Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550

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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhtm

Examining cultural intelligence, heritage responsibility, and

entrepreneurship performance of migrant homestay inn entrepreneurs: A
case study of Hongcun village in China
Fajian Liu a, *, Xiaoyu Wu a, Jinyan Xu a, Dongdong Chen b
a
Huizhou Studies Research Center, Anhui University, Hefei, China
b
School of Management, Anhui Broadcasting Movie and Television College, Hefei, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The ability to handle cross-cultural affairs efficiently has become critical to migrant tourism entrepreneurs in
Homestay inn establishing business and surviving in a culturally distinct environment, especially in a cultural heritage site.
Migrant entrepreneurs Using a sample of homestay inn entrepreneurs in Hongcun Village, this study examines how cultural intelligence
Cultural intelligence
(CQ) affects the migrant tourism entrepreneurs’ subjective performance (SP) and heritage responsibility (HR)
Subjective performance
Heritage responsibility
and whether HR plays a mediating effect on the relationship of CQ to SP. Applying the PLS-SEM approach to a
Hongcun Village sample of 142 homestay inn entrepreneurs, this study finds that CQ promotes HR and SP. However, only the
Motivational CQ and Cognitive CQ dimensions positively influence HR and SP separately. The mediating effects
of HR are also validated on the overall path from CQ to SP and the Motivational CQ to SP. The findings confirm
the validation of the assumption “With great ability, comes greater responsibility and greater results in business”
in tourism entrepreneurship. Finally, some theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

1. Introduction
In the second decade of the 21st century, the homestay inn and bed
and breakfast (B&B) industry has increased dramatically throughout
China. According to data from the China Hotel Association,1 the number
of online homestay inns and B&Bs in 2018 quickly increased to 50 k,
nearly 10 times the number of existing hotels in 2015.2 Meanwhile,
homestay inns specifically had become the representative and main
sector of tourism production (Hsieh & Lin, 2010; Jones & Guan, 2011),
especially in some rural tourism areas. This creates important entre­
preneurship opportunities for local and lifestyle migrants to engage in
tourism development. As a new type of cultural experience that in­
tegrates rural, local, and heritage cultural elements, the attraction of
homestay inns mostly depends on their ability to reflect the culture and
lifestyle of the countryside (Polo Peña et al., 2016) in order to satisfy
customers (Wang & Hung, 2015). The owners’ or investors’ ability and
intention to make use of cultural elements have been increasingly
important yet challenging factors for their success (Zhang et al., 2013).
China is a large and diverse country (Gong et al., 2011; Sun et al.,
2019). People speak, look, and behave differently in different regions.
Regional variations contribute to the great diversity of cultures (Zhang,
2019), and cultural diversity shapes a person’s behaviors and mind
(Gong et al., 2011; Sun et al., 2019). Therefore, it is more challenging for
entrepreneurs who originate from other regions of China (Fang et al.,
2017) to handle different cultural affairs. The migrant entrepreneurs of
homestay inns mostly come from urban areas. Whether they come to
heritage destinations for economic benefit (Yang et al., 2014), or life­
style (Shen et al., 2018) and enjoyment (Xu & Ma, 2014), they should
preserve, protect and utilize local and cultural elements to meet tourists’
preferences (Yang et al., 2014). Furthermore, as a small and medium
enterprise (SME), many homestay inn entrepreneurs are owner-operated
(Yuan et al., 2018) or self-employed (Shen et al., 2018; Wang & Juan,
2016), and they must use the local cultural elements effectively by
themselves (Dube & Sharma, 2018). However, social-cultural distance
to locals leads to a less systemic interaction (Carson & Carson, 2018).
And yet, cultural topics concerning tourism entrepreneurs remain less

