Motivations for Corporate Environmental Response within service sector organisations: The case of the Irish hotel accommodation sector

Abstract

This study identifies the determinants of corporate environmental response (CER) within the Irish hotel industry. It has addressed some of the manifest shortcomings associated with prior research into Corporate Social (CSR) and Corporate Environmental Response (CER) research within service SMEs. The study investigates corporate motivations advancing voluntary beyond compliance environmental initiatives within an Irish service industry context, the Irish hotel accommodation sector. Given the surprisingly few qualitative studies within the CSR literature, a qualitative research design was used in order to investigate the underlying motivations and address the question as to why hotels in Ireland implement CER initiatives in Ireland.

Notable findings were that Irish hoteliers perceived the motivation of competitiveness, defined in terms of ‘cost savings’, as the fundamental motivation driving Irish hotel CER engagement. Related concepts of enhanced profitability, increased margins, and the perceived importance of hotel CER initiatives in mitigating the effects of rising costs, specifically those of energy, water, and waste were also noted as salient hotel CER motivations. Importantly, the findings indicate that Irish hotels are not motivated to engage in beyond compliance environmental initiatives for reasons of differential competitive advantage. Legitimation was found to be a significant second-order hotel CER motivator, this varying with chain affiliation. Altruism was not perceived as constituting a salient motivation in the advancement of CER initiatives within Irish hotels. Finally, managerial values and beliefs as well as advocacy and championing behaviour on the part of individuals, were found to be important facilitators of hotel beyond compliance environmental initiatives in Ireland. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings are also discussed.