The Holy Grail

Abstract

Design/methodology/approach:The population consists of all 3-to-5 star hotels in Spain. A sample of 350 hotels was classified according to environmental proactivity and performance levels employing a two-step cluster analysis. Significant differences between groups were examined. Findings:The results show two types of environmental behaviour (reactive and proactive), with proactive hotels developing significantly better on both cost and differentiation competitive advantage and achieving significantly higher performance levels. Hotels which achieve above average business performance levels are significantly more environmentally proactive. Practical implications:The present paper demonstrates that environmental management is related to competitive advantages and business performance. Environmental management systems are more developed in higher category, chain-affiliated, and larger hotels. This could be due to having more resources to develop their environmental capability. The environmental proactivity scale employed in this study is presented as a reference measure for hotel managers to benchmark their current practices and implement environmental improvements.2 Originality/value: First, measuring environmental proactivity using four managerial systems (operative, information, strategic and technical) is innovative and provides a more detailed approach to measuring environmental proactivity. Second, demonstrating a double association between environmental proactivity and performance provides fresh insights into the relationship between these variables.

Beyond Gathering the ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ of Green Technology for Improved Environmental Performance: an Empirical Examination of the Moderating Effects of Proactive Environmental Management and Business Strategies

“…The authors also report that firms adopting proactive environmental strategies achieve better economic performance thanks to greater social legitimacy and public approval. The study by Pereira-Moliner et al [9] of 350 Spanish hotels also confirms the importance of proactive environmental management for both differentiation and cost competitiveness.…”

“…Previous studies (e.g., [9,41,53]) suggest that proactive environmental management-through the adoption of EMAS or ISO 14001 regulations, for instance-helps the firm to identify and acquire specific green technologies, and shortens the time required to introduce them [33]. Proactive environmental management becomes a clear function in a firm's hierarchy, which generates positive impacts on other organisational areas and fosters the leadership and motivation needed to encourage the adoption of these technologies by the organisation's employees [78].…”

“…The implementation of a formal environmental planning, management and control system can also create synergies in the management and exploitation of green technologies to improve environmental performance [3,7,9]; indeed, better-managed firms tend to have lower energy intensity [79].…”

“…In this context, firms' environmental performances have sparked major interest from academia, business practitioners and the general public [3]. Although research on environmental challenges has traditionally focused on the manufacturing industry, recent data on pollution produced by the tourism industry and its estimated exponential future growth [4] have made it the focus of a growing number of recent research papers (e.g., [1,[5][6][7][8][9]). Specifically, the study by Lenzen et al [4] on 160 countries estimates that tourism accounts for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, of which 12% are from air travel; this amount is expected to rise by 40% by 2025 if there are no changes this research is to confirm the direct impact on environmental performance of implementing proactive environmental management and a prospector strategy.…”

Discussion on the Cultural Construction of Chain Hotel Management based on Enterprise Identification

“…These three parts interact with each other, is the organic whole, which is responsible for building and improving the image of the enterprise. Among them, the MI mainly stresses on the spiritual idea, is the enterprise operation idea, represents the enterprise's soul, the enterprise value in the society; BI is mainly focused on the people, is the enterprise to people, things to manage the dynamic system, in the whole system, BI and social contacts, directly reflect the image of the enterprise in the public, has a profound impact; VI mainly focused on the material, is the use of human vision to judge the enterprise's mental outlook and image, generally through the media function to complete [10].…”