* Corresponding author. Anhui University, China. His expertise includes rural tourism entrepreneurship and innovation, tourism destination planning and man­
agement, and tourist flows.
E-mail address: 12027@ahu.edu.cn (F. Liu).
1
Source: Market Report and Classic Case of Chinese homestay inn and B&B, 2018, from Committee of Homestay Inn and B&B of China Hotel Association.
2
Source: Market Report and Classic Case of Chinese homestay inn and B&B, 2015, from Committee of Homestay Inn and B&B of China Hotel Association.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.08.007
Received 14 April 2021; Received in revised form 5 July 2021; Accepted 13 August 2021
Available online 23 August 2021
1447-6770/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of CAUTHE - COUNCIL FOR AUSTRALASIAN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY EDUCATION.
All rights reserved.
F. Liu et al.
studied, particularly the abilities of entrepreneurs to handle
cross-cultural interaction and how those interactions might affect their
performance.
Responding to the judgment and measurement of this cross-cultural
interaction, Earley and Ang introduced the construct of cultural intel­
ligence (CQ) to explain the abilities and effectiveness of individual in­
teractions across cultures (Earley, 2002; Earley & Ang, 2003). CQ is
defined as people’s capabilities and knowledge that allows them to
adapt to, select, and shape their environment’s cultural aspects (Thomas
et al., 2008). In the studies concerning the antecedents, consequences,
and moderating and mediating effects of CQ, the construct has been
tested in many fields, such as conflict management (Caputo et al., 2018),
leadership development (Peterlin et al., 2015), and entrepreneurship
(Überbacher et al., 2015). Recently, CQs were introduced into the
tourism and hospitality study (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2018b) to explain
tourists’ or customers’ behaviors (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2018b; Roh­
metra & Arora, 2015). Actually, cross-cultural communication activities
occur in tourists and migrant entrepreneurs (Frías-Jamilena et al.,
2018b; Ramli et al., 2015), especially lifestyle entrepreneurs from
different cultural regions. Unfortunately, these intercultural affairs in
the process of entrepreneurship (Chen et al., 2011; Frías-Jamilena et al.,
2018b) have been neglected, while the types, characteristics, entrepre­
neurial intention, common abilities of homestay entrepreneurs and their
effects on their performance have been well studied (Yassin & Ramlan,
2015). Meanwhile, it appears that the main objectives of CQ studies
focus on the ordinary personnel and immigrants (Carnabuci & Wezel,
2011; Jyoti & Kour, 2017), but pay little attention to these special but
representative types of entrepreneurs in cultural and migrant contexts.
There is one further unfortunate omission, in addition to personal fac­
tors, entrepreneurs’ social responsibility for the local culture and
destination may also be involved in this complex process of
cross-cultural abilities to perform. Thus, abilities and specific re­
sponsibilities, especially CQ and heritage responsibilities, which would
appear more important for tourism entrepreneurial performance, should
be further studied (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2018a, 2018b; Kotsaga, 2015;
Wang et al., 2018; Youn et al., 2015; Zaman & Aktan, 2021).
The aim of the present work is thus to propose and test a conceptual
model that investigates the validity of CQ in tourism entrepreneurs and
how CQ impacts their entrepreneurial performance. Specifically, the
moderating effects of heritage responsibility (HR) are examined in the
proposed model. Using the case study of Hongcun Village, a World
Cultural Heritage Site in Ancient Huizhou District, China, this study
attempts to answer the assumption “With great power, comes greater
responsibility, and greater results in business”, which could help re­
searchers have a more well-rounded understanding of how entrepre­
neurs handle the cross-cultural affairs and the effects of such. By
incorporating these variables, the authors also attempt to contribute to
the body of knowledge in the following three aspects: (1) apply CQ to
homestay entrepreneur research, as well as discuss the validity of CQ in
different cultural regions within a Chinese background; (2) verify the
impact of entrepreneurs’ CQ on homestays’ subjective performance
(SP); and (3) explore the mediating effect of heritage responsibilities on
the relationships among CQ and performance.
2. Concepts and literature review
2.1. Homestay inn and migrant homestay entrepreneurs
Considering the location and differences in features, homestay inns
can usually be categorized into urban and rural types, with most of them
located in rural areas (Yuan et al., 2018). Studies have addressed the
concept of homestay inns being categorized into different types by
regional phenomena, pricing strategies, host–guest relationships,
owner’s lifestyles, personal identities, operating motives, and other
factors (Yuan et al., 2018) thus, no consensus seems to exist concerning
the definition of homestay inns. B&Bs, country inns, farm stays,
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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550
commercial homes, and guesthouses have been the typical terminology
used in different countries and regions with various backgrounds (Hsieh
& Lin, 2010; Lynch, 2005a, 2005b). Therefore, there are different and
corresponding qualifying criteria to identify their types and styles. In
China, the criteria of basic requirements and evaluation for homestay
inn (2017), established by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of PRC,
defined the homestay inn as small accommodation that was provided
and operated by a host of idle houses. It could bring the experiences of
the local nature, culture, and lifestyle to the guest (Ministry of Culture
and Tourism of PRC, 2017). In 2019, the new criteria added some
standards of facilities, such as the size of a homestay inn should be no
more than four floors and 800 m2 of building area. This paper utilized
this criterion as the definition of a homestay inn and to confirm the
research objects (Ministry of Culture and Tourism of PRC, 2019).
After the homestay inn becomes the typical and main producer of
rural tourism, entrepreneurial activities emerge and become the drivers
of regional tourism development (Hernández-Maestro &
González-Benito, 2014). An increasing number of urban residents begin
to participate in rural and peripheral tourism for livelihood and lifestyle
(Zhang et al., 2021); this is especially true for homestay inns (Yuan et al.,
2018). Although there are many definitions of tourism entrepreneurs,
most agree that entrepreneurs should be innovators who introduce a
new product or service, an innovative technology or a new market to
destination tourism industries (Yuan et al., 2018). Among them, lifestyle
entrepreneurs have been the most important stakeholders of rural
tourism industries (Shen et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2019), even the
culturally bound phenomenon in developed economies (Sweeney et al.,
2018). In China, most of the entrepreneurs originate anywhere from
more developed regions to small towns or countryside (Xu & Wu, 2016).
Migrant entrepreneurs are vital and special to rural contexts. As out­
siders, migrant entrepreneurs are more sensitive and accessible to
business opportunities (Jaafar et al., 2011; Russell & Faulkner, 2004).
Since these migrant entrepreneurs come from more developed areas,
they are familiar with changes in the market and the demand of tourists
and thus are better able to bring new tourism products and investments
to rural areas. As such, migrant entrepreneurs could be considered
leaders, innovators, and catalysts for rural tourism (Fountain & Hall,
2002). However, migrant entrepreneurs face more difficulties than local
residents in the process of operation and entrepreneurship. The different
legal systems, customs, or cultural issues (Sweeney et al., 2018; Xu &
Wu, 2016; Zhang et al., 2013), and even the dialect, require the migrant
entrepreneurs to make greater efforts, adopt and adapt certain abilities.
Thus, the abilities of entrepreneurs to understand local customs and
cultures have very important social and economic significance
(Ramos-Tumanan & Ryan, 2019).
2.2. Cultural intelligence (CQ) and the entrepreneurs
CQ was first proposed and defined as “the capability of an individual
to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity”
by Earley (2002). It is usually considered a system of interacting
knowledge and skills linked with cultural metacognition, which allows
people to adapt to, select, and shape the cultural aspects of their envi­
ronment (Thomas et al., 2008). As a result of the significant progress in
cross-cultural research, CQs have garnered wide attention and have
been tested and applied in many subjects (Fang et al., 2017) and cultural
backgrounds (Schlägel & Sarstedt, 2016). For the subject of entrepre­
neurship (Lorenz et al., 2018; Şahin & Gürbüz, 2020), CQ represents
how a person may step beyond their existing knowledge to fully un­
derstand what is going on around them (Earley, 2002).
Despite its short history, a substantial number of constructs, terms,
dimensions and models have emerged to apply, evaluate, modify and
develop CQ. By investigating the antecedents, development, direct and
indirect effects, moderating effects, and aggregated effects of CQ (Fang
et al., 2018), most studies focus on the expatriates, managers, and others
involved in cross-cultural interactions and investigate the relationship of
F. Liu et al.
performance, adaptation, innovation, leadership and various variables
to CQ (Ang & van Dyne, 2008; Jyoti & Kour, 2017; Ng et al., 2012; Ott &
Michailova, 2018; Presbitero, 2016a; Rockstuhl & Van Dyne, 2018).
Meanwhile, given the diversity of boundaries and their relationships to
underlying economic, political, and cultural formations, the criterion of
cross-boundary becomes less important (Hall & Williams, 2002). In
contrast, the long-distance movement within one country, such as from
the East to the West coast of the United States or Australia, could bring
greater economic and cultural changes in some ways than migration
between many micro- and intermediate-scale states (Hall & Williams,
2002). Recently, cross-cultural variation has been applied to persons
who travel cross-states within one country (Jyoti & Kour, 2015, 2017),
but is not limited to the transnational practices. Moreover, from cogni­
tive and metacognitive CQ views, cultural-general knowledge is as
complementary and indispensable as cultural-specific knowledge and
even provides major elements to explain why similarities and
differences across cultures exist. The application scenarios of CQ could
be extended to subregions or states of one country(Jyoti & Kour, 2015,
2017).
Migrant entrepreneurs also experience the cross-cultural situation.
Their abilities, intention, and knowledge to recognize and adapt to host
culture are vital (Überbacher et al., 2015), when they enter a new cul­
tural environment. CQ could be used as an effective and efficient
concept in measuring their ability to handle these cross-cultural affairs
