interplay. This study provides evidence-based insights for developing economies pursuing sustainable digital transformations.

This study investigates how artificial intelligence (AI) drives green innovation (GI) in the Turkish construction sector by examining the strategic roles of organizational agility (OA) and technological readiness (TR). Grounded in Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT), the research explores how AI enhances sustainability performance through adaptive organizational processes and reconfigurable resources. A quantitative design employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze survey data collected from 302 managerial-level professionals across construction organizations. Results reveal that AI significantly influences both GI and OA, while OA not only contributes directly to GI but also mediates the AI–GI relationship. Furthermore, TR moderates these relationships, amplifying the positive effects of AI on agility and of agility on green innovation. This suggests that firms with higher technological readiness are better positioned to convert AI-driven insights into sustainable outcomes. By integrating AI into decision-making, resource optimization, and predictive analytics, construction firms can enhance their dynamic capabilities and improve sustainability performance. The study extends DCT by clarifying how AI-enabled agility operates as a pathway for sustainable transformation in emerging markets and offers actionable insights for engineering managers seeking to foster innovation, digital resilience, and environmental responsibility in an increasingly technology-driven industry.

The research examines the mediating role of dynamic capabilities in the effect of human capital on innovation capability. The research was conducted with white-collar employees in a logistics company based in Istanbul. A simple random sampling technique was used to determine the sample. The research sample is 238 employees working in the same company for at least three years. Mediation models were used to analyse the data. The data analysis determined that employee capital significantly increases the company's dynamic and innovation capabilities. In addition, the company's dynamic capabilities mediate in forming the innovation capability of employee capital. The hypotheses created within the scope of the research were supported. Human capital companies' dynamic capabilities effectively form the company's dynamic capabilities and subsequently obtain innovation capabilities. The research contributes to the literature by associating employee capital, innovation capability, and dynamic capabilities in the logistics sector.

While previous research suggests that innovation capability can enhance sustainable operational performance in sustainable supply chain management practices, empirical insights into the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain limited. Drawing on dynamic capability theory, this study investigates how innovation capability influences sustainable operational performance within the context of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Utilizing matched survey data and objective performance metrics from 276 fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food manufacturing firms in China, the study employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with bootstrapping techniques to test the mediating roles of business platforms and community building. The findings reveal that novelty-centered innovation capability has a significant positive effect on sustainable operational performance, with business platforms serving as a partial mediator in this relationship. In contrast, value-centered community building neither directly influences sustainable operational performance nor mediates the effect of innovation capability. Furthermore, the mediating effect of business platforms is found to be stronger than that of community building. This research presents a novel empirical framework that distinguishes the operational effectiveness of digital platforms in social community building within AFNs, providing managers with a strategic roadmap for prioritizing innovation investments to achieve sustainability.

PurposeDespite IoT’s huge potential, enterprises’ ability to leverage it is their competitive advantage. Thus, competitive differentiation is primarily predicated on leveraging IoT toward customer needs. To examine the research gap, this study aims to explore the drivers of customer satisfaction and how they are affected by the interaction between IoT capabilities.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method research framework is applied to assess the impact of IoT capabilities on customer satisfaction. Based on the theoretical underpinning of the resource-based view and dynamic capability, the study highlights the importance of IoT capabilities in active resource allocation and effective resource utilization. First, DEMATEL is used capture the interrelationship between IoT capabilities. Further, the impact of each IoT capabilities on customer satisfaction is studied using CoCoSo method.FindingsThe study highlights the importance of IoT capabilities in active resource allocation and effective resource utilization. The findings are enriched through the complementarity of resources in a dynamic business-to-business-to-customer (B2B2C) scenario. The authors expand the IoT capabilities from conventional business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-customer (B2C) scenario to tri-nodal B2B2C relationship triangle.Practical implicationsBased on the findings, the authors offer a business transformation strategy for firms in key areas of customer satisfaction by leveraging IoT. The study can help management prioritize and develop key IoT capabilities to meaningfully increase customer satisfaction metrics.Originality/valueBuilding on the dynamic capabilities and resource-based view of the firm, an integrated decision-making research model is proposed. In addition, this study investigates the product and service capabilities unlocked using IoT capabilities. This work can be considered one of the leading attempts to improve customer satisfaction using IoT capabilities from traditional dyadic (B2B or B2C) structure to triadic (B2B2C) framework.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a strategic resource with the potential to enhance organizational performance in the financial services sector; however, empirical evidence on its performance outcomes remains inconclusive, particularly in emerging economies. This study examined the influence of artificial intelligence as a strategic resource on organizational performance in Kenya’s financial services sector, with specific focus on the mediating role of dynamic capabilities. The study was guided by six objectives: to assess the effects of AI-driven customer engagement, AI-powered risk management and fraud detection, AI-enabled process automation, AI-supported strategic decision-making, the joint effect of AI dimensions, and the mediating role of dynamic capabilities on organizational performance. The study was anchored on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities Perspective (DCP), supported by the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework and the Knowledge-Based View (KBV). A positivist research philosophy was adopted, employing a descriptive and explanatory cross-sectional survey design. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires from 263 managers and technical staff drawn from commercial banks and FinTech firms operating in Kenya, achieving a response rate of 94.3%. Data were analyzed using SPSS through descriptive statistics, reliability and validity tests, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and mediation analysis. Reliability was confirmed with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceeding the 0.70 threshold, while diagnostic tests confirmed compliance with regression assumptions. The findings revealed that AI-driven customer engagement, AI-powered risk management and fraud detection, AI-enabled process automation, and AI-supported strategic decision-making each had a positive and statistically significant effect on organizational performance (p < 0.05). These effects manifested through improved customer satisfaction and retention, reduced fraud losses, enhanced regulatory compliance, lower operational costs, improved efficiency, and stronger data-driven decision-making. Further analysis showed that the joint effect of AI dimensions was statistically significant and stronger than individual effects, confirming the presence of synergistic performance gains from integrated AI deployment. Mediation analysis established that dynamic capabilities, sensing, seizing, reconfiguring, and learning, significantly mediated the relationship between joint AI parameters and organizational performance. The study concludes that while AI adoption enhances organizational performance in Kenya’s financial services sector, sustainable performance gains depend on the development of strong dynamic capabilities. The findings validate the applicability of RBV and Dynamic Capabilities Theory in explaining AI-driven performance in emerging economies. The study recommends integrated AI strategies, continuous workforce reskilling, strengthened organizational learning systems, and robust AI governance frameworks. At the policy level, supportive AI regulations, investment in digital infrastructure, and regulatory sandboxes are recommended to promote responsible AI adoption.

