Search Results (7)

The hospitality sector’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) is dynamic and constantly evolving. This article examines CSR implementation in the hospitality industry and investigates the growing prevalence of CSR initiatives. This research examines the implementation and challenges of CSR in the hospitality sector through a qualitative literature review methodology. The study highlights trends such as community engagement, ethical labour practices, and sustainable resource utilisation while identifying barriers like financial constraints and stakeholder resistance. Moreover, it examines the determinants that influence these patterns, including consumer inclinations, governmental policies, and industry recognition of the social and ecological repercussions. This research enhances the field of theory by consolidating and expanding upon current knowledge regarding CSR, building on Archie Carroll’s Pyramid theory’s focus on economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities and R. Edward Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory’s emphasis on business ethics and corporate governance. Modifications are made to these frameworks to adhere to the precise requirements of the hospitality industry. This research presents an alternative perspective on the intricate relationship between environmental sustainability, social accountability, and financial prosperity within the hospitality sector. This study questions the idea that CSR is either a mandatory obligation or an optional behaviour. Key findings reveal that integrating CSR into business strategies enhances operational efficiency, stakeholder trust, and financial performance. By building on established theoretical frameworks, this research provides actionable insights. It contributes to the global discourse on sustainability, offering a nuanced perspective on the hospitality industry’s evolving role in advancing environmental, social, and financial prosperity. Full article

In addition to teaching and research, the “third mission” has become one of the major societal challenges faced by higher education institutions worldwide. This is related to the university’s efforts to contribute to the economic and social development of the community in which they operate. One of the major concepts focused on this issue is university social responsibility (USR). This study aimed to compare students’ perceptions of and attitude toward USR in two different countries, India and Croatia, and contribute to the research gap in cross-cultural aspects of USR. Since students are the most important stakeholders of the university and today’s students are known as Generation Z–altruistic, caring about the environment and social issues on one hand, and knowing that social responsibility is highly contextual regarding environment—it makes sense to study and compare students from two different countries. The research was conducted at Indian and Croatian universities, with a sample of 1340 respondents. It is based on Carroll’s pyramid of social responsibility regarding levels of USR (economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic) and the ISO 26000 standards regarding areas of USR. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, correlation, and regression analysis indicated some differences in perceptions of USR in the two countries but also the significant impact of knowledge about USR and having a course on social responsibility built into the curriculum on perceptions and attitude toward USR. The results show that universities in both countries need to focus on their third mission—specifically, contributing to local community development in creating their USR policies. Full article

Over the last few decades, stakeholders’ growing attention towards social and environmental issues has challenged universities’ traditional accountability boundaries, imposing the adoption of innovative reporting tools that facilitate stakeholders’ engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and performances. Against this backdrop, online communication tools, such as websites and social media platforms, have gained momentum as a pivotal means to increase dialogue with the myriad of stakeholders, especially during the pandemic period, as it has dramatically reduced physical interactions. Based on these premises, this study aims to dive deep into the use of social media to communicate CSR strategies in the university context by exploring the case of the University of Salerno. To this end, all posts published by the University of Salerno’s official Twitter account from 2015 to 2021 have been extracted and analyzed. Accordingly, the degree of interactions with stakeholders and the communication direction and balance level have been examined based on Carroll’s pyramid. Findings show a higher level of engagement for CSR posts and, in particular, for the philanthropic dimension. Results also highlight that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Salerno has empowered CSR disclosure through Twitter. The methodology adopted could be replicated for other universities to understand better how public universities use social media to involve a broader range of stakeholders in their CSR practices. Full article

