Use, Stay or Leave? Relating STARA Competencies and Intention to Use to Hotel Employee Turnover Intention

Abstract

Drawing on Person Job Fit and Person Organization theories, the present study aims to investigate the association between employee smart technology and AI competencies and turnover intention via the mediation of intention to use smart technologies. Furthermore, the moderation effect of perceived alternative employment opportunities (PAEO) was explored on the relationship between the intention to use technology and turnover intention. Data were collected from 547 hotel employees in the United States of America via Amazon’s MTurk and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that employee smart technology and AI competencies was not found to be significantly associated with employee turnover intention. However, the results from the mediation analysis showed that employee smart technology and AI competencies was positively and significantly associated with turnover intention through intention to use (ITU). The moderation analysis further confirmed that the positive relationship between ITU and TOI was enhanced when the perceived level of PAEO is high. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.