This study aims to explain talent retention in luxury hospitality as a climate-enabled, configuration-dependent outcome by examining how implicit and explicit knowledge sharing operate through innovation and mindfulness climates.
Survey data from 290 employees of five-star and luxury hotels in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).
Knowledge sharing affects retention primarily through organizational climates. Implicit knowledge is more strongly associated with innovation climate, whereas explicit knowledge is most strongly associated with mindfulness climate. Both climates predict retention; however, the indirect path from explicit knowledge through innovation climate to retention is not significant. The fsQCA results identify three equifinal pathways: a comprehensive dual-climate route, an innovation-led route supported by both knowledge forms, and a relational route combining innovation climate, mindfulness climate and implicit knowledge.
Luxury hotels should treat retention as an organizational design problem. Managers can combine codified routines, experiential learning, experimentation, attentive supervision and psychologically safe service debriefs rather than rely on isolated incentives or training programmes.
The study distinguishes the cognitive-performance role of innovation climate from the emotional-regulatory role of mindfulness climate. By combining symmetric and asymmetric analyses, it explains why different climate–knowledge configurations can produce similarly high levels of retention.