(Lorenz et al., 2018; Şahin & Gürbüz, 2020). Furthermore, the scales or
subdimensions of CQ have been tested in entrepreneurship research
efficiently (Altinay et al., 2021; Ang et al., 2007; Lorenz et al., 2018;
Şahin & Gürbüz, 2020; van Dyne et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2019). For the
migrant entrepreneurs, the four commonly used subdimensions of CQ
have specific meanings. Metacognitive CQ (MCCQ) is the higher-order
mental capability to consider personal thought processes, anticipate
others’ cultural preferences, and adjust mental models during and after
intercultural experiences (Ang et al., 2007). Migrant entrepreneur with a
high level of MCCQ could more easily understand others and produce
higher-quality cultural decisions. Cognitive CQ (CCQ) reflects the
knowledge of the norms, practices, and conventions in different cultures
acquired from education and personal experiences (Ang et al., 2007;
Schlägel & Sarstedt, 2016); a high CCQ could enable migrant entre­
preneurs to have a better understanding of the differences in cultural
settings to perform effectively in their entrepreneurship. Motivational
CQ (MCQ) expresses the capability to direct attention and energy toward
learning about and functioning in situations characterized by cultural
differences (Ang et al., 2007). It could inspire entrepreneurs to grant
their attentions and energy to adapting to cultural diversity to better
handle any difficulties. Last, behavioral CQ (BCQ) depicts one’s capa­
bility to exhibit appropriate verbal and nonverbal actions when inter­
acting with people from different cultures (Ang et al., 2007). A higher
BCQ could help entrepreneurs perform appropriately and communicate
with others in different cultural contexts (Ang et al., 2007).
2.3. Entrepreneurial performance
Satisfactory performance is a representation of hospitality corpora­
tions’ success and a significant contributor to the regional tourism in­
dustry (Lee et al., 2016). With the increase in lifestyle entrepreneurs in
rural tourism regions, the industry’s performance becomes a key factor
of determining the location and market sector of entrepreneurial ven­
tures (Hallak et al., 2015; Kropp et al., 2006), which homestay entre­
preneurs also verify (Yassin & Ramlan, 2015). Normally, performance is
measured by stock market valuations (Kropp et al., 2006; Lee et al.,
2016) or some objective measures (Haber & Reichel, 2005), but these
evaluations are not available for small, independent businesses, which
compose the main segment of the tourism sector (Bergin-Seers & Jago,
2007). Dess and Robinson (1984), along with Hallak et al. (2012), noted
that subjective performance measures could be as reliable and valid as
objective measures for SMEs (Dess & Robinson, 1984; Hallak et al.,
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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550
2012). This has resulted in good reliability and validity in several ap­
plications (Droge et al., 2004), including rural tourism ventures (Haber
& Reichel, 2005; Hallak et al., 2015). As a result, the subjective per­
formance (SP) was selected to account for performance measurement
difficulty in this study.
2.4. Heritage responsibility of entrepreneurs
The International Charter of the Conservation and Restoration of
Monuments and Sites (The Venice Charter, 1964) recognized the com­
mon responsibility of safeguarding heritage for future generations. It
pointed out that the current generation had a duty to bequeath the
knowledge and richness of its heritage to the subsequent generation.
Subsequently, a series of Regulations, Manuals, and Conventions from
UNESCO discussed and clarified the subjects and contents of heritage
responsibility (HR) gradually (Zhang, 2014). In the meantime, tourism
industries in heritage sites should take the sustainable, economic re­
sponsibility of heritage maintenance as the administrations and leaders
of communities because they are the key stakeholders of heritage pro­
tection and sustainable use. Studies of the heritage responsibilities of
tourism corporations began appearing and increasing in the tourism and
hospitality literature, yet a clear concept of HR has not been reached
until now (Li et al., 2019; Zhang, 2014). Based on corporate social re­
sponsibility (CSR), HR was taken as a responsibility occurring in heri­
tage tourism (Wells et al., 2016). Both tourism practitioners and
academic communities have begun to acknowledge the importance of
CSR to the sustainability of heritage (Farrington et al., 2017; Sheldon &
Park, 2011). Considering the characteristics of service sectors and small
and medium-sized accommodation enterprises (Garay & Font, 2012),
the studies use and develop CSR in the background of heritage tourism
development. It aids the tourism company in building trusting and
effective relations with destinations and protecting and improving her­
itage; thus, at this point, the HR is equal to the CSR concerning heritage
and relative destinations (Wells et al., 2016).
However, it is important to note that similar to the community social
responsibility (Wang et al., 2018) and destination social responsibility
(Su, Gong, & Huang, 2020; Su, Lian, & Huang, 2020; Su & Swanson,
2017), HR has been discussed as a main dimension of CSR (Wang et al.,
2015, 2019) or a specific type of responsibility concerned with heritage
protection. Li described HR as stakeholders’ responsibilities in the pro­
cess of recognizing, interpreting, and representing heritage values,
which could be divided into responsibility-for-the-self and
responsibility-for-the-other (Li et al., 2019). In an increasing discussion
of HR, some have extended the theoretic and conceptual discussion to
the measurement of HR and its effect (Li et al., 2019). Li established and
compared the dimensions of the heritage responsibility scale among
multiple stakeholders, i.e., tourists and residents (Li et al., 2019).
CSR has been certified to play critical roles in small and medium-
sized tourism enterprises (Garay & Font, 2012; Tigu et al., 2016;
Wang et al., 2018, 2019) for providing the source of innovation and
competitive advantage (Sheldon & Park, 2011). As a specific part of
CSR, HR could also be assumed to be an important influencing factor of
performance and sustainability (Wang et al., 2018, 2019). HR activities
could not only improve the relationship quality with residents, which
could increase destination economic performance (Su et al., 2017), to
evoke their environmentally responsible behaviors (Su et al., 2018), but
also affect the tourists’ attitudes and perceptions about their enterprises,
thus helping them to establish preferences, satisfaction, and intentions
to visit. Wang et al. (2018) has specifically tested the relations between
lifestyle-oriented motivation, performance, and HRs in the CSR struc­
ture (Wang et al., 2018).
The above studies of homestay and the relative entrepreneurship
context indicate that the abilities, intentions, and responsibilities of
migrant entrepreneurs to handle cross-cultural affairs could influence
their enterprises’ success and sustainability. However, two significant
gaps in the literature should be noted. First, CQ is a new concept in
F. Liu et al.
tourism entrepreneurship studies and has been examined with respect to
the theoretical and practical values in tourist research (Frías-Jamilena,
Sabiote-Ortiz, Martín-Santana, & Beerli-Palacio, 2018a,b; Rohmetra &
Arora, 2015), but it has failed to explore the importance of CQ in
cross-regional entrepreneurship and determine its effect on entrepre­
neurship outcomes. Second, the HR of entrepreneurs not only directly
influences their performance but also may affect the mechanisms of the
process of CQ to performance, yet few studies have examined this
mechanism empirically.
This study attempts to fill these gaps in the literature by exploring
migrant homestay inn entrepreneurs’ CQ and analyzing its various ef­
fects on their performance. It attempts to determine whether HR plays a
mediating effect in this process, to verify the validation of the assump­
tion: “With great power, comes greater responsibility and greater results
in business” in tourism entrepreneurship.
3. Hypothesis
3.1. CQ and subjective performance
The social and cultural contexts a person experiences as he or she
rises in age could affect every aspect of their life and may shape their
thought processes and behaviors (Hofstede et al., 2010; Mooij, 2004). A
migrant entrepreneur must make a greater effort and utilize different
skills than natives to adapt and deal with the new cultural environment.
This proves to be an enormous challenge to entrepreneurs attempting to
operate a new business in different regions (Isenberg, 2008). The diffi­
culties arise not only from the reorientation of cultural value (Fernán­
dez-Serrano & Romero, 2014), but also an intrinsically paradoxical
experience of the conflicting values, norms, and identities in the new
social and cultural context (Mafico et al., 2021). CQ, which represents
the ability to understand and adopt to a new culture, has become greatly
important in this process. The positive correlation between CQ and
performance has been validated in many fields (Ang et al., 2007; Jyoti &
Kour, 2017; Rockstuhl & Van Dyne, 2018; Tuan, 2016). More impor­
tantly, knowledge, skill, abilities, and motivations, which comprise the
dimensions of CQ, were also identified as reliable predictors or corre­
lated to performance (Ang et al., 2007; Jyoti & Kour, 2015; Rockstuhl &
Van Dyne, 2018; Tuan, 2016). Ang et al. (2007) demonstrated that
metacognitive CQ and behavioral CQ predicted task performance in a
case study of Hong Kong and Singapore’s undergraduates. A similar
finding was later obtained by the research of students studying virtual
teams (Presbitero, 2016b), bank managers (Mirzaei Daryani et al.,
2017), and expatriates of international enterprises in mainland China
and Taiwan (Wang, 2016). A higher CQ would also equate to better
outcomes in service encounters too (Earley & Ang, 2003), such as
tourism and hospitality industries (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2018b). For
homestay inns, the application of cultural and local elements is an
extremely important component and characteristic (Mokoena, 2020).
The success of entrepreneurship relies on the entrepreneur’s compound
abilities to deal with the cultural affairs. Accordingly, a high CQ could be
a key determinant of performance. Thus, the hypotheses of the study are:
H1. CQ of the homestay inn entrepreneurs relates positively to the
entrepreneurs’ SP.
H1a. Metacognitive CQ relates positively to the entrepreneurs’ SP.
H1b. Cognitive CQ relates positively to the entrepreneurs’ SP.
H1c. Motivational CQ relates positively to the entrepreneurs’ SP.
H1d. Behavioral CQ relates positively to the entrepreneurs’ SP.
3.2. CQ and heritage responsibility
For migrant entrepreneurs, different cultural backgrounds (such as
religion, practices, norms, laws) would not only produce different modes
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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550
of thinking but also the understanding and explanations of unfamiliar
culture, which could deliver different outcomes concerning social re­
sponsibilities (Farooq et al., 2019). In the process of adapting themselves
