Application of the Qualitative Research Methodology Grounded Theory in Studying of the Needs of Tourist Destination Stakeholders and Developing Digital Industry Platform

Arefyev Alexander Sergeevich Lecturer, Department of Management Technologies in Tourism, Sochi State University 354003, Russia, Krasnodar Krai region, Sochi, ul. Ul. Plastunskaya, 94 arefyev.alexand@gmail.com Other publications by this author     Saveleva Nelli Aleksandrovna Doctor of Economics Professor, Department of Management and Technologies in Tourism and Recreation, Sochi State University 354002, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 sochi-nelli@yandex.ru Simonyan Arsen Rafikovich PhD in Physics and Mathematics Associate Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, Sochi State University 354002, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 oppm@mail.ru

GERBAUD Loran Doctor of Medicine Associated professor in health economy at the Faculty of Economics (CERDI), University Clermont- Auvergne 63000, France, Auvergne region, Clermont-Ferrand, Etienne Dole str., 25 laurent.gerbaud@uca.fr

Introduction. The digital transformation of economic and social life has an increasing impact on all subjects of the national economy. The formation of the digital economy implies not only a profound transformation of the economic activities of individual enterprises, but also the need to adapt to the new conditions of those participants who, due to subjective economic conditions, lack sufficient resources for full-scale changes in their management and production models.^[1,2] This problem is especially relevant for the service sector, in particular tourism. Indeed, transformational processes determine the need for long-term investments and, accordingly, for the development of a long-term business strategy. At the same time, low profitability, high instability and unpredictability of the tourism sector limit the possibilities of tourism companies in choosing a strategy to adapt to systemic changes in the economy. As a consequence, there is a need for effective management of digital transformation/adaptation: identification of needs, selection of goals and strategies, assessment of economic effect, etc.^[3]

When developing a general strategy for the development of the resort, the special social significance of the tourism industry should also be taken into account, not only for the travelers themselves, but also for the local population. The provision of tourist services is the main source of employment and an economic lever for the development of the local and regional economy. Thus, according to WTTC ^[4], in countries with developed tourism economies, the total contribution to the GDP of Spain and the USA in 2019 amounted to 14.3% and 8.6%, respectively, while in the Russian Federation this indicator was estimated at 5%; the total contribution of tourism to employment with a multiplier effect in the same year for The Austrian economy accounted for 19.1%, France — 13.8%, Russia — 6.6%. The CT process can have an impact (both positive and negative) on achieving the goals of sustainable development of resorts. Thus, tourist activity and the organization of economic relations resulting from it with the use of digital technologies should take into account the concepts of the life cycle of a tourist product, responsible use of natural tourist and recreational resources of a resort destination and fair distribution among the population of economic benefits produced on the basis of the use of these resources. This necessitates the interaction of representatives of all interested parties when developing a strategy for the development of a resort destination, including with regard to the formation of a digital economy. ^[5]

In 2019-2022, research work is being carried out at Sochi State University on a scientific project on the topic "Managing the digital transformation of a resort destination by the example of creating a digital industry platform of the Krasnodar Territory". Among other things, within the framework of this work, the alpha version of the digital management tool of the resort is being developed and implemented. In this regard, when developing a digital industry platform, the question arose of the need for a detailed and systematic study of the needs of tourism market participants in digital tools and finding solutions for their transition to new socio-economic conditions.

The complexity and insufficient degree of study of the research topic, which is located at the junction of three scientific disciplines — economics, sociology and computer science, necessitates the use of an adequate research methodology.^[6-8] In the scientific and business environment, there are various approaches and designs for conducting qualitative research: analytical induction, cognitive mapping, narrative analysis, phenomenography, etc.^[9] Somewhere repeating each other, each of the methodologies has advantages for individual tasks of its application. Since the ultimate goal of the scientific project is to develop the architecture of a digital industry platform, the result of the research approach used should be a unified concept based on observations. The methodology of qualitative research "The Foundation of theory", further FROM (English grounded theory; other translations: "Grounded theory", "Ascent to theory") is able to provide the tools necessary for this task. In this study, it was adapted to substantiate the concept of the digital industry platform being developed.

The "Grounded theory" approach. OT was developed and presented in the 60s by scientists Barney Glazer and Anselm Strauss based on their joint research in the field of palliative medicine. OT is a strict systematic approach, which, at the same time, leaves enough space for its flexible configuration and adaptation to the research topic, which prompted the choice of this methodology. ^[10]

The distinctive advantage of this approach is that data collection and analysis occur simultaneously and influence the choice of research direction. The researcher does not put forward primary theoretical concepts and does not build hypotheses, limiting himself only to defining the boundaries of the object of research and the characteristics of the collected data. Thus, for the purposes of the study, any data sources that meet the specified conditions can be used.

