Abstract
Digital technologies are reshaping the competitive landscape of the hospitality industry, with leading firms leveraging digital transformation to innovate and adapt their traditional business models. Despite a growing body of research on digital transformation, the processes and mechanisms needed to sustain its performance and effectively coordinate human resources with emerging technologies remain underexplored.This research introduces socio-technical practice as a critical process for achieving the digital transformation of the business model. The concept highlights how transformation is sustained through the collective interaction of employee and customer with emerging technologies. Rather than treating digital transformation as a one-time project, this study conceptualizes it as a dynamic, embedded and recursive process driven by habitual practices.
Drawing on an in-depth case study of HotelCo, a globally renowned Chinese hospitality firm, this study examined a successful digital transformation journey that enabled the firm to reconfigure its value creation logic and thrive through a digitally adapted model. In developing the socio-technical practice concept, we identified three interconnected mechanisms: digitally driven reconfiguration, agile digital strategy alignment, and adaptive hybrid service offerings.
Adopting a combined theoretical lens of social practice theory and socio-technical systems theory, this research sheds light on how the coordinated deployment of digital technologies across multiple stakeholders enables a more sustainable form of digital transformation. By developing and theorizing these socio-technical practice mechanisms, this research presents three main contributions. First, it advances a processual and empirical understanding of digital transformation by proposing a concept that explicates how social and technical elements are coordinated over the long term, and demonstrates concretely how supply-side and demand-side practices collectively drive business model changes. Second, it extends practice theory by incorporating the constitutive role of digital technologies in shaping new forms of organisational habitus. Third, it provides practical managerial implications, offering actionable insights into how hospitality firms can effectively manage and sustain digital transformation.
| Date of Award | 15 Nov 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Martin Liu (Supervisor) & Jimmy Huang (Supervisor) |