Purpose: This article aims to propose guidelines to develop moderation hypotheses, assess moderators using the multigroup analysis and interaction effect approaches and interpret the results of moderation analysis in tourism and hospitality research. Design/methodology/approach: Through a review of 600 articles published in top tourism and hospitality journals from the year 2016 to 2020, and reviewing the literature related to moderation analysis, this study identifies key issues in different steps of moderation analysis and proposes robust guidelines to aid future research. Findings: The results of the systematic review uncovered some key issues in different steps of moderation analysis, such as hypothesis development, moderation assessment and results interpretation. The findings emphasized the typical methodological misconceptions and improper practices for moderation analysis. Research limitations/implications: Moderation analysis is of great significance to the advancement of theory, and its application has increased significantly in recent years. However, many studies appear to have a limited understanding of moderation analysis and follow questionable practices regarding hypothesis development, moderation assessment and results interpretation, thus leading to suspicious conclusions for theory advancement. By highlighting these methodological issues, this article provides robust guidelines for moderation analysis, which is of great theoretical and methodological significance to the academic research in tourism and hospitality. Originality/value: As one of the first studies to provide robust guidelines for moderation analysis, based on a critical and systematic review of papers published in top-tier journals in tourism and hospitality and the latest developments on moderation analysis in the wider literature, this article has important theoretical and methodological significance for the academic research in tourism and hospitality as well as general social science disciplines.

Community participation is critical to tourism development, and how to promote community participation has become one of the major concerns of tourism practitioners and scholars. Although several tourism researchers have applied the MOA model to study the influencing factors of community participation, there is still a lack of literature that can provide adequate empirical support to substantiate the predictive power of the MOA model for examining community participation in the context of tourism, particularly in the context of heritage tourism. Given this gap, this research aims to investigate the influences of motivation, opportunity, and ability on community participation in heritage conservation and heritage tourism development by using the MOA model. This study was conducted in Taiping, Malaysia, a famous heritage town. Data were analysed through complementary methods of partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The findings of PLS-SEM showed the significance of residents’ perceptions towards positive socio-cultural impacts and opportunity for community participation, whereas the results of fsQCA enriched the interpretation of more complicated relationships and uncovered multiple configurations to enhance community participation. Additionally, this study also provided several practical implications for local authorities to promote community participation.

Sustainable tourism emphasises responsible utilisation of economic, socio-cultural and environmental resources for tourism development. Extant literature in sustainable tourism leans towards subjective and qualitative description in explaining the dynamic nature of the trans-disciplinary indicators of sustainability. However, few mechanisms have been proposed or developed to quantify the indicators measuring sustainable tourism in an indigenous ethnic context. The current study measures 61 sustainable indigenous tourism indicators of the Mah Meri ethnic group that comprise three constructs, namely, community resources, community development and sustainable tourism. Simple random sampling was employed for data elicitation and a weighted average score using R software as the basis of analysis was used to produce a sustainable indigenous tourism barometer (SITB). The study identifies 11 sustainability dimensions from the initial three main constructs that are treated as the relationship aspects in this study. Based on the Sustainable Indigenous Tourism Barometer (SITB), community participation, empowerment, economic and socio-cultural sustainability are found to be the main influencing dimensions of sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. However, natural resources, financial resources and environmental sustainability indicated weaker relationships in explaining sustainability of the Mah Meri ethnic group. Based on the SITB, the results demonstrate that the Mah Meri ethnic group are a “potential sustainable” tourism stakeholder.

Despite the growing social entrepreneurship (SE) literature in other disciplines, the research on tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) is still in its infancy, and the knowledge has not been explicitly mapped. Moreover, the existing literature consists primarily of descriptive case studies of successful TSE initiatives, and few of them have reached a comprehensive conclusion on operational experiences, nor have they further reflected on the mechanisms of how these operational experiences lead to more successful TSE. Given these voids, by systematically reviewing the extant literature, this paper contributes to the literature by depicting a knowledge map, extracting 17 operational experiences, and proposing two roadmaps demonstrating the mechanisms through which these operational experiences lead to more successful TSE. Additionally, we suggest potential theories to help researchers understand the relationships in the proposed roadmaps. Lastly, this review also critically discusses the limitations and gaps of the existing literature. Particularly, this review shows that TSE researchers usually maintain a somewhat uncritical and idealistic stance on the impact of TSE because they tend to uncritically acclaim TSE as a panacea for various social problems. Based on the limitations and gaps, we also provide recommendations for future research.

ICT development has become the development pulse of the global nation. Malaysia, as a developing nation, has invested heavily in ICT development across the country to ensure no one is left behind. The policymakers have also claimed a positive result in closing the digital gap among their people. In this study, Van Dijk’s theory of digital divide is explored on the four dimensions of digital divide (motivation, physical, skill, and usage) among the native people in Sabah. A focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted among 21 key informants from seven different ethnic groups to identify the issues of ICT development in their community. The findings showed that the existence of a digital gap between the rural and the urban area community caused the community to be saddled with the connection to telecommunication service, including landline and internet. Despite lacking, the native community were receptive and willing to adopt the ICT positively for their daily activities. While the theory of digital divide observes that the physical access divide is narrowing in most developed nations, this study shows that is not the case for developing countries, such as Malaysia. The inequality in digital access is prevalent among the natives in Sabah, which could result in the opportunity to participate in important democratic decision-making.