The main object of criticism and the disadvantage of this approach is that the final result of the study largely depends on the primary collection of information and its coding. "Open coding" is the first stage and largely orients the researcher in the subsequent collection of information. The purpose of this stage is to form the "bones" and "skeleton" of the future model, by assigning a keyword code to each identified topic from the entire volume of information collected and their subsequent articulation through the search for common key categories and subcategories. Important elements of the methodology are the writing of memos and the constant comparison of new data with already identified categories, which help to simultaneously outline the contours of the final model/theory and clarify the boundaries of the study.^[10]

During the next stage of analysis - "Selective coding", the category is saturated with data on the context and a detailed description of the nature of the observed phenomena by collecting new data in the process of "Theoretical sampling". This stage continues until the necessary level of abstraction, conceptualization and allocation of a central key category that could unite all the others is reached.^[11]

At the final stage, called "theoretical coding", the study focuses on identifying patterns between the occurrence of the actions of the study participants, which formed the basis of the categories. Also at this stage, the revealed patterns and characteristics of categories are compared with already existing theoretical research in the field of science under study. ^[12]

Thus, this method allows inductively forming a logical concept that would describe the phenomenon under study and directly confirm theoretical conclusions in observations. This feature of the OT method is indispensable in the study of new and dynamically developing fields of knowledge.

Research methodology. Since its inception, OT has won the approval of a large number of practitioners and has become the standard in conducting social research. The methodology also finds its application in the field of economics and information technology, which have a significant social component. Among the research topics are: the study of the experience of managing technological changes at innovative enterprises^[13], the experience of using information technology among the elderly ^[14], the refinement of the design of an existing digital product ^[15], as well as the study of relationships in software development teams^[16].

The lack of widespread use of this methodology in economic research in the development of digital products can be explained by the complexity of the perception of new digital technologies by research participants and projecting themselves into the digital environment. Rapidly developing technologies impose limitations in the formulation of interviewees' needs on the problem of adaptation to the digital economy. One of the solutions to increase the effectiveness of qualitative research in this area is the use of prototyping and visualization of concepts identified during the research.^[17] As practice has shown, research participants are more willing to be included in interviews and express their opinions on the questions asked based on a prototype of a digital solution. In this case, the pilot project helps to bring the study closer to the context, as well as to increase the sensitivity of the research methodology. ^[18]

Pilot study. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach in achieving the goals of this study, a pilot study was conducted according to the scheme shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The scheme of adaptation of the methodology - "The basis of theory" to the task of developing a digital platform.

Research context: actions, perceptions and experiences of individuals, members of organizations, associations and communities involved in the production or consumption of tourist products.  

The purpose of the study is to identify the needs of the business community, tourists and the local population in the field of digital technologies.

Thus, from the entire volume of information collected, those blocks will be allocated that contain information about the experience of participants arising during the production or consumption of tourist products (problems, wishes, situations) and about the context that caused this experience. This information will be grouped into topics and designated by a common definition for this topic during the open coding stage. From the topics received, the general needs of the participants will be allocated into key categories, for which, after a comparative analysis, digital solutions are proposed - subcategories that meet these needs in the form of platform services. The resulting topics, subcategories and key categories will be accompanied by analytical notes on their properties and characteristics, as well as the context of their occurrence. After that, at the stage of selective coding, the central key category characterizing the digital platform will be outlined and the re-encoding of topics will be carried out taking into account the identified category structure. At the stage of theoretical coding of the frequency of occurrence from quantitative data during the study of topic blocks, as well as after comparing the results obtained with the existing literature, the organizational structure of the platform will be proposed.

Data sources are in-depth interviews with research participants, scientific and expert literature.

Results of the pilot study. The conducted pilot study of the needs in the digital economy through interviewing eleven representatives of various categories of stakeholders (five business leaders, 3 experts in the field of administrative management and three tourists), as well as the analysis of 12 scientific articles on the topic of the study allowed to develop the concept of a digital industry platform and confirm the feasibility of using the proposed adaptation of the methodology for this purpose.

