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Article

Corporate Pro-Environmental Behavior on the Seas: Eco-Ethical Prescriptions of the Largest Cruise Companies

by
Dmitry A. Ruban
1,2,* and
Natalia N. Yashalova
3
1
K.G. Razumovsky Moscow State University of Technologies and Management (The First Cossack University), Zemlyanoy Val Street 73, 109004 Moscow, Russia
2
Department of Organization and Technologies of Service Activities, Higher School of Business, Southern Federal University, 23-ja Linija Street 43, 344019 Rostov-on-Don, Russia
3
Department of Economics and Management, Business School, Cherepovets State University, Sovetskiy Avenue 10, 162600 Cherepovets, Vologda Region, Russia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(3), 380; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030380
Submission received: 17 February 2022 / Revised: 3 March 2022 / Accepted: 6 March 2022 / Published: 7 March 2022
(This article belongs to the Section Marine Environmental Science)
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Abstract

:
The cruise industry has significant environmental impacts. Ethical prescriptions in codes of conduct of cruise companies can contribute to the development of pro-environmental behaviors. The content of the codes of conduct of the world’s largest cruise companies is analyzed. Seventy percent of these codes bear environmental notions, often in separate sections/subsections. Some of them deal with marine environments. Among the most frequent words in the environment-related passages are those dealing with laws, regulations, and standards, and many common words are too general and vague. A total of 24 environmental topics are established in the analyzed codes, and many of them are either too general or dealing with organizational activities. The results of this study imply that the quality of the eco-ethical prescriptions by the largest cruise companies is moderate, and improvements in the related corporate policy are necessary.

1. Introduction

Marine environments experience significant anthropogenic pressure, and the tourism industry is one of its principal sources. Importantly, tourism affects coastal zones and open seas. Particularly, cruise ships are sources of pollution and emissions. Sustainable use of these environments requires proper marine policy, which has economical, social, environmental, and other aspects and includes, for example, maritime transport policy and coastal planning policy [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. In the contemporary research, more attention is paid to the international and national marine policy rather than the corporate marine policy [11,12,13]. Nonetheless, it seems to be logical that corporations and smaller companies influencing seas either directly or indirectly should take the related environmental responsibility. The World Bank has defined the “blue” economy as “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health” [14]. This definition links socio-economic interests, environmental concerns, and sustainable development. Further rise of the “blue” economy [15,16,17,18,19] cannot happen without corporate marine environmental responsibility.
Cruise tourism exploits open marine and coastal, natural, socio-economical, aesthetical, tangible, and intangible resources. This industry, which is an important sector of international tourism, has been the focus of researchers, and the related studies constitute the whole direction [20]. This industry is actively re-shaped by business processes [21], it possesses its own mechanisms of service pricing [22], and it depends on a specific workforce [23]. Cruise tourism does not lack environmental responsibility [24,25]. Indeed, cruise ships and the related infrastructure affect the marine environment strongly. Lloret et al. [26] reviewed their environmental impacts on water, air, and land, as well as ecosystems and humans. Kotrikla et al. [27] investigated voluminous waste generation on these ships, including graywater, treated sewage, etc. Zhen et al. [28] noted the same problem and proposed some models of waste disposal. Toscano et al. [29] paid attention to cruise ship emissions in port cities. Yu and Shao [30] portrayed deficiencies in legal treatment of cruise-related pollution.
In regard to the above, it is evident that cruise companies should make efforts for environmental responsibility [31]. Particularly, they have to stimulate pro-environmental behavior of their employees (ship crews, but not only) and managers of all levels via eco-ethical prescriptions. The urgency of this task is also dictated by the significant amount of people involved in cruise ship functioning, as well as the responsibility of these people for the tourists’ behaviors. Such eco-ethical prescriptions may have various forms, but the most evident, official document summarizing them is a corporate code of conduct. This document can be titled and designed differently, but it is essential for shaping the corporate vision of the preferred behaviors [32,33,34,35,36,37,38]. Indeed, codes of conduct can be followed fully or partly, or not followed, but when available these codes establish norms for behaviors (if so, they resemble laws, which can be followed or violated, but in any case create society’s legal framework). Consideration of the environment in a given code of conduct is voluntary, but it is expected to be significant in the case of environment-affecting and environment-sensitive sectors of the economy such as the cruise industry.
The objective of the present study is examination of the eco-ethical prescriptions of cruise companies ranked highly by their financial indicators. This permits us to understand whether these companies cultivate pro-environmental behavior (at least via establishing corporate norms), which is urgent to manage their voluminous environmental impact. The study is empirical and rather tentative, but it aims at contributing to the general knowledge of eco-ethics in particular industries. Only the largest companies are addressed due to the availability of the related information, their dominance in the market, and their leading role in distributing norms and practices within the whole industry. Two main research questions are as follows. First, how “green” are codes of conduct of the considered companies? This question is important because such a “greenness” determines cultivation of eco-ethics with official corporate documents. Second, what is the quality of eco-ethical prescriptions of cruise companies? This question is important because too vague, too unclear, and/or too biased environment-related notions in the codes reduce their influence on the company’s staff and undermine eco-ethical development.