to the heritage site environment, the values of entrepreneurs should
interact with the spirit of heritage maintenance and local culture, in
which case CQ could help them decode heritage and local values so that
the values are coordinated (Tuan, 2016), even crossing geopolitical and
cultural boundaries. Therefore, this paper proposes that CQ and its four
dimensions should directly affect the HR of migrant entrepreneurs, and
thus, the following statement, “With great power, comes greater re­
sponsibility” would be worthy of testing. Accordingly.
H2. CQ of the homestay inn entrepreneurs relates positively to their
HR.
H2a. Metacognitive CQ relates positively to their HR.
H2b. Cognitive CQ relates positively to their HR.
H2c. Motivational CQ relates positively to their HR.
H2d. Behavioral CQ relates positively to their HR.
3.2.1. Heritage responsibility and subjective performance
The promoting effect of CSR on tourism enterprise performance has
been well discussed (Garay & Font, 2012; Inoue & Lee, 2011; Youn et al.,
2015). Two issues should be considered further in this study. First, as the
main component of tourism industries, small and medium-sized enter­
prises differ from other SMEs, which have been considered less willing
or lacking in the ability to participate in CSR initiatives (Udayasankar,
2008). They are likely to take on some responsibilities about the desti­
nation to achieve viable, livable, and equitable development by inte­
grating and managing natural and human resources in business (Spence
et al., 2011), similar to larger corporations (Cheng et al., 2014; Jenkins,
2006; Wang et al., 2016). Second, given the deep cultural and historical
roots and the entrepreneurial practices within the heritage culture,
regardless of whether the entrepreneurs’ responsibilities concern the
whole heritage destination, some elements of the heritage collectively
could be considered components of HR. Responsibilities exert important
impacts on their performance, as the development of enterprises is tied
not only to coordinating efforts among residents, tourists, local gov­
ernments, and within community settings but also to resting with their
attitude and activities concerning heritage protection. Therefore, en­
trepreneurs should assume responsibilities for the destination’ s natural,
sociocultural environment, and cultural heritage to ensure their success.
Wang et al. (2019) discussed the relationship of performance and HR in
the framework of CSR, and this particular relationship remains to be
examined independently. Thus, it proposes that:
H3. The homestay inn entrepreneurs’ HR relates positively to the SP.
3.3. The mediating effects of heritage responsibility
As studies of empirical evidence on the consequences of CQ gain
momentum, recent research has begun to examine more complex
models, such as adding variables to enhance the ability to explain the
CQ-performance link (Ng et al., 2012), and thus, these mediating
mechanisms have functioned as a breakthrough point for CQ studies.
This paper proposes that HR has a mediating effect on the relationship
between CQ and performance. In the new cultural settings, a manager
with a high CQ, which would help them to better understand heritage
and local cultural values, would be more likely to recognize their HR and
attempt to fulfill it. Furthermore, the responsible behaviors they affor­
ded would reduce some existing constraints and barriers in the
cross-cultural process, which would help to promote performance. Thus,
the authors suppose that, for homestay inn entrepreneurs, considering
the impact of HR is not only a driving factor of development and success
but also acts in a mediatory role between CQ and performance, as the
F. Liu et al.
dimensions of CQ are affected. Accordingly.
Hypothesis 4. Homestay inn entrepreneurs’ HR has mediating effects
on CQ and SP.
Hypothesis 4A. Homestay inn entrepreneurs’ HR has mediating ef­
fects on MCCQ and SP.
Hypothesis 4B. Homestay inn entrepreneurs’ HR has mediating ef­
fects on CCQ and SP.
Hypothesis 4C. Homestay inn entrepreneurs’ HR has mediating ef­
fects on MCQ and SP.
Hypothesis 4D. Homestay inn entrepreneurs’ HR has mediating ef­
fects on BCQ and SP.
Considering these hypotheses, a framework was established to pre­
sent the hypotheses as they relate to the factors considered in the present
study, as shown in Fig. 1.
4. Research design and methodology
This study was based on a quantitative research design. A ques­
tionnaire survey was utilized as the main research instrument to collect
and measure the CQ, HR and SP of Hongcun homestay inn entrepre­
neurs. Meanwhile, several interviews occurring before or in the formal
investigation process were added to assist in revising the scales and
obtaining more details concerning the migrant entrepreneurs’ percep­
tions about their cross-cultural entrepreneurship.
4.1. Hongcun ancient village and its homestay inns
This study was conducted in Hongcun Village and the neighboring
area (see Fig. 2), located in Yixian County, Anhui Province. The village
occupies the core of the National Huizhou Cultural and Ecological
Protection Experimental Area. Hongcun Village was designated a World
Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. To some extent, Hongcun has been
considered the birthplace of and representative of the “Huizhou Cul­
ture”. Huizhou culture is influential and is considered a typical Chinese
folk culture due to its lasting and profound contribution to Chinese
culture and daily life. As Confucianism was brought from Central Plain
Culture since the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960–1279) and then intersected
with the geographical environment over a long course of history, it
abetted the construction of specific material civilization and spiritual
civilization in Ancient Huizhou District (now including the whole
Huangshan City, Jixi County in Anhui Province, and Wuyuan County in
Jiangxi Province), such as the arts, architecture, customs, traditions, and
values (Hu et al., 2019). Currently, as “the witness of the ancient civi­
lization of mankind, a representation of local traditional architecture,
and an epitome of the harmonious integration of man and nature” (Lu
et al., 2020), Hongcun has attracted numerous tourists to visit as well as
entrepreneurs to conduct business. In 2011, Hongcun Village was
included as a “5 A” -level tourist scenic spot list of China, and by 2019,
the total number of visitors reached 2.759 million, with ticket income
reaching 159 million yuan. Meanwhile, many entrepreneurs from inside
and outside of Hongcun established businesses to meet the growing
demand of tourists, of which the homestay inn was one of the major
types. Of note, as an increasing number of entrepreneurs originate from
outside the Ancient Huizhou Area, they are defined as migrant entre­
preneurs; on average, they face unique and unfamiliar cultural back­
grounds in their entrepreneurship.
Utilizing Hongcun as the sample area is also based on the following
considerations. First, due to the beautiful ecological environment and
profound cultural heritage, Hongcun became the most famous village in
the Ancient Huizhou Area (Hu et al., 2019). Its tourism industries
experienced rapid growth in part due to the tourism-enhancing effect of
WHS status in 1999, while homestay inns began to emerge with the
rapid growth of tourists. As of 2018, there were more than 230 homestay
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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550
inns in Hongcun and nearby areas; of these, 48 were boutique homestay
inns, comprising almost 1/3 to 1/2 of all of the Yixian County. Hongcun
and Yixian Counties are typical regions of heritage homestay inns.
Second, the booming market attracted many entrepreneurs across China
to Hongcun, some of whom were lifestyle entrepreneurs. According to
statistical data (2018) from the Bureau of Culture and Tourism of Yixian
County, 40% of homestay inn owners in Hongcun are from outside the
Ancient Huizhou Area, and these migrant entrepreneurs have been the
main component of homestay inn owners. Third, understanding and
perceiving Huizhou culture is an important motivation and reason for
visiting Hongcun. Homestay inns could play a key role in tourists’
experiential processes. It provides an opportunity yet a major challenge
for migrant entrepreneurs to handle this characteristic culture. Thus,
Hongcun would be an excellent case to study entrepreneurs’ CQ and its
effects.
4.2. Development of questionnaire
The main part of the questionnaire comprised the scales of homestay
inn migrant entrepreneurs’ CQ, HR, and SP. First, based on a review of
the literature, the authors collected standardized scales that had been
used throughout the world (see Table 2), especially those tested in the
Chinese background and tourism field. The CQ scale adapted from Ang
et al. (2007) includes the 4 dimensions of the MCCQ (4 items), CCQ (6
items), MCQ (5 items), and BCQ (5 items). The present study integrated
10 items of HR scales from Wang et al. (2018), of which 5 items origi­
nated from CSR heritage, 1 item from the CSR community, 3 items from
the CSR environment, and 1 item from the CSR product, all of which
were related to heritage cultural factors and have previously been
applied to small tourism enterprises in Chinese heritage sites (Wang
et al., 2015). Last, the authors utilized 4 items of the scale to obtain
subjective performance, which were developed by Zou et al. (1998) and
reported by Kropp et al. (2006) in small firms. All these items above are
measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = completely disagree to 5 =
completely agree).
Indeed, the concepts should be viewed as socially constructed,
necessitating a bespoke tailoring process to particular social and orga­
nizational contexts (Carroll & Shabana, 2010). Semistructural in­
terviews with the 20 entrepreneurs were completed between January 16
and 20, 2019, to assess the applicability and effectiveness of the scales.
As the interviewees stated, “Solar water heaters have been forbidden in
Hongcun” (Interviewee 7), “The local Government has issued those regu­
lations” (Interviewee 9), and “We could not use recyclable water, tissues
and towels in operation” (Interviewee 13). Three items concerning the
environment were then removed from the HR scales, and the final set of
seven items was used for the research framework development. In
addition, the questionnaire was translated from English to Chinese and
back-translated to English with the help of two tourism management
researchers, both of whom held doctoral degrees in the USA to ensure
the accuracy of the questionnaire.
The questionnaire also consisted of sections concerning the entre­
preneurs’ general information, such as demographic information
(gender, age, education), experience within the tourism business, and
the relationship and experience with Hongcun (years of residence or
working there). Accordingly, the authors were able to identify entre­
preneurs who were migrant, and thus further classify them into intra or
extra categories of Anhui Province.
4.3. Data collection
Formal fieldwork was carried out in Hongcun Village and neigh­
boring areas from November 7 to 15, 2019. First, we excluded
F. Liu et al. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550

