Strategic responses of tourism companies to institutional pressures in smart servitization

Existing research clearly indicates that smart tourism policies bring positive prospects and legitimacy demands under institutional pressure to tourism companies. However, it remains unclear what strategies these companies will adopt to respond to macro-level institutional pressures. This study integrates institutional theory and strategic response theory to investigate how tourism businesses respond to institutional pressures through two types of smart servitization: basic and value-added. A survey of 219 tourism companies in China was conducted, and the data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that the impacts of these pressures vary between the two servitization types. For basic smart servitization, coercive pressure had the strongest impact, followed by normative pressure, while mimetic pressure was less influential. Conversely, for value-added smart servitization, only normative pressure was significantly impactful, suggesting that this advanced level of servitization is mainly driven by the need for market legitimacy rather than by government mandates or competitors. The findings contribute to our understanding of how smart servitization in tourism is influenced by external pressures and the application of strategic response theory under institutional pressures. It offers valuable insights for policymakers and managers in the tourism sector, guiding them in making informed decisions regarding smart tourism.