2. Materials and Methods

Corporate codes of conduct are regarded as a suitable material for analysis of various aspects of behavior-related business strategies [39,40,41,42,43]. For the purposes of the present study, the largest cruise companies are considered following their the “fresh” ranking based on market cap and total assets [44]. The official corporate webpage of each company from this ranking is checked to find the codes of conduct or other related documents. These are found for ten of fifteen companies, and the majority of the companies with codes represent the top ten companies. All documents are available in English.
The collected codes constitute material for subsequent analysis (Table 1). First, the cruise industry is a rather small sector of the world economy, and it would be difficult to anticipate a big number of large companies. Second, only the largest companies are the focus of the present research (see above for reasons), and, thus, the sample size matches this research scope. To avoid any occasional challenge of a given company’s reputation, the names of the analyzed companies are not disclosed, and IDs are used instead (the order of IDs does not follow the order of the companies in the ranking [44]). For the same reason, excerpts from the codes are not provided. Nonetheless, the analyzed codes are characterized generally (Table 1), and the environment-related information from them is treated in detail (see below).
The chosen codes of conduct are analyzed qualitatively, semi-quantitatively, and quantitatively. Attention is paid to environmental notions, which are passages, phrases, and even separate words directly linked to environmental issues. Several analytical approaches are employed step-by-step to reveal the representation of environmental information and, thus, eco-ethical prescriptions in these codes (Figure 1).
First, the initial screening of the documents allows preliminary judgments of how environmental prescriptions are made. These judgments permit us to propose tentative criteria for semi-quantitative environmental assessment of the codes and to propose the related scoring system (Table 2). The scores correspond to the state of environmental notion(s) in each particular document. The criteria specified in Table 2 seem to be objective, and the codes can easily be differentiated on their basis (these criteria were tested before the main analytical work).
Second, the environment-related passages from the codes are grouped and analyzed quantitatively, with attention to the word frequencies. Then, the so-called “word cloud” is constructed. Such a tool is very helpful for both visualization of the content analysis outcomes and further qualitative interpretations [45,46,47,48,49]. In this work, the “WordItOut.com” online engine is used for constructing the “word cloud”, which is subsequently analyzed qualitatively.
Third, the environmental notions in each code are checked “manually” and interpreted very carefully to identify all topics addressed by them. When the notions in different codes sound similar, these are attributed to the same topic. Then, the similar sounding topics are gathered into bigger clusters (themes). This is done via qualitative tracing of the logical links between the topics and their relevance to major environmental issues. Such an intuitive thematic categorization tested earlier by Ruban and Yashalova [50] for the gold mining industry allows realizing the diversity of the topics and themes, as well as measuring the frequency of their occurrence in the entity of the analyzed codes.

