Influence of IT Capabilities, Sustainability Practices, Service Quality and Top Management Support on Organizational Performance in the UAE Hospitality Industry

Abstract

In the last few decades, globalization and government pressure has made various firms increasingly consider the practice of sustainability for sustained competitive advantage. Also, the concept of sustainability has consistently been acknowledged as attracting considerable attention in the hospitality industry. However, not all sustainability activities can be implemented due to their conflict with high service quality standards and practical interests that may affect profit. Therefore, in a highly competitive environment, some leading hospitality companies have made countless efforts to modify their existing processes and systems to be more environmentally friendly and to incorporate sustainable business practices into their company culture and structure. Furthermore, delivering quality customer service with the practice of sustainability has emerged as a strategic imperative, one that is increasingly tied to a firm's information technology resources and capabilities. The rise of technology has been seen as a proliferation of the economy, one that integrates people, process and information technologies (IT) together. However, the IT capabilities that organizations should develop to dynamically manage sustainability portfolios are not well-understood. This objective of this study is to investigate the impact of IT capabilities of the hospitality industry on organizational performance. It examines the impact of sustainability practices and service quality on the relationship vi between IT capabilities and organizational performance in particular. In addition, the study examines the moderating effect of top management support. A survey was conducted to collect data regarding the current status of IT capabilities, service quality and the sustainability practices among hospitality firms in the United Arab Emirates. A three-wave, time-lagged approach was employed with a sample of 507 hotels managers participated in the study using an online survey. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model. IT capabilities were discovered to have a direct and indirect impact on organizational performance. In particular, this study found that sustainability practices and service quality have an indirect impact on the relationship between IT capabilities and organizational performance. Furthermore, the influence of IT capabilities on organizational performance is moderated by top management support. This study is useful to practitioners and policy makers in the hospitality industry who intend to improve their organizational performance. The hospitality business benefits from this study because it reveals the link between IT capabilities, sustainability practices, service quality, top management support, and organizational performance which are the most relevant factors to it. Furthermore, the results can support management and policy makers in hospitality firms by identifying the barriers and benefits of these factors to take better decisions. This study makes valuable contribution to the existing literature since there are limited studies on the benefits of IT capabilities and vii sustainability practices in the hospitality industry in developing countries. The contribution of this study lies in the under-researched context by investigating the relationship between IT capabilities, sustainability practices, service quality, top management support, and organizational success in an under-researched area. In this essence, this is the first empirical study to examine the indirect effect of sustainability practices and service quality on the relationship between IT capabilities and organizational performance which contributes to the tourism and hospitality industries in the context of UAE