Fig. 1. Conceptual framework.

Fig. 2. The location and overlook of Hongcun Village. Note: 1: Scene of Hongcun Village. From: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/hongcun/;
2: Facade of one homestay inn in Hongcun. From: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/hongcun/hotels/w-smart-motel-superior-hongcun/;
3: Interior of one homestay inn in Hongcun. From: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/hongcun-long-lane-inn/.

entrepreneurs who fell in the inner category, who were from Yixian
County or Ancient Huizhou District, by use of the Hongcun Town
Homestay Inn List.3 A total of 193 homestay inns were left as the original
sample population. All of these homestay inns were approached and
invited to complete the anonymous questionnaire. Of the 162 ques­
tionnaires returned, 142 questionnaires were fully completed. In the
survey, it was also found that some of the entrepreneurs invited
housekeepers to manage and operate homestay inns, and thus, some
questionnaires were completed by them. Brockhaus (1980) and Schere
3
Source：Relative statistics (2018) from the Bureau of Culture and Tourism
of Yixian County.
(1982) successively pointed out that the managers and entrepreneurs
with the same characteristics, such as education level and age, were
responsible for the same affairs in business, and they might hold the
same concerns and thoughts of operating and managing the ventures.
Koudstaal et al. (2016) further revealed that the differences between
entrepreneurs and managers were even subtler. Thus, surveys were
accepted from both managers and entrepreneurs as the samples utilized
in the analysis.
Of the 142 participants (Table 1), 57.7% were intraprovincial en­
trepreneurs and 42.3% were extraprovincial entrepreneurs; most of the
entrepreneurs were young to middle age, (25–34 = 25% and 35–44 =
31%), with other age groups comprising the following categories ≤24
(12.7%), 45–54 (14.8%), and ≥55 (1%). High educational attainment

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Table 1 perceptions, and values between 3.5 and 5 indicate positive perceptions
Descriptive statistical results of the entrepreneurs. (Tosun, 2002). As shown in Table 2, the migrant entrepreneurs held a
Variables Categories Frequency Percent relatively high level of CQ, especially the MCCQ (3.66) and MCQ (3.93),
(%) which also indicated that the entrepreneurs’ ideas concerning adapting
Homeland Intra-provincial* 82 57.7 Huizhou culture were slightly stronger than what they have practiced
Extra-provincial 60 42.3 (CCQ = 3.31, BCQ = 3.37). Meanwhile, higher scores on HR items (4.13)
Age ≤24 18 12.7 indicated that entrepreneurs had realized the importance of re­
25–34 57 40.1 sponsibilities to heritage and the cultural environment. Unexpectedly,
35–44 46 32.4
45–54 21 14.8
the SP of homestay entrepreneurs perceived was at a moderate level
≥55 0 0 (3.29). The relations of these three variables should be further tested in
Education level Junior school or less 15 10.6 subsequent models.
High school/ 32 22.5
vocational school
5.2. Common method variance (CMV)
Vocational college 40 28.2
Bachelor 55 38.7
Master and above 0 0 Studies that employ self-reported data and conduct simultaneous
Years of residence or working Less than 1 year 38 26.8 measures are subject to CMV-based potential validity threats (Podsakoff
in Hongcun 1–3 years 57 40.1 et al., 2003; Sharma et al., 2009). Several steps were taken to avoid this.
4–5 years 24 16.9
6 years and more 23 16.2
First, the questions on the questionnaire were ranked randomly. Second,
Have entrepreneurial Yes 69 48.6 participants were separated temporally and spatially when completing
experience or not No 73 51.4 the questionnaires. Third, all the questionnaires were completed anon­
NOTE: * The cities in Anhui Province excluded Huanghan City.
ymously, participants did not know the precise purpose of the survey,
and they were told that there were no right or wrong answers, so they
could answer questions honestly. Finally, Harman’s single-factor test
was another characteristic of the entrepreneurs (Vocational college =
was used to examine whether CMV existed (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The
28.2%, Bachelor = 38.7%), while others listed junior school or lower
factor analysis results indicated that a one-factor model explained
(10.6%) and High school/vocational school (22.5%).
32.18% of the variance, less than the critical threshold of 40%. Thus,
CMV was not a concern in this study.
4.4. Data analysis procedures
5.3. Assessment of the measurement model
Partial least squares (PLS) was employed to estimate the structural
models (Fig. 1). Compared with CB-SEM (covariance-based structural The reliability and validity of the measurement model were first
equitation models), the advantage of PLS-SEM lies in its ability to handle evaluated in the second-order model. As a reflective latent variable,
small sample sizes, formative measured latent variables, less stringent reliability is commonly tested with Cronbach’s α and CR (composite
assumptions, complex models, and other issues (Hair et al., 2012; reliability) methods (Hair et al., 2017). Generally, Cronbach’s α values
Henseler et al., 2009). It has been widely used in many fields, including of more than 0.8 are desirable, with the ideal composite reliability
tourism and hospitality studies (Usakli & Kucukergin, 2018). In this values ranging from 0.7 to 0.9. All Cronbach’s α values of the CQ, HR
study, the small sample size could not be avoided because the sample and SP dimensions were more than 0.8, and the CR values were also
population was limited in number, so PLS-SEM could achieve higher above the threshold of 0.7, suggesting that each reflective dimension
levels of statistical power than its covariance-based counterpart, even and its respective indicators were highly correlated. To confirm
when the sample size was relatively small (Reinartz et al., 2009). In convergent validity, factor loadings should be more than 0.6 and AVE
addition, this study introduces and constructs the CQ concept for should be greater than 0.5 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). In this measure­
tourism entrepreneurs as an exploratory research tool and for theory ment model, nearly all the factor loadings were more than 0.6, and the
development (Hair et al., 2012), in which PLS is an appropriate data AVE was more than 0.5. Meanwhile, the Fornell-Larcker criterion and
analysis. All of the data analysis was calculated using Smart PLS 3.2.7. HTMT were utilized to assess discriminant validity. The Fornell-Larcker
Before the model test, data were cleaned and checked for missing criterion requires that the square root of the AVE value should be more
data. There were no missing data, and the skewness and kurtosis values than the latent variable correlations (Fornell & Larcker, 1981), and that
for almost all variables were between − 2 and 2, which indicated that the HTMT ratios should be lower than a 0.90 threshold. Through calcula­
normality assumption was met. The theoretical model test was divided tions (see Table 3), all of the square roots of the AVE values were more
into two steps. First, CQ is a multidimensional variable and can be than the relative latent variable correlations, and the HTMT ratios were
regarded as a second-order hierarchical latent variable in PLS. A second- lower than 0.9, suggesting that there were no discriminant validity
order hierarchical latent variable structural equation model was speci­ problems in this study. All of the above results indicated that the scales
fied to assess the overall effects of H1, H2, H3, and H4. Meanwhile, the of CQ, HR, and SP in this study passed reliability and validity tests and
measurement model of HR, SP, CQ, and their dimensions were tested thus could be used to validate the structural model and test the hy­
concurrently in the process. In the second step, a first-order model of potheses. It also demonstrates the applicability of CQ and its 4-dimen­
MCCQ, CCQ, MCQ, BCQ, HR, and SP was employed to estimate the effect sional scales on tourism entrepreneurs from different regions of the
of 4 dimensions of CQ on HR and SP separately, thus verifying the as­ vast country.
sumptions of H1 (a, b, c, d), H2 (a, b, c, d) and H4 (a, b, c, d). The quality
of the estimated models was assessed by a few indicators that ensured 5.4. Estimated relationships and hypotheses tests
the validity of the models.
Several criteria and indicators were utilized to assess the models. The
5. Results basic and fundamental model fit indices for PLS-SEM were presented
first. GoF, which is defined as the geometric mean of the average com­
5.1. Descriptive statistical analyses munality and average R2 for endogenous constructs, could be the
approximate global fit measure (Wetzels et al., 2009). Normative values
Generally, the variables’ mean values lying between 1 and 2.4 show are as follows: GoFsmall = 0.1, GoFmedium = 0.25, and GoFlarge = 0.36.
negative perceptions, values between 2.5 and 3.4 indicate neutral The GoF results of the models were 0.542 and 0.471, which are greater

