Digital Empowerment’s Impact on Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanism in China’s Smart Hotels

Against the backdrop of digital transformation, the inherent correlation between Digital Empowerment and Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanisms in China’s smart hotels has become a research focus, yet the psychological and cognitive transmission paths between them remain insufficiently verified. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model, this study adopts a quantitative research method and uses structural equation modeling and the Bootstrap resampling method to empirically test the impact of Digital Empowerment on Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanisms and explore the mediating roles of Work Commitment and Digital Self-Efficacy. The results demonstrate that Digital Empowerment directly enhances Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanisms. In addition, Digital Empowerment significantly increases both Work Commitment and Digital Self-Efficacy. These two variables partially mediate the relationship between Digital Empowerment and Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanisms. Specifically, two mediating pathways are identified: the first pathway proceeds from Digital Empowerment to Work Commitment and then to Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanisms, while the second pathway proceeds from Digital Empowerment to Digital Self-Efficacy and then to Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanisms. These findings extend value co creation theory and provide practical implications for incentive strategy design in smart hotels.Keywords: Digital Empowerment; Customer-Oriented Incentive Mechanism; Work Commitment; Digital Self-Efficacy; JD-R Model, Sustainable Growth