An Empirical Study on Resident Engagement in Service Innovation for Wellness Tourism Sustainable Development: An Analysis Based on SEM and fsQCA

Abstract

As wellness tourism destinations face increasing competitive pressures and environmental challenges, there is a heightened emphasis on implementing innovative service strategies that promote community engagement and sustainable development. The study proposes an integrated model grounded in generativity and service innovation theory to investigate the factors influencing resident engagement in service innovation performance (SIP). Four hundred-eight valid responses are using a snowball sampling technique. This research employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the impact of individual variables, complemented by fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the synergistic effects of multiple variables. The SEM results indicate that place attachment, generativity, and digital technology significantly enhance resident engagement in SIP, whereas knowledge management does not exhibit a statistically significant effect. Furthermore, fsQCA identifies three configurations linked to high-quality SIP and two configurations associated with low-quality SIP. The complementary insights gained from SEM and fsQCA enhance theoretical frameworks and provide practical implications for stakeholders in the tourism sector.