Exploring and Evaluating the Impact of ICTs on Culture and Tourism Industries’ Convergence: Evidence from China

Abstract

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been driving the digital revolution of all industries worldwide. Industrial convergence constitutes a new feature and trend of contemporary industrial development and has received extensive attention from the media and public. However, the interrelationship between the two concepts—industrial convergence and ICTs—remains under-researched. This paper aims to explore and evaluate the ICTs’ impact on industrial convergence by focusing on the interrelationship between culture and tourism. The study takes an industrial economics perspective with a specific focus on the multi-dimensional (direct, moderated, and threshold) effects. A research framework was suggested synthesizing three econometric models and encompassing three hypotheses. The research model was then empirically tested and validated through quantitative research using China’s provincial panel data from 2004 to 2018. The study’s findings indicate a positive influence/relationship between ICTs and market-oriented reforms in the culture and tourism industries’ convergence. Moreover, a positive labor-convergence relationship was found, while the negative government–convergence relationship was uncovered in control variables. Regarding the moderating effect, the interaction of ICTs and market-oriented reforms is positively correlated with industrial convergence. In addition, there is a single-threshold effect of consumer demand on the ICTs–convergence relationship. This article extends our knowledge in two ways by addressing the knowledge gap regarding the interrelationship between culture and tourism and by providing new insights into the influence of ICTs on this industrial convergence that has theoretical and practical implications.

How does the integration of cultural and tourism industries impact the value added to tourism value chain: Evidences from Jiangsu Province of China

“…From the industrial level, the postal business volume [ 29 ] has difficulty in reflecting the development level of 5G Internet. The Internet penetration rate [ 14 ] ignores the overall digital economy. Therefore, this paper used the ratio of the GDP of the information transmission, computer services and software industry to the total regional GDP as the proxy variable for information technology.…”

“…The integration between cultural and tourism industries has apparent advantages in promoting industrial and economic development [ 13 ]. With the development of digital economy, information technology has rebuilt the tourism value chain [ 14 ] and greatly improved the tourism efficiency [ 15 ]. According to the available literature, researchers have not comprehensively discussed the necessity of the integration between cultural and tourism industries, nor have they elaborated how to do it from the perspective of high-quality tourism development.…”

Exploratory Study of Societal Contexts and Industry Performance

“…Our new theory is culture influences economic decisions, and economy and culture affect industry performance, which varies with technological advancement. For example, there is evidence that suggests culture drives tourism performance (Zhou & Sotiriadis, 2021). Figure 13 illustrates our proposed expansion of the IIF as a proposed theory for ICT4D.…”

“…Third, expanding economy (such as output, wages, and employment) and public policy variables should benefit future research. Fourth, country-level findings suggest culture influence business practices due to unique cultural characteristics that can boost performance such as tourism (Zhou & Sotiriadis, 2021). Despite using country to represent culture (Hofstede, 1980;Palvia et al, 2017), better cultural measures can be considered.…”

Structural Changes in the Information and Communication Sector in the Creative Economy System of the Eu Countries: Experience for Ukraine

“…Based on the study of socio-economic indicators of development in 160 countries, the peculiarities of the relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation and the creative economy were identified [8]. Researchers identified the existence of positive relationships between the ICS and market-oriented reforms in China's cultural and tourism industries [9].…”