Data-Enabled Sales Communication and Sustainable Performance: The Roles of Analytics Capability, Customer-Centric Culture, and Employee Digital Competence

The research investigates the sequential routes through which customer-centric culture (CCC) leads to sustainable performance (SP) in the hospitality sector, by analyzing the mediating impacts of sales force automation (SFA) and big data analytics capabilities (BDACs), and the moderating impact of employee digital competence (EDC). A serial mediation model (CCC → SFA → BDACs → SP) was proposed and empirically tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on survey data from 315 managerial and operational employees in five-star hotels in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, grounded in the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, and service-dominant logic. The results support all eleven hypotheses and show that SFA has a positive effect on BDACs (β = 0.391) and SP (β = 0.319), and BDACs have a significant effect on SP (β = 0.143). The CCC has a significant direct impact on SFA (β = 0.746) and SP (β = 0.421). Importantly, the serial mediation pathway (CCC → SFA → BDACs → SP) is significant (β = 0.042) and EDC significantly moderates the SFA–BDAC (β = 0.447) and BDACs–SP (β = 0.112) relationships. The model accounted for 72.1% of the variance in SP. The findings emphasize that sustainable performance is not driven by mere technology adoption but a synergistic integration of customer-oriented culture, automation, analytics, and digital workforce competencies.