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Table 2
Descriptive statistical results of the measurement scales and items.
Dimensions Items Mean Standard Factor
Deviation loading

Metacognitive CQ Mean = 3.659, AVE = 0.635, Cronbach’s α = 0.805, CR = 0.874, Path Coefficient = 0.767***
Be conscious of the cultural knowledge I use when interacting with people with different cultural 3.415 0.988 0.695***
backgrounds.
Adjust my cultural knowledge as I interact with people from a culture that is unfamiliar to me. 3.824 0.995 0.854***
Check the accuracy of my cultural knowledge as I interact with people from different cultures. 3.775 1.044 0.851***
Be conscious of the cultural knowledge I apply to cross-cultural interactions. 3.620 1.019 0.776***
Cognitive CQ Mean = 3.31, AVE = 0.627, Cronbach’s α = 0.881, CR = 0.910, Path Coefficient = 0.685***
Know the legal and economic systems of other cultures. 3.282 0.883 0.788***
Know the rules (e.g., vocabulary, grammar) of other languages. 3.268 0.879 0.791***
Know the cultural values and religious beliefs of other cultures. 3.380 0.932 0.803***
Know the marriage systems of other cultures. 3.155 0.883 0.772***
Know the arts and crafts of other cultures. 3.352 1.043 0.811***
Know the rules for expressing nonverbal behaviors in other cultures. 3.423 1.050 0.786***
Motivational CQ Mean = 3.929, AVE = 0.694, Cronbach’s α = 0.889, CR = 0.919, Path Coefficient = 0.746***
Enjoy interacting with people from different cultures. 3.965 1.031 0.835***
Be confident that I can socialize with locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to me. 4.070 0.924 0.856***
Be sure I can deal with the stresses of adjusting to a culture that is new to me. 3.880 1.010 0.823***
Be enjoy living in cultures that are unfamiliar to me. 3.810 1.007 0.801***
Be confident that I can get accustomed to the shopping conditions in a different culture. 3.923 1.028 0.848***
Behavioral CQ Mean = 3.366, AVE = 0.649, Cronbach’s α = 0.864, CR = 0.902, Path Coefficient = 0.752***
Change my verbal behavior (e.g., accent, tone) when a cross-cultural interaction requires it. 3.345 1.169 0.772***
Use pause and silence differently to suit different cross-cultural situations. 3.113 1.095 0.727***
Vary the rate of my speaking when a cross-cultural situation requires it. 3.507 1.105 0.866***
Change my nonverbal behavior when a cross-cultural situation requires it. 3.408 1.102 0.820***
Alter my facial expressions when a cross-cultural interaction requires it. 3.458 1.111 0.834***
Heritage Mean = 4.128, AVE = 0.641, Cronbach’s α = 0.907, CR = 0.926
Responsibility Know and obey the rules of heritage protection. 4.218 0.912 0.861***
Try to keep the original architecture in firm’s decorations. 4.345 1.000 0.862***
Use local materials during construction. 4.077 0.993 0.805***
Introduce heritage to customers to promote heritage protection. 4.183 0.901 0.827***
Provide financial support for the heritage protection. 4.127 0.926 0.838***
Try to buy materials or goods locally. 4.000 0.938 0.825***
Product or service fits the unique flavor of the local area. 3.986 0.960 0.727***
Subjective Mean = 3.292, AVE = 0.689 Cronbach’s α = 0.850, CR = 0.899
Performance The firm has been very profitable. 3.218 0.865 0.803***
The firm has achieved rapid growth. 3.380 0.870 0.843***
The performance of this firm has been very satisfactory. 3.331 0.886 0.831***
The firm has been very successful. 3.239 0.847 0.842***

Note: ***p < 0.001.

Table 3
Fornell–Larcker criterion analysis and HTMT ratios.
BCQ CCQ CQ HR MCCQ MCQ SP

BCQ 0.805
CCQ 0.423 (0.474) 0.792
CQ 0.752 (0.852) 0.685 (0.809) 0.591
HR 0.390 (0.430) 0.263 (0.292) 0.594 (0.639) 0.801
MCCQ 0.403 (0.475) 0.393 (0.464) 0.767 (0.881) 0.452 (0.532) 0.797
MCQ 0.397 (0.444) 0.209 (0.230) 0.746 (0.795) 0.624 (0.696) 0.536 (0.632) 0.833
SP 0.262 (0.288) 0.356 (0.412) 0.441 (0.497) 0.405 (0.458) 0.341 (0.404) 0.335 (0.382) 0.830

Note: HTMT ratios are in the parentheses. The diagonal elements (in bold) are the square roots of all constructs’ AVEs.

than the large criteria, and thus indicated a good fit of the models
(Wetzels et al., 2009). The variance inflation factor (VIF) was examined
as a collinearity test. According to the guidelines of Hair, Ringle, and
Sarstedt (2011), each indicator’ s VIF value should be less than 5. All
items in both models met the criteria, thereby confirming an adequate
model fit. The Q2 of the models, which assesses the model’s individual
construct’s predictive relevance, should be more than zero. The calcu­
lated Q2 values of HR and SP were 0.206/0.138 in the second-order
model and 0.251/0.147 in the first-order model, which indicated pre­
dictive validity.
Given that the second-order model of CQ was a reflective hierar­
chical model, repeated use of variables from 4 dimensions may cause
nonconvergence and/or improper solutions (Wetzels et al., 2009). Some
improved estimators of model fit were only provided in the first-order
model, such as SRMR, NFI, d_ULS and d_G. The standardized root
mean square residual (SRMR) was examined as the approximate model
fit criterion. According to suggestions (Henseler et al., 2016), a model
has a good fit when SRMR is less than 0.08. By computing the chi-square
value of the proposed model and relating it to a meaningful standard,
NFI was taken as an incremental fit measure, and its suggested accep­
tance value was 0.9 or higher. While the fit index varies from 0 to 1
where 1 was ideal (Yusif et al., 2020). Meanwhile, the values of d_ULS
and d_G should be less than the 95% bootstrap quantile (Henseler et al.,
2016). In the first-order model, SRMR = 0.054, d_G = 0.89, which were
less than bootstrapped HI 95% of d _G = 1.026), while NFI = 0.755 was
less than the suggested acceptance value of 0.9, and d_ULS = 2.276 was
slightly more than bootstrapped HI 95% of d_ULS = 2.154. However, the
rules of thumb for this measure recommend that it could be substantially
improved.
Finally, the PLS algorithm, R-square (R2), and path coefficients were