3. Results

The codes of conduct of the largest cruise companies differ by their length and design (Table 1). Forty percent of them are abridged, 30% are moderate, and 30% are extensive. Sixty percent of the documents are well designed and contain figures, explanatory schemes, and desired behavior templates, whereas the remaining 40% of the documents look like technical, “bureaucratic” documents; nonetheless, the latter are often well structured and easy to read.
The assessment of the codes implies that 70% of them bear environmental notions (Table 3). Although about a half of the codes deal with marine environmental issues, the latter are considered too briefly and without details. In only one case, these issues have deserved detailed explanations (Table 3). Nonetheless, the marine environmental notions are found in all codes with the high scores. In those cases, when environmental notions are found in a code, these are gathered in special sections/subsections. However, the latter are the only “green” parts of the codes in the majority of the cases. The average scores demonstrate moderate-to-high “greenness”, i.e., dedication of the analyzed codes to the eco-ethics (Table 3).
The environment-related passages of the analyzed codes of conduct differ strongly. The “word cloud” demonstrates that only the words “environmental” and “environment” are very common, which is highly expected. The other words demonstrate the relatively lower and more or less comparable frequencies (Figure 2). Nonetheless, one should note words such as “laws”, “regulations”, and “ISO”, which are rather frequent. This finding stresses that the largest cruise companies tend to relate their eco-ethical prescriptions to some external rules. Although it is possible to appreciate the attention of the companies to sustainability, many words sound too general, making the codes somewhat vague.
The thematic categorization reveals the diversity of the topics of the environmental notions in the codes. A total of 24 topics are distinguished (Table 4). The most popular of them is the topic linked to environmental laws, regulations, and certificates. It occurs in six of seven codes with eco-ethical prescriptions. This finding coincides with what is revealed by the “word cloud” (Figure 2). Three other popular topics are environmental protection, “green” innovations, technologies, and investment, and waste management and recycling. Each of them occurs in four documents. It should be noted that the first of these topics embraces too-general notions, the second topic considers a company’s activities, and only the third topic can be linked partly to staff behavior. It should be added that only three companies provide templates for employees (“how to act if”), and only two companies explain how eco-ethical misconduct should be communicated in the organization (Table 4).
The established topics constitute four major themes (Table 4). Only organizational concerns are found in all codes of conduct. This theme is also the most diverse in regard to the number of related topics. The general concerns are expressed in six documents, and two other themes are encountered in four documents each. Notably, the majority of the codes deal with more than one theme, and three codes deal with all four themes. Taken together, these lines of evidence indicate the moderate thematical homogeneity of the analyzed codes of conduct.

