Why and how hotel groups in luxury segments give back to their communities

Abstract

The paper analyses why and how hotel groups become involved in their communities through philanthropic activities. The analysis focuses on hotel groups with brands in the luxury, upper upscale, and upscale segments. The qualitative information disclosed in reports and websites by 243 hotel brands was studied to answer questions about who is involved, how they participate, and who they target. The study then focused on the 130 hotel groups owning these brands, and a qualitative comparative analysis was used to explain the combination of causal conditions explaining why hotel groups participate in their communities. The causal conditions in the analysis included the participation of different stakeholders, the characteristics of the hotel groups, and the culture of the countries. Results indicate that there is a trade-off between customer and employee participation in philanthropy, that customer involvement requires the presence of luxury brands, and that the culture of the countries (religion and altruism) stimulates the philanthropic behaviour of hotel groups.

CEO letters: Social license to operate and community involvement in the mining industry

“…With respect to the second hypothesis, which connected the location of operations and SLO, we can conclude that location matters (Gao & Hafsi, ; Prno & Slocombe, ) when the firm operates in the USA, Canada or Australia. The strong relationship between North American countries and higher employee participation in communities might be explained by culture (De‐Miguel‐Molina, de‐Miguel‐Molina M, Segarra‐Oña M, & Peiró‐Signes A, ) or by the level of development of the countries (Einolf, ) . However, the case of Australia and the relationship with investment in infrastructure might be explained by the institutional theory (Koivurova et al, ; Vashchenko, ) and the power of indigenous communities, which make firms more cautious about SLO (Cheshire, ; Prno & Slocombe, ; Sing, ).…”

Transformative Luxury Research (TLR): An Agenda to Advance Luxury for Well-Being

“…As a result, playing an active social role within one's community is important for luxury brands. Authors who have investigated the positive impact luxury brands can have when they target the well-being of communities emphasize two main points: (1) studies that have explored the role luxury brands play in terms of promoting values, such as the inclusion of different communities and ethnicities along with social justice (e.g., Kipnis et al 2021;Cambrea et al 2017); and (2) research examining charity and altruistic practices among luxury brands (e.g., De-Miguel-Molina et al 2018;Boenigk, Silke, and Schuchardt 2015).…”

“…The second research stream that examined the positive impact luxury brands have on communities and their collective well-being refers to charity and altruistic practices, which are defined as an effort undertaken by an individual or organization to improve human welfare. For instance, when it comes to luxury hospitality, research shows that charity and altruistic practices can involve both employees and consumers, ranging from employees volunteering to customers making cash donations to charities (De-Miguel-Molina et al 2018). Studies also show that beyond having an altruistic mindset and community well-being motivations, companies engage in goodwill so as to increase or improve their brand images and reputations (Tian, Wang, and Yang 2011).…”

The inclusion of minority groups in tourism workforce: Proposition of an impression management framework through the lens of corporate social responsibility

“…However, the results of studies on CSR are largely inconclusive (Theodoulidis et al, 2017). Although results may be inconclusive, researchers in the tourism and hospitality field commonly agree that the implementation of corporate social responsibility can help in reputation building which means it is used as a technique for achieving an impressive corporate image and reduce a mediocre corporate image (de Miguel‐Molina et al, 2018). Despite its positive effect, CSR communication of tourism and hospitality‐related businesses is still considered as an under‐researched area.…”