۱ Introduction

Innovations are identified as an important catalyst for economic survival and growth in the hospitality literature (e.g., Binder et al., 2013; Orfila-Sintes and Mattsson, 2009; Ottenbacher, 2007; Wikhamn et al., 2018). Their positive impact is well recognized. For instance, innovative hotels are reported to perform better in terms of occupancy rate (Mattsson and Orfila‐Sintes, 2014) and customer loyalty (Tsai, 2017). Chadee and Mattsson (1996) show that innovative new products and services improve the financial performance and reputation of a hotel. Storey and Easingwood (1998) also identify a positive link between innovation behavior and hotel reputation. Hjalager (2010) and Hall and Williams (2008) argue that innovations have positive impacts on customer preference, service quality, employee productivity, firms’ market value and share, and customer retention. Despite its significance, innovation and its relationship with organizational performance is a major challenge facing the hospitality industry globally (Hjalager, 2002; Miralles, 2010; Ottenbacher and Gnoth, 2005). Some research reports indicate that the innovation-performance relationship may depend on organizational factors, such as implemented HRM policies and practices (Wheatley and Doty, 2010). HRM policies and practices have an impact on customer satisfaction, service quality and hotel performance (Chand, 2010; Dhar, 2015). This is because human interaction in service delivery is critical for customer experience (Tsaur and Lin, 2004). This suggests that although the survival and growth of the service sector relies on innovative services, labor-intensive industries are equally dependent on the performance of the employees (El Masry et al., 2004; Mohamed, 2016). Sustainable human resource management, described as the “adoption of HRM strategies and practices that enable the achievement of financial, social and ecological goals, with an impact inside and outside of the organization and over a long-term time horizon while controlling for unintended side effects and negative feedback” (Ehnert et al., 2016, p. 90), has emerged as a new approach to the employment relationship and has gained increased importance in the last decade (Ehnert et al., 2014). Exposed to external pressure, organizations have started to incorporate elements of corporate social responsibility (CSR), including sustainability-directed activities, into their policies and strategies. Moreover, an increasing number of corporations and large firms have started to publish an annual sustainability report (for a comprehensive list, see the sustainability disclosure database), including information on organizational efforts to manage human resources responsibly. Parallel to the developments in practice, growing scholarly attention has been devoted to studying the link between CSR and HRM. For instance, Voegtlin and Greenwood (2016) address the link between an organization’s responsibility to act ethically and HRM. Jamali and Karam, (2016, p. 126) highlight HRM as a potentially “promising managerial framework that can support organizational efforts in translating [CSR] strategies into practical managerial actions and outcomes.” Similarly, Voegtlin and Greenwood (2016) argue that HRM plays a major role in how CSR is understood, developed and implemented and that organizations’ understandings of social responsibility have implications for how they treat their employees. Although substantial research has been conducted on ecological and social sustainability in recent years, little attention has been devoted in this research to individual and collective human sustainability (Baum et al., 2016; Ehnert, 2009; Ehnert et al., 2014; Ehnert et al., 2016; Järlström et al., 2016; Kramar, 2014; Mariappanadar and Kramar, 2014).