The Green Image in the Spanish Hotel Sector: Analysis of Its Consequences from a Relational Perspective

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to propose a hierarchy of effects model to study three antecedents of green brand image, such as trust, satisfaction and loyalty, and to examine the relationships between these variables. In this context, we investigated how these variables have been applied in the Spanish hotel management strategies for influencing consumer attitude and behavior. To test the proposed model empirically, personal surveys of 732 hotel customers were conducted in five Spanish cities using a structured questionnaire. A structural equations model was developed to test the research hypothesis. The main results indicate positive relationships between the green image and loyalty, the green image and satisfaction, the green image and trust. In addition, there are positive relationships between trust and loyalty, and finally between satisfaction and loyalty. From a practical point of view, hotel chains and their marketers must improve their green image through the correct design of activities, actions, and strategies to increase their clients’ trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. In addition, the hotel chains must design green communication campaigns through their own and paid media to ensure that customers talk about them, and as a result, be able to influence the attitude and behavior of their customers. The results of our research provide a better understanding of the relationships between the green image, trust, satisfaction, and loyalty, following the framework of the hierarchy of effects model. By complementing previous studies on green image creation, this study offers an assessment of how green marketing strategies in the hotel industry increase trust, loyalty, and customer satisfaction.

Green Marketing Practices Related to Key Variables of Consumer Purchasing Behavior

“…These actions are also exposed as GM strategies by various studies, where they find that the social responsibility factor plays an important role as a mediator in the effect of the GM on the product or corporate reputation [82] and these, in addition, are related to the consumer's purchasing decision [104]. In this review, it was found that institutional image strategies, the development of the green brand, CSR, green communication, ethical conduct, and the development of organizational culture with green policies have direct effects by increasing trust, word-of-mouth recommendations, credibility, satisfaction, loyalty, perceptions of value, loyalty and purchasing decisions and intentions [4,26,29,31,34,37,43,61,62,65,68,78,79,[86][87][88]. These findings are consistent with the results on the integrity of the brand in the marketing process, implying that one of the attributes most valued by consumers is the personality of the brand developed through specific actions related to the conservation of the environment by companies, which ultimately determines purchasing decisions and raises businesses' reputation [105].…”

“…The second approach is focused on market development and involves carrying out business exchanges with ecological responsibility and with a minimum negative impact on the natural environment [25,27]. The third approach is oriented toward satisfying the needs of two groups of customers: (a) those consumers who have environmentally responsible purchasing behavior; and (b) those consumers who need to develop ecological awareness in their consumption behavior [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. A final conceptual approach focuses on green communication, which involves advertising strategies to improve consumer attitudes toward a green brand and influence their purchasing behavior toward green products [26].…”

“…Studies on GM have been applied to different business sectors. Thus, several authors have focused their studies on the hotel sector [31,34,40,45,[48][49][50]. One of these research studies determined that there is a relationship between the environmental knowledge and concern of potential customers and their skepticism regarding the GM of hotels, finding that a lack of environmental knowledge influences skepticism [50].…”

“…To this end, companies disseminate their environmental responsibility actions to motivate customer purchasing decisions toward the green products offered. Likewise, regarding the relationship between these actions and the key variables of purchasing behavior, the different research studies reviewed register positive impacts on the attitude of the green customer, such as (a) increased trust; (b) increased credibility; (c) satisfaction; (d) loyalty; (e) fidelization, (f) value perception; (g) increased purchasing intention; and, (h) promotion of word-of-mouth recommendations of the brand committed to the environment [4,26,29,31,34,37,43,61,62,65,68,78,79,82,[86][87][88].…”

Perceived Price as Antecedent of Satisfaction and Loyalty: Learn from Fast Food Multinational Restaurants in Indonesia

“…Moreover, trust also has an influence on customer loyalty (Alkhurshan & Rjoub, 2020). It is important to every brand to gain trust from the consumer and receive loyalty and decrease risk to change the brand (Fandos-Roig et al, 2020;Sarmiento-Guede et al, 2021). Trust and diversion of struggle have important roles in determining the level of customer loyalty (Alkhurshan & Rjoub, 2020).…”