4. Discussion

The results of the present analysis of the codes of conduct of the largest cruise companies imply that pro-environmental behavior is cultivated by the majority of them via eco-ethical prescriptions. However, the number of the companies prescribing eco-ethics in their codes is smaller than one would expect in regard to the strong environmental impacts of this industry [26]. For a tentative comparison, it can be said that the share of the leading gold mining companies with environmental notions in their codes of conduct [50] is bigger than in the case of the cruise industry. The differences between the largest companies (Table 3) and the heterogeneity and the incompleteness of the environmental considerations (see also below) revealed by the present study echo the outcomes of the previous study of sustainability reports of the largest cruise companies [24].
The other question is whether the noted behavior cultivation is done adequately. According to Mazza and Furlotti [51], the quality of the corporate codes has not been investigated actively, and, thus, answering this question has fundamental, even conceptual, importance. On the one hand, this study registers the representation of environmental notions in special sections/subsections and the diversity of environmental topics and themes. On the other hand, this study reveals the presence of several codes without environmental notions and the inadequate attention to marine issues. There are many too-general and vague (only declarative) statements and words. The thematical homogeneity of the documents is limited. Finally, many details are lacking (for instance, in regard to staff behaviors). It is important to add that only a part of the environmental impacts of the cruise industry [26] are addressed by the codes of conduct. Waste and emissions are considered (Table 4), but issues such as invasive species [26] and physical damage of unique habitats [52] remain without attention. Of course, not all codes demonstrate such failures, although many do, and this finding is challenging. In regard to these lines of evidence, the adequacy (quality) of the eco-ethical prescriptions of the analyzed documents can be judged as moderate. However, it is important that the available codes (as they stand) lay a kind of foundation, on which the eco-ethics can be developed in the cruise industry (Figure 3).
Two fundamental problems of many analyzed codes of conduct are the oversimplification of eco-ethics and the focus on issues that are more related to organizations than to staff. The first of them is important because not all (probably, rare) workers (both managerial and other staff) of the cruise industry may have enough knowledge about environmental impacts of their work and the related eco-ethics. Additionally, thus, it is necessary to explain what, where, and how this should be done to cultivate pro-environmental behavior. Writing about environmental protection or preservation of natural ecosystems means nothing to unprepared employees, and such slogan-like statements help to “green” the code for a better company image, but not to guide the staff and to struggle for true eco-ethics on board. If even an environmental focus does not necessarily drive the company’s reputation in the eyes of customers [53], it is very important to make significant reputation-related business achievements [54]. Declaring “greenness” in too-general and vague words may be important to companies, but this is not enough to improve their environmental performance and, thus, to sustain their eco-reputation in the long-term perspective. The second problem is urgent because of two reasons. On the one hand, cruise ship crews are numerous, and, thus, environmental awareness and responsibility are required in large amounts. On the other hand, cruise tourists are very sensitive to the crew’s mood [55].
The above interpretations lead to three general recommendations for improvement of eco-ethical prescriptions in the codes of conduct of the largest cruise companies. First, these prescriptions should appear in all codes. Second, they should take into account the peculiarities of the cruise ship’s influence on marine environments. Third, these prescriptions should be detailed and clear to all staff members. Apparently, the over-emphasis on laws, regulations, and certificates can be avoided via replacement of a part of the related statements by the other prescriptions. Indeed, the environmental impacts of the cruise industry are highly complex and difficult to explain. This means that development of corporate codes of conduct in this industry would involve experts (scientists) in marine environmental science and policy. This involvement can be arranged by any international professional associations or leading companies, which can create templates for such codes to be distributed among the smaller organizations of the cruise industry.

5. Conclusions

The undertaken examination of the eco-ethical prescriptions in the codes of conduct of the world’s largest cruise companies permits making three general conclusions. First, these codes can stimulate pro-environmental behavior, although the quality of environmental prescriptions in them is moderate. Second, the eco-ethical prescriptions are often not linked to marine environments. Third, too-general writing about environmental issues and insufficient focus on staff need to be avoided, and many codes require improvements. The present study deals with only the largest companies. However, they are the industry leaders, and, thus, they play a big role in establishing the industry-level norms and practices. This is why these companies are the most important for such an analysis.
Three limitations of the present study and the related research perspectives can be specified. First, the geographical patterns, i.e., differences in the eco-ethics between countries, are not addressed. Further investigations can fill this gap together with a change in the sample size. Second, this study does not take into account whether the codes of conduct are correctly understood and really followed and, if yes, how. Interviews with companies’ managers and other staff would permit filling this gap. Third, the undertaken thematic categorization is intuitive. This is appropriate for a tentative study, but further investigations should explore the opportunities of automatic classification of environmental notions.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, D.A.R. and N.N.Y.; methodology, D.A.R.; investigation, D.A.R. and N.N.Y.; writing, D.A.R. and N.N.Y.; project administration, N.N.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully thank the journal editors and the reviewers for support and helpful recommendations.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The company names are not disclosed to avoid any occasional challenge of their reputation.

