The path to social license for data practices in tourism and hospitality: a sufficiency-necessity analysis of key antecedents

In the digital age, tourism and hospitality organizations (THOs) rely on consumer data to inform strategy and maintain competitiveness. This study investigates how travelers’ interactional trust in THOs’ data-handling practices influences the social license to use such data. Drawing on social license to operate and social exchange theories, we analyze survey responses from 875 travelers. Results show that trust, shaped by perceptions of fairness, usefulness, privacy control, and transparency, significantly enhances the social license granted. Fairness and usefulness also exert direct positive effects, while privacy concerns undermine both trust and social license. Additionally, fairness, usefulness, and transparency represent necessary conditions, meaning their absence cannot be compensated by other factors. This is the first empirical study to examine social license in the context of data use by THOs, and the first to assess both the sufficiency and necessity of key factors, providing strategic guidance for ethical data governance.