۱- Introduction

۲-  CSR and CSR communication in the hotel industry

۳- Conceptual framework and research questions

۴- Study 1–website analysis of CSR-certified hotels

۵- Study 2–analysis of online reviews

۶- Study 3–analysis of hotels’ responses to online reviews

۷- General discussion and implications

References

Abstract

This paper examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR)-certified hotels communicate CSR on their websites, how guests comment on hotels’ CSR engagement in online reviews and how hotels respond to online reviews. The CSR communication strategies of stakeholder information, response and involvement of Morsing and Schultz (2006) were used as conceptual framework. Three studies were conducted. Based on a sample of 47 Austrian CSR-certified hotels, the first study explored the extent to which hotels communicate CSR activities to stakeholders via their webpage. The second study analyzed 1383 customer online reviews of the same hotels on TripAdvisor® with regard to CSR references. The third study analyzed hotels’ responses to online reviews. Results show that environmental issues and supplier relations receive highest attention from hotels and customer reviews. Employee relations are less frequently communicated and addressed in reviews. The three studies uncover opportunities for intensified stakeholder integration in CSR engagement and communication strategies.

Introduction

Tourism, hospitality and leisure is a sector, in which companies increasingly engage in actions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Coles et al., 2013), the industry thus being no exception regarding the rising importance of CSR in the business world. CSR concerns “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law” (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001, p. 117). Customers are increasingly more socially conscious and demanding of CSR adoption (Bonilla-Priego et al., 2011; de Grosbois, 2012; Miller, 2003; Smerecnik and Andersen, 2011) in most parts of the world (Diehl et al., 2016). Considering that “businesses cannot hope to enjoy concrete benefits from CSR unless they intelligently communicate about their initiatives to relevant stakeholders” (Maignan and Ferrell, 2004, p. 17), an appropriate approach to addressing consumers is essential. This paper focuses on online CSR communication in the hotel industry, a topic that has attracted increasing research, but which is still considered under-researched (Coles et al., 2013; Line and Runyan, 2012). The Internet offers a wide array of possibilities to engage in different kinds of online CSR communication, e.g. through corporate websites or social media. For hotels, hotel websites and review platforms, as an example for social media in the tourism industry, are relevant CSR communication channels. Particularly smaller hotels can profit from the inexpensive, flexible and readily-available tools the Internet provides for CSR communication. The present paper aims to investigate the relationships among hotels’ CSR communication efforts via their websites, customer feedback on hotels’ CSR efforts via online reviews, and hotels’ responses to reviews. It investigates smaller, non-chain hotels (often privately-owned) that are rather infrequent subjects of analysis, even though they are a frequent form of accommodation in many countries (Austria being one of them) (Thomas, 2000). In addition, the hotels analyzed in the current research have received CSR-related certification to account for their engagement in CSR.