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Figure 1. Methodological framework of the present study.
Figure 1. Methodological framework of the present study.
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Figure 2. “Word cloud” demonstrating the relative word frequencies in the environment-related passages of the analyzed codes of conduct.
Figure 2. “Word cloud” demonstrating the relative word frequencies in the environment-related passages of the analyzed codes of conduct.
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Figure 3. General importance of findings of the present study.
Figure 3. General importance of findings of the present study.
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Table
Table 1. General characteristics of the analyzed codes of conduct.
Table 1. General characteristics of the analyzed codes of conduct.
CompanyHeadquartersDocument NameDocument State
LengthDesign
1West EuropeCode of Business ConductModerateReader-Friendly
2East AsiaCode of ConductAbridgedTechnical
3North AmericaCode of Business Conduct and Ethics for Directors and Senior Financial Officers AbridgedTechnical
4North AmericaStandards of Business ConductExtensiveReader-Friendly
5North AmericaCode of Ethical Business ConductModerateTechnical
6West EuropeCode of ConductAbridgedReader-Friendly
7West EuropeCode of ConductModerateReader-Friendly
8North AmericaCode of Business Conduct and EthicsExtensiveReader-Friendly
9North AmericaCode of Business Conduct and EthicsExtensiveReader-Friendly
10North AmericaCode of EthicsAbridgedTechnical
Table
Table 2. Criteria for semi-quantitative environmental assessment of the analyzed codes of conduct.
Table 2. Criteria for semi-quantitative environmental assessment of the analyzed codes of conduct.
Environmental Notions in the Code (Scoring Criteria)Scores
Extensive consideration in the text 10
A single extensive section/subsection8
A single section/subsection with abridged explanations7
One/two special paragraphs5
Several phrases scattered through the text4
A few detailed phrases3
A few general phrases2
A few general words1
Environment not considered0
Table
Table 3. Environmental assessment of the analyzed codes of conduct.
Table 3. Environmental assessment of the analyzed codes of conduct.
CompanyEnvironmental NotionsFocus on Marine EnvironmentScoring
1YesSuperficial8
2YesNo7
3NoNo0
4YesNo7
5NoNo0
6YesAbridged8
7YesNo7
8YesRather extensive10
9YesSuperficial8
10NoNo0
Average scores (all codes)5.5
Average scores (only codes with environmental notions)7.9
Table
Table 4. Thematic categorization of the environmental notions from the analyzed codes of conduct.
Table 4. Thematic categorization of the environmental notions from the analyzed codes of conduct.
Theme
(Interpreted)		Topic
(Deduced from Codes)		Companies
General concernsReducing environmental impact1, 2, 9
Environmental protection4, 6, 8, 9
Preservation of natural ecosystems2
Conservation of natural resources4
Organizational concernsEnvironmental laws, regulations, certificates1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9
Environmental performance and sustainable work7, 8
Environmental stewardship8, 9
“Green” innovations, technologies, investment1, 2, 7, 9
Waste management and recycling1, 2, 4, 9
Energy saving9
Climate change and emissions1, 7
Sustainability as a company resource7
Sustainable tourism9
Eco-activity of partners4, 9
Environmental disclosure8
Environmental awareness9
Marine concernsReducing impact on marine environment1
Ocean conservation9
Marine wasting8
Marine environmental laws, regulations, certificates6
Employees’ concernsEco-focus of employees and managers1
Crew control1
Reporting misconduct4, 8
Employee’s behavior template4, 8, 9
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MDPI and ACS Style

Ruban, D.A.; Yashalova, N.N. Corporate Pro-Environmental Behavior on the Seas: Eco-Ethical Prescriptions of the Largest Cruise Companies. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10, 380. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030380

AMA Style

Ruban DA, Yashalova NN. Corporate Pro-Environmental Behavior on the Seas: Eco-Ethical Prescriptions of the Largest Cruise Companies. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 2022; 10(3):380. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030380

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ruban, Dmitry A., and Natalia N. Yashalova. 2022. "Corporate Pro-Environmental Behavior on the Seas: Eco-Ethical Prescriptions of the Largest Cruise Companies" Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 10, no. 3: 380. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030380

APA Style

Ruban, D. A., & Yashalova, N. N. (2022). Corporate Pro-Environmental Behavior on the Seas: Eco-Ethical Prescriptions of the Largest Cruise Companies. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 10(3), 380. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030380

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