Organizational Learning, Problem-Solving Competency, and Effectiveness in Online Travel Agencies: The Moderating Role of Digital Empowerment

This study empirically examines how organizational learning influences problem-solving competency and organizational effectiveness in the context of online travel agencies (OTAs) and tests the moderating role of digital empowerment. Using agency lists registered under Korea’s Tourism Promotion Act, we employed stratified sampling by region and simple random sampling within strata. Data collection was commissioned by the Tourism/Leisure HRD Council. A survey was carried out from 2 to 19 June 2025; of the 210 questionnaires returned, 204 valid responses were analyzed. Measures were adapted from prior studies on a five-point Likert scale. Analyses conducted in SPSS 27.0 included descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), reliability testing (Cronbach’s α), correlation analysis, and simple and hierarchical regressions. The results indicate that (1) organizational learning has a significant positive effect on problem-solving competency (β = 0.541, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.293); (2) organizational learning positively affects organizational effectiveness (β = 0.436, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.190); and (3) problem-solving competency positively influences organizational effectiveness (β = 0.624, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.389). Regarding moderation, digital empowerment did not significantly moderate the organizational learning → problem-solving link but did significantly moderate the organizational learning → organizational effectiveness relationship ( p < 0.05), suggesting that digital empowerment enhances the conversion efficiency of learning into performance. Theoretically, this study substantiates the learning–problem-solving–performance mechanism in a service/tourism setting and identifies digital empowerment as a catalytic moderator that strengthens the translation of learning into organizational outcomes. Practically, the findings imply that OTAs can amplify organizational effectiveness by building digital empowerment structures—data-driven decision systems, process automation, and real-time customer-response capabilities—which enable learned knowledge to materialize into performance. Future research should incorporate digital maturity, leadership, customer orientation, and related variables into extended models.