From the total volume of collected data, 62 semantic blocks were identified that meet the criteria of the study. At the stage of open coding, these blocks were assigned topics and, after sorting, they were grouped into 11 key categories (needs in the digital economy) and 13 subcategories (conditions for the emergence of needs, digital solutions). It was noted that the initially allocated key category "increasing the involvement of local and regional authorities in CT" included the largest number of topics, among which:

            -           Short planning horizon due to the complex geopolitical and economic situation in the world and the country; the need to develop a general strategy for the development of the resort, for the possibility of planning the development of tourist enterprises;

            -           The need to develop all-Russian systems for the formation and promotion of tourist products that give access to global markets;

            -           The need to increase the level of competencies of the population (professional and in the field of digital economy). The low level of competence may also be related to the topic of "insufficient motivation of personnel of enterprises and civil servants in the field of digitalization and automation" due to the fear of losing their jobs;

            -           The problem of insufficient development of digital infrastructure, including the CIS partner countries, which entails problems of building cooperation, as well as the need to duplicate information on paper and digital media;

            -           The need to coordinate the efforts of local enterprises in the field of digitalization, reducing the cost of development, implementation and maintenance of digital solutions;

            -           The need to optimize fiscal policy and financial incentives for industry enterprises that invest in the development of tourist products of the resort;

            -           The problem of the lack of reliable tourist statistics and insufficient/hard-to-access information about the state of the tourist market.

Despite the fact that the existence of a common strategy for the development of the resort, tourism development institutions and collaborations are not directly related to modern digital technologies, but are the fruits of the previous level of development of the post-industrial/service economy. Ignoring the absence of these factors can become a brake on the formation of the knowledge economy (noonomics) in the tourism industry ^[19]. Thus, this category was marked as one of the central ones for further development and saturation at the subsequent stages of information collection and analysis.

Figure 2. The result of theoretical coding of the needs of the stakeholders of the resort destination into the organizational basis of the digital platform.

The category "new forms of tourist experience" was formed from the need to develop creative industries, diversify tourist products and meet the needs of tourists in new technologies (augmented reality, virtual reality, "smart city", "smart hotel", "smart sanatorium", a single sanatorium card, online medical consultation and coaching, etc.). This the category was expanded by the proposed solution of the "service integrator", with the necessary level of competencies for the introduction of appropriate technologies, their adaptation to the needs of stakeholders and the distribution of the cost of development among several customers. The final diagram of the key categories and subcategories, as well as their interrelationships are shown in Figure 2.

Subsequent theoretical sampling and selective coding made it possible to expand the key categories "development of Russian systems for the formation and promotion of tourist products", "increasing trust in platforms" and "increasing trust in suppliers of tourist products", highlighting from them a possible digital solution — rating systems for tourism enterprises and tourist products based on distributed registry technology (blockchain), the joint use of which it can form the necessary level of trust between resort enterprises and tourists, as well as between business partners. The simultaneous introduction of its own marketplace integrating the aforementioned blockchain rating system will solve the problem of "cost reduction" and "convergence of suppliers and consumers", as well as act as a "Russian system for the formation and promotion of tourist products with the possibility of entering global markets." Separately, it is necessary to highlight the adaptation of the marketplace for congress tourism with the functions of conducting an online tender, forming collaborations from several contractors: logistics services, technological, media, event and entertainment support, translation services from foreign languages, etc. In this way, the Italian experience of the multilevel organization of the tourist marketplace^[20] and the French system of promotion of tourist products can be used Evaneos.com . At this stage, a subcategory was also identified that allows solving the problem of increasing the involvement of local and regional authorities, which was expanded to "the need to increase the involvement of all stakeholders through a collaborative digital service."

A collaborative digital service in the form of a social network, based on the general principles of building a digital platform, is connected with all its other modules. Thus, the crowdsourcing approach can be used in the medical tourism module to identify common problems of the medical cluster of the resort and find ways to eliminate them, optimize the use of the resort infrastructure of the city through the economy of shared consumption. Experts in the field of health tourism spoke about the need to classify sanatoriums and resorts, standardize and catalog the services of balneological centers and sanatorium-resort institutions to increase the effectiveness of tourist orientation and optimize the use of the resort's medical base, as well as develop a unified strategy for promoting the sanatorium-resort complex of Sochi.  Moreover, modern technologies are able to increase the profitability of sanatorium institutions through a system of remote medicine after the stay of tourists and a unified system of medical information. These issues are related to the field of sensitive data management and require the participation of a specialized system integrator of digital solutions. The collaboration established in 2020 between SSU and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Clermont-Auvergne (France) for the exchange of experience in this field can increase the value of the implemented industry platform for its participants.