Business management and, more generally, decision makers, are increasingly aware of the importance of corporate social responsibility and ethical choices within the strategic business vision. The number of tools (e.g., board of directors, organization actions), levers (e.g., cultural, social example of direct boss) and rules (e.g., protocols, certifications, law decrees) available, however, makes it difficult for management to identify the set of best practices to be adopted within its own organization. Further, the task is even more difficult when management is called upon to choose these tools for life-long learning programs intended for company staff as well as for new hires. The Italian Association for Managerial Training has promoted a survey that pays particular attention to the «ethical choices» and «behaviors» to be adopted in the organization’s management and their training programs. The results of the survey have been modelled through «Carroll’s conceptual framework» that, as known, is made of two parts: the most cited CSR pyramid and the least mentioned, but equally important, descriptive types of management. In this work, it has been employed a two steps multivariate analysis, employing an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). EFA has been used to identify Carroll’s descriptive types (or profiles), while SEMs were employed to verify the plausibility of the causal models that represent, in turn, thought experiments simulating «ethical dilemmas» useful for the company’s management during its decision making. The models identified, readable in the form of simple «heuristics», are interpreted in the light of Carroll’s «descriptive types» of management (i.e., moral, immoral and amoral). Thereby, any organization, even of a small size, interested in adopting «sustainable policies», can make use of the identified models to establish which guidelines can be adopted by the management during her/his decision making, and, according to Carroll, «to isolate the ethical or moral component of CSR and relate it to perspectives that reflect the three major ethical approaches to management», with the overall objective of managing with «stakeholders in an ethical or moral fashion». Full article

The emergence of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept resulted in the introduction of the subject to the curricula of management faculties at many universities worldwide. Business schools and management departments educate future decision-makers of the national and global economy. Therefore, in order to be able to anticipate future development trends in the area of CSR, surveys of students’ opinions on the responsibilities of business toward society are conducted. This study aimed to answer the question about the way in which students prioritize particular dimensions of CSR. In particular, it focuses on whether the respondents consider the economic dimension to be fundamental, given their different socio-cultural contexts. An additional aim of the research is to verify A. Carroll’s original CSR model, as expressed in terms of the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic dimensions. The research included two groups of students at the Faculty of Management of the Lublin University of Technology—Polish and foreign. The results obtained in both study groups differ from A. Carroll’s original CSR model system. They also differ from each other. In the group of Polish students, the bottom and top dimensions of the pyramid are economic and legal, and in the group of foreign students, they are philanthropic and legal, accordingly. The shapes of the two pyramids are also different, which may be caused by different socio-cultural contexts and specific social needs. The adopted model turned out to be useful for studying the CSR structure expressed in the form of a four-element pyramid. It also allowed the weighting of the perceived importance by the respondents of each individual dimension of CSR. This study helps to predict future corporate social responsibility activities and trends in business. Full article

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts are spread out in different organizations and cultures. To comprehend the Muslim consumers’ perception of CSR, this study conducted a self-administered survey in two Muslim-culture-rich countries, Pakistan and Sudan. Combined with previous studies and Carroll’s pyramid of CSR, this study shows that Muslim consumers have more supportive responses toward CSR compared to consumers of Western, developed countries. The findings of the study also reveal that Carroll’s pyramid of responsibilities could be applied in the Muslim culture, as the relative importance placed by Muslim consumers on the four responsibilities of firms—economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic—is significantly different from that in Western, developed countries. These differences provide useful guidance for firms intending to use CSR for strategic purposes in Muslim countries. The reasons for these phenomena are also discussed. Full article

The current study aims to suggest a modified pyramid of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the airline industry and find the moderating effects of consumer’s CSR experience (CSRE). Although previous studies proved the positive effects of CSR, there are surprisingly few research studies that incorporate Carroll’s fundamental CSR and specific issues of environmental responsibility in the airline industry as the integrated model. Thus, we suggest an alternative perspective of CSR, which can apply exclusively in the airline industry. Second, the moderating role of CSRE is demonstrated in a critical manner. To be specific, we hypothesize that sharing the same experience of altruistic motives may increase intimacy between the company and consumers, which affects a positive CSR evaluation. Therefore, consumers sharing the CSRE may perceive the CSR initiative more positively when compared to those who were not involved in the CSR programs before. By using the structural equation model (SEM) and ordinary least square (OLS) regression, we examined the effects of the modified pyramid of CSR on the corporate image (CI) and the moderating role of CSRE on customer loyalty (CL). The findings suggest that airline managers should consider environmental responsibility in CSR activities and design a variety of programs that should be designed to enhance consumers’ CSRE. Full article