Abstract
As digital transformation becomes a strategic approach, it is emerging as a route by which hotels can enhance their efficiency, service and sustainability. The advantages of digital transformation, however, are not equal among hotels as the resources, management support, organizational culture, staff expertise and operational structures vary from organization to organization. The study investigated the moderating effect of the hotel characteristics on the relationship between four dimensions of digital technology adoption and hotel sustainability for the star rated hotels in Eldoret and Kisumu cities in Kenya. Guest-Facing Technology Adoption (GFTA), Operations Technology Adoption (OTA), Data Analytics Solutions Adoption (DASA), and Integrated Digital Platform Adoption (IDPA) were the dimensions. The concepts that guided the study were the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework and the Organizational Resilience Theory. A positivist philosophy and cross sectional quantitative survey approach were used. A total of 27 star rated hotels were identified, out of which five middle level managers were identified from; Front Office, Reservations, Guest Relations, ICT and Finance in each hotel, that amounted to 135 respondents. Of this, 119 usable questionnaires were returned, for an 88.1% return. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, Hayes PROCESS Model 1 Multiple Regression were used to analyse data. The moderation results showed statistically significant interaction effects for GFTA × hotel characteristics (β = −0.0360, ΔR² = .0419, p < .001), OTA × hotel characteristics (β = −0.0427, ΔR² = .0803, p < .001), DASA × hotel characteristics (β = −0.0291, ΔR² = .0372, p = .0001), and IDPA × hotel characteristics (β = −0.0151, ΔR² = .0121, p = .0225). The operations technology showed the highest moderation effect and integrated digital platforms showed the lowest. Conditional-effects analysis also revealed that, the greater the improvement in hotel characteristics, the more influential GFTA and OTA became, with the same direction of effect for DASA and IDPA, but not at conventional significance levels at all levels of moderation. The research findings suggest that digital transformation is not simply a technology purchasing project, but a business capability that should be considered in the context where it's being implemented. Hotel technology investments should therefore be accompanied by management commitment, financial and technological resources, digital competence, innovation-oriented culture and supportive operational structures. The findings add empirical evidence from emerging urban tourism destinations in Kenya while building on technology-sustainability scholarship as they illustrate the significance of the hotel characteristics as boundary conditions of the outcomes of digital transformation.
Keywords: digital transformation, hotel characteristics, hotel sustainability, digital technology adoption, moderation, star-rated hotels, Kenya