Among the representatives of tourist enterprises interviewed as a result of the study, the problem of a shortage of qualified personnel was expressed. The collaborative service, through the Personnel module, is able to identify the necessary areas of training, competencies and the number of employees, to collect information about the actual work experience of resort workers in order to adapt working conditions and improve its efficiency. Due to the fact that the process of personnel training and their development of professional skills can take a considerable time, these issues require consistency with the goals and objectives of the overall development strategy of the resort. At the same time, one of the solutions to the problem of a shortage of personnel in the short term and the creation of conditions for their stable earnings may be the creation of a mechanism for employing highly qualified personnel at several enterprises within the framework of a collaborative service.

The implementation of all these functions within the framework of a single industry digital platform and its integration into the digital ecosystem of the region can have a multiplicative effect on the regional economy^[21]. This approach is in full compliance with paragraph 2.4.3.2. of the national project "Tourism and the Hospitality industry" within the framework of a Single plan to achieve the national development goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024 and for the planned period up to 2030: "Increasing awareness and demand for tourist products through their systematic promotion, as well as the development of digital services in the field of tourism on the basis of a single digital platform"^[22].

The analysis of literary sources at the stage of "Theoretical Coding" allowed us to form a general concept of a digital industry platform, which is based on a collaborative professional social network with additional services developed for the needs of each of the interested parties. This concept allows us to offer a digital solution for the central key category identified during the study - "increasing the involvement of all stakeholders in the digital economy". It should be mentioned that according to the program for the development of the information society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030, the ecosystem of the digital economy is based on "partnership of organizations that ensure the constant interaction of their technological platforms, applied Internet services, analytical systems, information systems of state authorities of the Russian Federation, organizations and citizens."^[23] Indeed, the platformization of the tourism economy corresponds to the peculiarities of the organization of economic relations inherent in the travel industry: a large number of market participants (tour operators, intermediaries, performers, customers), a significant share of the production of intangible goods and the complex nature of the tourist product, which includes the contribution of several independent market participants to the final value of the tourist product. Digital platforms play the role of an integrator of new technologies and competencies necessary for the development of economic sectors ^[24,25]. The largest part of the spectrum of end-to-end technologies can be applied in the tourist activity center: artificial intelligence elements, distributed registry technology, cloud technologies, robotics, virtual and augmented reality technology, etc. These technologies have a wide scope of application at all stages of production and consumption of tourist products: search for information when choosing a destination; personalization of the tour; preparation for the trip (centralized and automated collection and processing of documents, insurance, medical card, tickets); selection and purchase of additional goods and services (visiting attractions, museums, attractions); management tourist services on the spot (ordering room cleaning via a mobile application, robotic delivery); navigation around the resort using data on the tourist flows of mobile operators to minimize waiting time in queues; constant access to the Internet for feedback from your surroundings via social networks and much more.^[26] The possibility of introducing new technologies in tourism is limited only by the level of their availability in the country, as well as by the economic resources of interested parties. ^[27]

Moreover, as this study has shown, the OT methodology is an effective tool for studying the needs of participants in the tourist market and its use in the organization of the central core of the designed platform (collaborative professional social network) in the form of a software algorithm with machine learning elements will create an intelligent system for permanent monitoring of the business environment of a tourist destination, a knowledge base and a tool for the development of additional digital services.

Focusing on taking into account the needs of potential users will undoubtedly become the main component in developing a strategy for integrating the platform into the digital ecosystem of the resort. For this purpose, the main groups of human/user needs in the digital environment have passed an additional stage of theoretical coding and are distributed according to their degree of importance based on Maslow's pyramid of needs (Figure 3). The above ranking of needs is conditional and may have interpersonal variations.

