Corporate Social Responsibility in Spanish hotel chains: determinants of its level of development and consequences

Goal and objectives of the dissertationGoalTo analyse the determining factors of the level of development of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the consequences of this in business performance/returns.ObjectivesTo develop a model capable of explaining the extent of influence of the factors that determine the level of development of CSR, and the consequences of this on the business performance of the Spanish hotel chains, in particular. This model should include determining factors such as the perception of CSR, the principal arguments for it, the motivating factors, and the obstacles that impact the adoption of responsible social practices. The novelty of the study resides in the integrated treatment of the factors cited, which to date have not been studied in an interrelated way, and in the study of the consequences that give rise to the performance of the companies concerned.This overall objective was broken down into nine more specific objectives, namely:Objective 1: To analyse the perception that those responsible for CSR have of the term itself.Objective 2: To study the relationship between the motivations for implementing CSR practices and the level of development achieved in this area.Objective 3: To study the relationship existing between the principal reason that leads these hotel chains to adopt responsible social practices and the existing level of development of CSR.Objective 4: To analyse the relationship between the concept of CSR and the principal argument for implementing these practices.Objective 5: To identify the obstacles hindering the implementation of responsible social practices and their influence on the level of development of CSR achieved by these companies.Objective 6: To study the relationship existing between the obstacles identified and the principal argument for implementing CSR.Objective 7: To evaluate the relationship between the concept of CSR as understood within the company organisations studied and the factors motivating its implementation.Objective 8: To study the relationship existing between the concept and the obstacles.Objective 9: To analyse the consequences of the level of development of CSR for the business performance of the companies studied.MethodologyIn the first part of this thesis, the classic methodology of a comprehensive review of the scientific literature was used; based on this review a model was created, to be tested empirically, after the presentation of the state of the art in this topic.The second section is devoted to the empirical study. The subject or universe of companies studied in the empirical work (Spanish hotel chains and foreign hotel chains operating in Spain) is first described. The technique of Partial Least Squares (PLS) has been used to test the hypotheses of our research model; for this purpose a questionnaire has been designed and validated, as an instrument of measurement. This questionnaire was administered during the period between March and September 2010 to the company executives responsible for the area of CSR. The following table, in which the characteristics of the sample are presented, gives the technical details of the survey conducted.ResultsWe can conclude, in general, that the properties of the measurement models are acceptable in terms of both reliability (internal consistency) and validity (convergent and discriminant validity). Concerning the structural model, as a result of the significant relationships found, it can be stated that the construct "concept" influences the "motivations" for adopting socially responsible behaviours, and thus exerts an indirect influence on the level of development of CSR. The same occurs with the construct referring to the "principal argument", which influences the "concept" of CSR held by those executives. Finally, the construct "motivations" has a direct influence on the level of development of CSR. …