IoT skills in smart tourism: an intellectual-capital perspective on technology beliefs and continuance intention

Purpose This study develops a knowledge-capability explanation of Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled smart-tourism engagement by examining how green human capital (GHC) is associated with tourists' IoT Skills and how these skills, in turn, relate to perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and continuance intention. The proposed model distinguishes sustainability-oriented human capital from technology-specific skill, while positioning the smart-tourism ecosystem as the broader contextual setting. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 467 respondents through an online survey in China and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4. Reflective measurement quality, collinearity, discriminant validity, structural paths, effect sizes, indirect effects, model-fit diagnostics and statistical power were assessed. Findings GHC is positively associated with IoT skills, while IoT skills are positively associated with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control are positively associated with attitude, which in turn is positively associated with continuance intention. The two serial indirect associations linking GHC to continuance intention through IoT skills and either perceived usefulness or perceived ease of use, followed by attitude, are also significant. Originality/value The study refines the intellectual-capital framing of smart-tourism technology use in two ways. First, it treats GHC as a sustainability-oriented stock of knowledge and competence embodied in the individual tourist, while IoT skills represent a distinct technology-specific capability for interacting with connected services. Second, it explains how this capability is associated with downstream technology beliefs and evaluative attitudes.