Introduction

Previous studies have each examined parts of the relationship among dynamic capabilities, communication infrastructures, smart tourism, and data governance (Mahdavi, 2023; Anabestani et al., 2023; Salji, 2024; Pakdel et al., 2023; Teece, 2018; Xiang & Fesenmaier, 2017; Verhoef et al., 2021; Aljehani, 2026). Nevertheless, an integrated framework for explaining the linkage among data governance, dynamic capabilities, communication infrastructures, and the pilgrim’s digital experience—particularly in the telecommunications industry and religious tourism—has not been presented (Pakdel et al., 2023; Khavarian Garmsir et al., 2024; Raj & Griffin, 2015; Esmaeily & Kralevska, 2024). Therefore, the present study, adopting a qualitative approach, aims to identify the microfoundations of competitive advantage and to propose a data-driven governance model that explains the role of telecommunications infrastructures in enhancing smart services, resilience, and the sustainability of religious urban tourism in the metropolis of Mashhad (Verhoef et al., 2021). The innovation of this research lies in providing an integrated framework that links the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, and data governance within the context of religious urban tourism. This study demonstrates how data governance connects pilgrims’ behavioral data to the reconfiguration of infrastructural resources, the enhancement of network resilience, and the improvement of the digital pilgrimage experience, thereby integrating the strategic management of communication infrastructures with the intelligent management of urban tourism.



**Research Method**



This study is applied in terms of purpose and qualitative–explanatory in nature, grounded in the critical realism paradigm. Within this approach, competitive advantage and the mechanisms that shape it are regarded as real phenomena whose understanding is possible through the systematic interpretation of empirical data and continuous interaction between field evidence and theoretical frameworks. Accordingly, the research strategy was directed qualitative content analysis with an inductive–deductive logic. The resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory provided the initial analytical framework, while field data also contributed to the development and enrichment of the concepts (Creswell & Poth, 2018). Based on the critical realism paradigm, tourist data in the form of “digital footprints” and “behavioral feedback streams”—including location data, service consumption patterns, and comments recorded on social platforms—were used as the empirical evidence of the study. These data were collected through telecommunications infrastructures and interpreted by experts, particularly data analysts and strategic managers, and, in interaction with theoretical foundations, formed the basis for the final model (Sheikhzadeh & Bani Asad, 2020).

The participant population consisted of senior managers and network architects of Telecommunication Company of Khorasan Razavi, data analysts of the ICT Organization of Mashhad Municipality, urban tourism policymakers, and faculty members specializing in information technology, network management, and strategic planning. Using purposive sampling with maximum variation, a 15-member panel was formed comprising telecommunications managers, municipal data analysts, tourism managers, and academic specialists to cover the various dimensions of data-driven governance. The criterion for determining sample size was theoretical saturation, which was reached at the twelfth interview; however, to enhance validity, interviews continued up to the fifteenth participant (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Guest et al., 2020). The selection of the telecommunications company as the unit of analysis was due to its central role in real-time data processing and the reconfiguration of communication infrastructures; nevertheless, the requirements of the tourism ecosystem and the needs of pilgrims were incorporated into the model through the multidimensional composition of the expert panel (Anabestani et al., 2023; Xiang & Fesenmaier, 2017).



The data collection instrument was a semi-structured interview based on the five dimensions of competitive advantage (cost, quality, time, delivery capability, and innovation), which was conducted after confirmation of content validity and with the use of probing questions (Guest et al., 2020).

The findings of the present study indicate that sustainable competitive advantage in the telecommunications industry is not merely the result of the accumulation of technological resources, but rather emerges from the interaction among resources, organizational capabilities, and coordinating mechanisms. The identification of thirteen core categories as the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities showed that organizational resources are transformed into strategic capabilities only when they are employed and reconfigured through coordinating mechanisms within organizational processes. This finding is consistent with the resource-based view, according to which the value of resources leads to competitive advantage when the organization is able to deploy them in an effective and difficult-to-imitate manner (Barney et al., 2021). Moreover, the emphasis of the research findings on sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring aligns with the logic of dynamic capabilities and attention to their formative microfoundations (Felin et al., 2012; Teece, 2018). Nevertheless, the present finding extends this literature by explaining these capabilities not as a set of isolated abilities, but in relation to a coordinating mechanism termed data-driven governance. Therefore, the main contribution of the study at this level is to demonstrate that resources and dynamic capabilities require a coordinating logic for the alignment of data, decision-making, and resource reconfiguration in order to be converted into competitive advantage.

In the same vein, the findings showed that data-driven governance, among the identified microfoundations, plays a role beyond that of a technological capability or administrative mechanism and functions as an orchestrating logic that regulates the relationships among resources, information flows, and strategic decisions. This result is consistent with the study by Warner and Wäger, which emphasizes the role of digital capabilities in creating organizational capacity for responsiveness and adaptation to environmental changes (Warner & Wäger, 2019). The distinguishing feature of the present finding is that it positions data governance at the level of a linking mechanism between organizational capabilities and value creation. In other words, data is not merely an input to decision-making; rather, through governance mechanisms, it becomes the basis for coordinating resources and reconfiguring capabilities. From this perspective, the findings of the present study complement previous research by elevating the relationship between digital transformation and competitive advantage from the level of technology possession to the level of how the organization governs, coordinates, and leverages data flows.