Does digitalization always benefit cultural, sports, and tourism enterprises quality? Unveiling the inverted U-shaped relationship from a resource and capability perspective

Abstract

Abstract The impact of digitalization on the high-quality development of “technology-sparse” but “labor-intensive” cultural, sports, and tourism enterprises may not follow a linear path. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore the mechanism by which digitalization contributes to the integrated high-quality development of enterprises from the perspective of resources and capabilities. The majority of studies focus on the theoretical realm, while challenges in acquiring crucial data indicators constrain the advancement of empirical inquiries. This study creates a lexicon of digitized features encompassing strategic, technical, and application layers within cultural, sports, and tourism enterprises. The MD&A texts from annual reports were processed using the TF-IDF algorithm, which is based on machine learning, to assess the level of digitization. Additionally, integration development was incorporated into the evaluation system for high-quality development of cultural, sports, and tourism enterprises via social network analysis. In terms of theoretical contributions, enterprise search and reorganization capabilities were included within the scope of core enterprise capabilities. Furthermore, the study elucidated the roles of human capital and enterprise innovation in the interplay between digitalization and high-quality development, drawing upon the resource-based view and core capabilities theory. Finally, we empirically examined panel data from 116 listed cultural, sports, and tourism companies in Chinese A-share markets from 2010 to 2020. The findings reveal the following: (1) There is an inverted U-shaped association between digitalization and high-quality development, initially promoting then hindering progress, with a persistent pattern over time and robustness against instrumental variable regression and endogeneity tests. Additionally, the majority of cultural, sports, and tourism enterprises fall within a moderate range, indicating a positive impact on high-quality development. (2) Human capital and enterprise innovation are mediators of the inverted U-shaped relationship between digitalization and high-quality development. (3) The influence of digitalization on high-quality development significantly varies depending on the enterprise’s geographical location, life cycle, and risk tolerance. The study reveals the digitalization journey within cultural, sports, and tourism enterprises, offering theoretical insights for fostering collaborative high-quality development within the industry amid digitalization.