Innovation Sustainability in Tourism: The Impact of Digital Entrepreneurship with Financial Access as a Moderator

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between digital entrepreneurship and innovation sustainability in Kuching’s tourism sector, with access to financial resources as a moderating factor. Four dimensions of digital entrepreneurship were investigated which are Digital Technology Behaviors (DTB), Digital Entrepreneurship Capability (DEC), Digital Infrastructure (DI) and Digital Business Model (DBM). A quantitative design was employed using survey data from 486 tourism enterprises across nine subsectors in Kuching, Sarawak. Grounded in Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the study utilized Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyze direct and moderated relationships. All four digital entrepreneurship dimensions significantly influenced innovation sustainability, with DTB (β=0.599) and DI (β=0.526) showing the strongest direct effects, followed by DBM (β=0.515) and DEC (β=0.368). Critically, Access to Financial Resources significantly moderates only the relationship between DBM and Innovation Sustainability (β=0.400, p<0.001), while moderating effects on DTB, DEC and DI relationships were non-significant. The model explained 60.3% of variance in innovation sustainability. Digital business model innovation and infrastructure development are the most impactful drivers of sustainable innovation in tourism, but they operate through different mechanisms. Financial resources substantially enhance business model innovation outcomes while technological behavior and entrepreneurial capabilities depend more on knowledge and skills than financial access. The study extends Resource-Based View theory by demonstrating that not all digital resources are equally reliant on financial capital. Practically, tourism enterprises should prioritize business model innovation and infrastructure investment, while policymakers should develop targeted financial schemes supporting digital business model experimentation and scaling in regional tourism contexts.