Exploratory and co-exploratory innovation. The mediating role of digitalization on competitiveness in the hotel industry
研究西班牙322家三星级以上酒店，发现创新活动本身不提升竞争力，只有通过数字化才能将创新转化为高效流程和差异化服务，对酒店管理者有直接指导意义。
Tourism plays a fundamental role in the economy of many countries and its growth is driven by the capacity of the tourism industry to offer new products and experiences. To compete efficiently, tourism firms need to be innovative, either through increasing their efficiency or by offering new high-quality products capable of satisfying customer demands. The complexity of the tourism environment highlights the need to understand innovation patterns that contribute to improving competitiveness in tourism firms, especially in the hotel industry. Therefore, the objective of this study is twofold. First, analyze the relationship between innovation processes and competitiveness in the hotel industry. Second, study whether digitalization in the hotel industry influences the innovation-competitiveness relationship. Following an exhaustive literature review, we develop a research model with four hypotheses, which are tested through PLS on a population of 322 Spanish hotels with at least 3 stars. The results show that innovation activities alone do not increase hotel competitiveness and that hotels should digitalize their activities in order to capitalize on innovation efforts towards efficient processes and differentiated services.