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Table 4
Results of the Hypothesis test.
Hypothesis paths Path coefficients STDEV t-value Supported

Second-order model H1 CQ→SP 0.309*** 0.085 3.645 ✓

H2 CQ→HR 0.594*** 0.075 7.895 ✓
H3 HR→SP 0.221** 0.085 2.606 ✓
First-order model H1a MCCQ→SP 0.082 0.098 0.837 ×
H1b CCQ→SP 0.25** 0.09 2.796 ✓
H1c MCQ→SP 0.086 0.107 0.802 ×
H1d BCQ→SP − 0.001 0.131 0.005 ×
H2a MCCQ→HR 0.111 0.083 1.33 ×
H2b CCQ→HR 0.062 0.076 0.816 ×
H2c MCQ→HR 0.504*** 0.074 6.801 ✓
H2d BCQ→HR 0.125 0.07 1.776 ×
H3 HR→SP 0.245** 0.083 2.938 ✓

Note: ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05.

Table 5
Results of mediating effect test.
Models path Coefficients Bias Corrected

2.5% 97.5%

Second-order model Total effect CQ→SP 0.441*** 0.29 0.59

Indirect effect CQ→HR→SP 0.132* 0.034 0.254
Direct effect CQ→SP 0.309*** 0.142 0.472
First-order model Total effect MCCQ→SP 0.109 − 0.093 0.296
CCQ→SP 0.266** 0.085 0.432
MCQ→SP 0.209* 0.023 0.408
BCQ→SP 0.03 − 0.2 0.306
Indirect effect MCCQ→HR→SP 0.027 − 0.014 0.085
CCQ→HR→SP 0.015 − 0.02 0.064
MCQ→HR→SP 0.124** 0.035 0.226
BCQ→HR→SP 0.027 − 0.014 0.085
Direct effect MCCQ→SP 0.082 − 0.119 0.263
CCQ→SP 0.25** 0.07 0.418
MCQ→SP 0.086 − 0.129 0.295
BCQ→SP − 0.001 − 0.239 0.277

Note: ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05.

used to measure the strength of relationships among latent variables.
According to Chin (1998), R2 values of 0.19, 0.33, and 0.67 for endog­
enous latent constructs demonstrate “weak,” “moderate,” or “substan­
tial” explanatory power of the model, respectively. In the second-order
model, most of the R2 values were above the 0.33 threshold. Of these,
the R2 values of HR and SP in the second-order/first-order models were
0.353/0.432 and 0.226/0.245, respectively. This result indicated that
for migrant entrepreneurs, CQ and HR could explain more than 20% of
SP’s total amount of variance.
Then, bootstrapping was utilized to estimate the path coefficient.
Table 4 shows the estimated path coefficients of the relationships. As
proposed in H1 and H2, the CQ of migrant entrepreneurs was found to
affect their HR (β = 0.594, p < 0.001) and SP (β = 0.309, p < 0.001)
positively and significantly. Additionally, as proposed in H3, HR had a
significant positive effect on SP in both the first- and second-stage
models (β = 0.221, 0.245, p < 0.01). However, as viewed from these
dimensions, only CCQ was positively related to SP, and MCQ was
positively related to HR, which provided support for H1b (β = 0.25, p <
0.01) and H2c (β = 0.5104, p < 0.001). Other hypotheses were not
supported. It was also indicated that for migrant entrepreneurs, under­
standing the local culture (CCQ) was more important to SP than un­
derstanding the underlying knowledge background (MCCQ) or even
actual thinking and practice (BCQ, MCQ). Nevertheless, what entre­
preneurs desire to do (MCQ) would impact their attitude and re­
sponsibilities about the heritage, which would indirectly affect their
performance.
5.5. Assessment of the mediation effects
The mediation effects were tested by bootstrapping. Relative
indirect, direct, and total effects are proven when zero is not included in
the bootstrap confidence interval. The results in Table 5 show that zero
values were not included in the confidence intervals of “CQ-HR-SP,” and
the indirect effect of HR was statistically significant; among these, the
indirect effect of HR on SP was 0.132 with a bootstrap 95% confidence
interval [0.034, 0.254]. This indicated that CQ indirectly increases SP by
inspiring the HR of entrepreneurs. At a more detailed level, HR only had
an indirect effect on the relationship of MCQ and SP [0.035, 0.226], as
there were zero values included in the confidence intervals of other
relationships. Thus, H4 and H4c were accepted, but H4a, H4b, and H4d
were rejected.
6. Discussion
The models’ reliability and validity above reveal the relationship of
CQ, HR, and SP of migrant entrepreneurs (see Fig. 3). Several conclu­
sions can be drawn by integrating the results of the models, the in­
terviews, and the comprehension of migrant entrepreneurship in the
Huizhou area.
First, entrepreneurs’ ability to understand and handle different cul­
tural affairs, represented by CQ, positively affects their entrepreneurial
performance. As cultural networks in business and shared cultural
backgrounds become the main comparative advantage to migrant en­
trepreneurs (Williams & Hall, 2002, pp. 1–52), CQ could help them
maintain cultural sensitivity and generate suitable measures to under­
stand and create the expected role in the destination, in turn achieving
higher performance.
However, except for CCQ, the other dimensions of CQ do not influ­
ence the subjective performance as supposed. The results perform
dissimilarly to studies of innovative performance (Berraies, 2020),