Figure 3. Pyramid of human needs in the digital environment

So, in addition to the basic functionality, a digital tool, for example, the ability to buy all travel products and services online (transport, hotel, medical insurance, entertainment events, etc.), must meet the security needs of making a payment by bank card, guarantees of obtaining a reserved seat / services, and the absence of double sales. "Manageability/Awareness of the "digital tool" may consist in the possibility of choosing the method and means of payment, managing the hotel's services through a mobile application, as well as having all the information necessary for the purchase and use of services. The ideal state of awareness is achieved when a tourist is able to navigate in a new place for himself as in his hometown. The service should also provide a basic level of automation and optimization to save the client from unnecessary actions during its use. This group includes the need for a sufficient level of autonomy, for example, obtaining an electronic ticket without having to pick up a paper version, automated check-in at the hotel, etc. The need for integration/interactivity implies the possibility of forming a tour from the services of various sellers and the consistency of the purchased services among themselves, cloud storage and data transfer between different services and platforms. A digital tool can use audio and video support, the Internet of Things to facilitate the collection and transmission of information, improve the human-computer interface and eliminate the need to learn how to use this tool. "Socialization" includes the need to have access to the Internet at any place of a tourist's stay, to be able to get interesting information and media material in order to share it with relatives and friends. Additional value to the tool, taking into account the need for "personalization", can be obtained through the formation of individual tourist offers and additional services based on big data and the study of tourist behavior. "Creativity and novelty" can be attributed to a new tourist experience and opportunities for self-expression that a visitor can get as a result of using digital technologies of augmented reality, gamification, metaverses, 3D printing of souvenirs, etc. A wide group of needs "Involvement/Self-development" describes the whole set of approaches to increase a tourist's loyalty to using a digital service and visiting a resort destination. This group also includes tools for motivating users-employees of tourist enterprises to develop their abilities and competencies in information technology, for example through the opportunity to participate in the development of a digital service. Currently, the concept of business&leisure is gaining popularity, when tourism is carried out not only for the purpose of recreation, but also to benefit from travel (expansion of social and business ties, search for earning opportunities, etc.). Thus, this need can be attributed to the group "Involvement/Self-development". The increased attention to the goals of ESG (English Environmental Social Governance) and the need for interaction with the local population is reflected in the emergence of marketplaces to promote the products of local artisan producers and farms. An important role in this is played by increasing the level of trust and transparency of such services, which resort to blockchain-based technologies for this.

This system of ranking needs has been confirmed in the information received within the framework of the study on the frequency of their occurrence and can be used to select priorities in the development of the platform.

Conclusion and conclusions. The digital economy is a natural step in the development of the socio-economic system and is based on the achievements of previous stages: developed technological and citywide infrastructure; appropriate production standards of quality and safety; legislative framework that meets the needs of the socio-economic system of the state; developed human capital with broad competencies in information technology; low level of corruption;  ecosystem of economic and social development institutions. The implementation of the strategy for the development of the digital economy in the Russian Federation, of course, should not only be based on the existing reality of the level of socio-economic development of the country, but also on the international conjuncture and the availability of technology.

In modern conditions, crisis management approaches are coming to the fore, which include the mobilization of all production resources, highlighting strengths and advantages in each of the areas of the national economy and focusing on the development of critical components of the future digital economy. In this regard, it seems rational to use digital technologies not for such "technological excesses" as robotic services in hotels or augmented reality systems, but primarily to compensate for the missing elements of the development of the tourism sector of the previous stage of the post-industrial economy: collaborative industry platforms, statistical systems, ratings, specialized marketplaces for additional opportunities to create and promote tourism products, reducing the number of intermediaries and increasing competition, which ultimately should lead to lower prices, increased supply and improved quality of service in the tourist market. Such platforms make it possible to mobilize one of the most valuable resources of noonomics — human capital, which includes the knowledge and competencies of both numerous travel industry enterprises and individual residents and guests of the resort in the form of crowdsourcing. This hypothesis is confirmed by the findings of the study, in which the interviewees preferred such tools, and "new forms of tourist experience using digital technologies" were mentioned much less often.

The final results of the study can be confirmed or refuted by the experience of practical implementation of the received digital platform model in practice, the core of which is a system for monitoring the needs of stakeholders.

Despite the fact that there was already experience in creating such systems for individual individual industries, they were based mainly on the construction of expert assessments. ^[28] The authors of this study see a crowdsourcing approach as more adequate for the tourism industry, in which there are significantly more subtleties of stakeholder relationships that are difficult to model.

The initial experience of developing the architecture of the digital platform in 2020 was based on the agile management approach within the framework of the All-Russian accelerator educational program of the ANO "University 20.35".^[27] The assessment of the needs of stakeholders was not a central component of this approach. The concept of the main services of the platform was proposed by the initiative group of experts of Sochi State University. Despite the fact that the solutions embedded in the architecture of the platform, from the point of view of experts, were of great value to the ecosystem of the digital economy and the project was highly appreciated by the organizers of the acceleration and educational program, the cost and strategy of implementing the results obtained in practice were not sufficiently taken into account in the development of the architecture. The lack of focus on the needs of stakeholders and the implementation strategy of solutions served as an obstacle to its further implementation. This omission is a common mistake in CT projects.

Thus, an important component of the next stage of the scientific project is the development of an integration strategy developed on the basis of a collaborative service Biggeo.ru an industry platform in the ecosystem of the digital economy of the region. In this context, it is necessary to take into account the necessary level of competencies of potential users, as well as their motivation. Further research is aimed at confirming the primary results and forming practical recommendations in the field of developing an industry digital platform. The approbation of the conclusions and solutions obtained will allow us to provide valuable experience in managing the development of digital transformation projects of the resort destination and its extension to other sectors of the economy.

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