This exploratory study examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the lodging industry by measuring the contributions to communities made by lodging properties throughout the United States. This work is significant for two reasons: (a) It attempts to develop a theoretical foundation for CSR within the U.S. lodging industry; (b) it signifies one of the first attempts to quantify one component of CSR, corporate giving, within the U.S. lodging industry. A random sample of lodging properties in the United States was surveyed, and they were asked to report their various contributions to community. Although a limited response prevented generalizability, based on 421 responding properties, regression analysis suggested that the industry made various contributions worth more than $815 million or 3.6% of total industry profits in 2005. The results also showed that a number of structural variables affected the quantified social component of CSR among lodging properties as well as the existence of CSR written policies, processes, and principles.

Customers, increasingly, seem concerned about social and environmental issues that often affect their buying behavior and attitudes toward the quality of goods and services purchased. Despite this trend, there exists little empirical research regarding how socially responsible consumers evaluate services and service quality. In this study, we investigate the role that consumer attitudes toward social responsibility play in evaluating service quality. The results of factor analysis show that social responsibility is a salient dimension of service quality and that high socially responsible customers use the concept of social responsibility more pronouncedly than others when evaluating service quality. Our study contributes to the current literature on the evaluation of service quality by a growing customer segment and outlines implications for managers and for future research.