SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES AND INNOVATIONS IN THE COASTAL HOSPITALITY SECTOR OF TAMIL NADU

Purpose This study examines the sustainability challenges and innovations in the coastal hospitality sector of Tamil Nadu, with a focus on the influence of institutional pressures—coercive, normative, and mimetic—on organizational responses and sustainability performance. Grounded in Institutional Theory, the research aims to understand how external institutional forces drive firms to adopt sustainable practices in an environmentally fragile and economically vital sector. Methods A quantitative research design was employed, using survey data collected from hospitality operators along Tamil Nadu’s coastal regions. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to test the hypothesized relationships between institutional pressures, organizational responses, and sustainability performance. The analysis followed a two-step approach: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to assess the measurement model and SEM to evaluate structural relationships, with model fit indices used to ensure robustness. Findings The results reveal that coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures significantly and positively influence organizational responses, which in turn strongly enhance sustainability performance. Organizational responses were found to mediate the relationship between institutional pressures and sustainability outcomes, demonstrating that external forces must be internalized and operationalized through organizational strategies to yield tangible environmental and social benefits. Originality/Value This study extends Institutional Theory by applying it to the context of coastal hospitality in a developing economy, an area that remains underexplored in the literature. It highlights the role of institutional dynamics in shaping sustainability pathways and offers practical insights for managers and policymakers to leverage regulatory frameworks, industry norms, and peer benchmarking to foster innovation and long-term resilience in the hospitality sector.