A corporate social responsibility model for a competitive and resilient hospitality industry

Abstract

Despite in the last decade there was a significant increase in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature, little attention has been devoted to shed light on strategic CSR practices in the hospitality industry, especially in the context of developing countries. This paper uses a case-study methodology to investigate CSR practices of eight hotels in Santa Marta, Colombia. The results show that hotel companies were implementing different CSR behaviors that can be classified as philanthropic-reactive, legal-reactive and active groups. The findings revealed that their CSR activities were intended to add value to their economic performance. Hence, this contribution discusses about these hospitality establishments’ individual improvement plans and puts forward a CSR management model for the entire industry. In conclusion, it presents important theoretical as well as managerial implications for practitioners, and proposes future research avenues. The authors suggest that future research should take into account other companies’ CSR activities from different industries.