The competitive environment within which organizations operate is evolving faster than ever, prompting organizations to change to keep up with the environmental changes. The dynamic capabilities (DCs) view seeks to answer how organizations attain and sustain competitive advantage in changing environments. In the past two decades, there has been a proliferation of research in the DCs domain; yet much remains to be investigated regarding the antecedents and outcomes of DCs. The term “dynamic marketing capabilities” (DMCs) refers to a subset of DCs with the emphasis on customer value. This research studies four DMCs: proactive market orientation, agility, opportunity creation, and value innovation. The development of DCs may be triggered by the necessity to reconfigure resources in dynamic environments or by managers’ decisions to change the current way of doing things in an attempt to improve performance. Therefore, environmental dynamism and dynamic managerial capabilities are antecedents of DCs. To achieve competitive advantage, organizations can employ two distinct but complementary strategies. First, they can match environmental demands by reconfiguring and renewing their organizational resource base. Second, they can create market turbulence. Therefore, these two strategies act as mediators between DMCs and organizational outcomes. A conceptual framework is developed in order to examine the relationship between DMCs, their antecedents, and outcomes. A sample of 270 usable responses was obtained from top and senior managers working in Australia. After ensuring the constructs’ reliability and validity, the hypotheses were tested by means of hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modeling. The results indicate that environmental dynamism and dynamic managerial capabilities positively affect the studied DMCs; however, the effect of dynamic managerial capabilities is stronger. Moreover, DMCs have a positive impact on operational marketing capabilities and induced market turbulence; these in turn positively affect organizational outcomes. The multi-mediation tests confirmed that operational marketing capabilities and induced market turbulence mediate the effect of DMCs on organizational outcomes. This study contributes to and extends the knowledge of DCs by proposing an integrative conceptual framework, explaining the antecedents of DMCs and the mechanism by which DMCs are linked to organizational outcomes. The findings re-emphasize the need for DCs in dynamic environments and highlight the critical role of dynamic managerial capabilities. Another contribution is that the study incorporates the element of induced market turbulence, hitherto missing in the literature pertaining to DMCs. This study also emphasizes that operational marketing capabilities mediate the relationship between DMCs and organizational performance. Moreover, four distinct DMCs (i.e., proactive market orientation, agility, opportunity creation, and value innovation) are identified, and scales are developed and validated to measure them. The findings suggest that these DMCs perform as anticipated. This research provides several insights for managers regarding DCs and how to apply them to organizations. The results of this study demonstrate that it is necessary for organizations to invest in developing DMCs, not to achieve performance improvement directly, but to optimize their operational marketing capability configuration. This, in turn, improves organizational outcomes. Moreover, managers are encouraged to invest in the development of DCs as a strategic rather than tactical approach. Another implication is that in ambiguous environments, organizations need to not only adapt to the environment, but also to employ strategies of environment constructing.

The objective of this study is to examine the influence of absorptive capability, innovative capability, and self-learning capability on the development of career skills of generation Z office/business administration graduates and prospective graduates in Indonesia. The study used a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional survey method to collect data from 100 respondents in Central Java. The respondents were graduates and prospective graduates of office/business administration. The analysis was conducted using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method to test the relationship between latent variables. The findings of the study suggest that the three primary variables (i.e., absorptive capability, innovative capability, and self-learning capability) exert a positive and significant influence on the development of career skills. Furthermore, it was determined that innovative capability and self-learning capability significantly mediate the relationship between absorptive capability and career skills. This study offers a theoretical contribution by expanding the application of dynamic capabilities theory to the realm of individual development. The practical implications of this study are twofold: first, it can serve as a foundational basis for the development of competency development strategies in graduate education and industry; and second, it can equip Generation Z with the relevant skills necessary for the future of work.

This study investigates how business intelligence capabilities (BIC) influence competitive performance (COP) in the Thai hotel industry, with a particular focus on the mediating role of innovation capability (INC). Drawing on the Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the study develops a structural model proposing that BIC improves COP both directly and indirectly through INC. Using stratified random sampling based on classifications from the Tourism Grading Council of Thailand, data were collected from 180 hotel managers through a structured questionnaire. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the proposed relationships. The results show that BIC does not directly affect COP, but has a strong and significant indirect effect through INC, indicating that innovation capability fully mediates this relationship. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening innovation to convert business intelligence insights into a competitive advantage. The study adds to the literature on business intelligence and innovation management by providing empirical evidence from the hospitality sector in an emerging market. It also stresses the strategic need to align business intelligence systems with innovation activities to achieve sustainable performance. The study offers originality by demonstrating that innovation capability fully mediates the link between business intelligence capabilities and competitive performance in the underexplored context of Thai hotels.