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Fig. 3. Partial least squares result of the theoretical model. Note: *** indicates that the coefficient is significant at 0.1% level, **p < 0.01 indicates that the coefficient
is significant at 1% level, * indicates that the coefficient is significant at 5% level, NS indicates the Hypothesis is not support. The numbers within parentheses refer to
their path coefficient to CQ.
international performance (Şahin & Gürbüz, 2020), and task perfor­
mance (Rockstuhl & Van Dyne, 2018). The reasons might lie in the fact
that although migrant entrepreneurs take the initiative to sufficiently
understand Huizhou culture, they stay at the knowledge and cognitive
levels. They want to apply the elements of Huizhou Culture to the
decoration and design of homestay inns efficiently, as that is the key
technique to increase the customers’ demand and promote the price,
thus determining their performance. As the interviewees mentioned,
“Although I am from Beijing, my understanding and knowledge of Hui Cul­
ture was no less than the natives’. I had been very interested in Ancient
Huizhou before I came here. Such as marriage, customs, arts and crafts, I
have known a lot about them, I love Huizhou Cuisine very much” (Inter­
viewee 6). “I came here and started a business just because I was in favor of
Huizhou Culture, so my homestay inn was built according to the style of
ancient Huizhou, I would study and learn some knowledge about the local
cultural practices, architectural style and so on.” (Interviewee 10). “Our
homestay inn’s style is according to the Huizhou, and in the process of
refurbishing, I consulted some local craftsmen and residents, often visited and
borrowed ideas from other homestay inns.” (Interviewee 9). This high
cognitive level of Huizhou culture is associated with high performance
in Hongcun. MCCQ shows a nonsignificant effect on performance, which
is consistent with the finding of Groves et al. (2015). Perhaps its effect is
reduced, compared with the specific details of CCQ. Interestingly, MCQ
had no direct effect on performance as Ang’s study showed (Ang et al.,
2007), but HR took a complete mediating role in the relationship be­
tween MCQ and SP. This shows that only internalizing entrepreneurs’
intention to understand Huizhou culture into their heritage re­
sponsibilities can promote their performance. Last, unlike the positive
effect of BCQ on performance in the studies of Ang et al. (2007) and
Chen et al. (2011), this relationship was not confirmed in homestay inn
entrepreneurs. The reason may lie in Huizhou cultural backgrounds and
characteristics of homestay inns. Intimate and closed social contexts in
Huizhou culture created obstacles for migrant entrepreneurs to integrate
into local communities. Coupled with the great difficulty of communi­
cating with natives using Huizhou dialect, which is a very distinguished
but relatively obscure dialect. As interviewees stated, “I was not able to
communicate with natives, as I could not say and understand their dialect, so
everyone acts as he pleases” (Interviewee 3). “There are so many elderly
people who stay in the village, it is difficult, even impossible for me to un­
derstand what they say” (Interviewee 22). Although migrant entrepre­
neurs possess higher cognitive and motivational CQ, it is difficult to
apply it in practice, and thus, the constraints of communication and
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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550
integration eventually have an important impact on performance.
Second, “With great power, comes greater responsibility” has been
primarily confirmed in migrant entrepreneurs. CQ promotes adaptation
to local culture and helps create the intersection of transcendent values
between the enterprises’ culture and its local partners, which subse­
quently inspires the interconnection between cultural intelligence and
CSR (Tuan, 2016). The same process exists with homestay inn entre­
preneurship in cultural destinations as well. Migrant entrepreneurs with
higher levels of CQ engage in more HR behaviors. However, interest­
ingly, only the MCQ dimension has a positive influence on HR. This
suggests that what entrepreneurs want to do about heritage is more
important than what they know. The same result was obtained from the
interviews, as shown by the following statements: “Although we are
outsiders, we decorated the homestay inn with local cultural elements
entirely, the more we know the local culture, the more things we think are
utilizable, the more things we should protect” (Interviewee 18). “The success
of homestay inn business is dependent not only on a good product, which
could meet the customer’s needs but also protection of the local resources and
environment, without any disruption” (Interviewee 5). In general, these
results suggest that HR could be addressed through continuous com­
munity education and sensitization to promote the entrepreneurs’
intention, knowledge, skills, and understanding of Huizhou culture. This
is an efficient way to reach a balance between tourism development and
cultural heritage protection.
Not surprisingly, the HR of migrant entrepreneurs positively impacts
their performance, which is consistent with the findings of Wang et al.
and Shi &Tsai (Shi & Tsai, 2020; Wang et al., 2015, 2018, 2019). Similar
results could often be observed in CSR studies of other tourism enter­
prises (Inoue & Lee, 2011; Youn et al., 2015). This further demonstrates
that entrepreneurs should not reduce their heritage responsibilities even
though they are outsiders, and the business size is small. Higher HR
scores demonstrate that entrepreneurs have realized that only the pro­
tection of the cultural heritage and environment of Hongcun could help
achieve success in the homestay inn business and result in profitability.
As interviewees stated, “The Hongcun tourism development relies on
Huizhou Culture, so we must protect this cultural heritage properly, to protect
the culture is to protect our performance” (Interviewee 21). “Whenever
customers check in to my homestay inn, I will introduce the local culture and
make referrals to them. By doing our best service, a lot of customers were
recommended here by the previous customers, and I think they would do the
same.” (Interviewee 17). “In the process of re-furbishing the homestay inn,
we adhered to principles of not using the outside woods, so as to make sure
F. Liu et al.
that was unbreakable to the ancient architecture” (Interviewee 19).
Last, from the results of the mediating effect assessment, we verify
the words “With great power, comes greater responsibility and greater
results in business” to some degree in migrant entrepreneurs of home­
stay inns. As HR plays a partial mediating effect between CQ and per­
formance, a high level of CQ could help migrant entrepreneurs
understand and apply heritage elements properly, as this would promote
the attractiveness of inns to customers. More importantly, it would exert
its effect by inspiring migrant entrepreneurs to implement their re­
sponsibilities to cultural heritage, community, environment, assess their
CQ about heritage factors. This would accelerate the process of integra­
tion into the local social networks and reduce conflict with the other
stakeholders in the business. HR could be the mechanism used to explain
the relation of individual CQ and entrepreneurial performance.
7. Conclusions and managerial implications
As continuously growing studies of theoretical discussion and prac­
tical application concerning CQ, it has been an increasingly important
issue in the tourism and hospitality field. CQ can be used not only as a
helpful device in measuring tourism practitioners’ abilities to handle
cross-cultural affairs (Kotsaga, 2015), but also as an explanatory vari­
able in many tourism and hospitality activities, such as satisfaction
(Rohmetra & Arora, 2015), brand equity, place attachments, and job
performance and so on (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2018a, 2018b). This study
introduces CQ into tourism entrepreneur studies, while attempting to
explain its effects on performance and HR. By utilizing migrant entre­
preneurs of homestay inns in Hongcun Village as a sample, it revealed
that CQ could be used to measure their abilities to deal with
cross-cultural activities in entrepreneurial processes, and CQ had posi­
tive effects on the SP and HR totally, while HR played a certain medi­
ating role in the relationship between CQ and SP. Thus, this study not
only expands the application field of CQ from migrant, study abroad,
international labors etc. to tourism and hospitality, especially to heri­
tage destination entrepreneurs but also increases the capacity to explain
entrepreneurial behaviors and performance.
The findings highlight some managerial implications for homestay
inn migrant entrepreneurs, tourism enterprises, heritage and rural
destination management organizations, particularly those considered
herein. First, entrepreneurs and managers who are going to start a new
tourism business in an unfamiliar region should develop their cross-
cultural capability, knowledge, and practices to enhance the efficiency
and effectiveness of understanding and communicating with members
from different cultures and local communities. Moreover, they should
conscientiously engage in protecting heritage and local culture, as these
responsible activities can enhance their performance. Second, DMOs
and local communities should connect with and understand migrant
entrepreneurs comprehensively and quickly. If possible, they could
evaluate entrepreneurs’ CQ about heritage, local culture, and customs
and even use specific criteria to select suitable entrepreneurs. In addi­
tion, they could provide some training and opportunities for lower CQ
entrepreneurs and encourage them to communicate with natives. These
aims are to promote their level of understanding, application, and re­
sponsibilities concerning the local culture and heritage. Third, the en­
trepreneurs themselves should uphold an objective attitude to cultural
differences and should meet and consider the characteristics of the
heritage destination to which they have moved to achieve a win-win
situation of obtaining greater performance and protecting the heritage.
This study acknowledges several limitations that may provide op­
portunities for future research. First, this study utilized a small sample
size; hence, it limits the extent to which the results may be generalized.
Future research should explore this issue with additional types of des­
tinations and stakeholders and carry out comparative studies. Second,
the CQ measurement is designed for cross-cultural situations, with most
of them being transnational practices. The present study is concerned
with cross-regions in one country, and issues with respect to scale
548
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 48 (2021) 538–550
applicability and utility could not be avoided even in the Huizhou
Culture, which is endowed with unique attributes. Indeed, some native
entrepreneurs may also be unfamiliar with every aspect of the heritage
culture, such as their differences in cultural backgrounds, education
level, cultural motivation, preference, and other attributes. Their abili­
ties to understand and use the heritage culture would also have an
impact on entrepreneurship. Therefore, other types of tourism stake­
holders that play pivotal roles in protecting and using heritage and
culture should be studied and compared. It is necessary to develop a
more applicable scale for measuring additional types of cultural users.
Funding sources
The authors acknowledge the fundings support by National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant ID 42071196) and Humanities and
Social Science Foundation of Education of Ministry of China (Grant ID
17YJC790092).
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Author statement
Ms. Xiaoyu Wu is a master’s student in School of Business, at Anhui
University, China. Her research interests include regional tourism
innovation efficiency, rural tourism innovation. Ms. Jinyan Xu is a
master’s student in School of Business, at Anhui University, China. Her
research interests include rural tourism entrepreneurship, rural tourism
destination management. Ms. Dongdong Chen is a lecturer of School of
management at Anhui Broadcasting Movie and Television College. Her
expertise includes hotel management, tourism marketing, and homestay
inn entrepreneurship.
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