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How effective are Asian hotels in communicating CSR efforts through the property websites?

The case of Hong Kong

Elise Wong , Rosanna Leung and Rob Law

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

elise.wong@outlook.com

ros.leung@polyu.edu.hk

rob.law@polyu.edu.hk

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Agenda

• Introduction• Methodology• Findings & Discussions• Conclusion & Future Research

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IntroductionResearch Background

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)– Lack of single accepted definition– A growing interest in concept among hospitality

organizations, due to the various benefits created by implementing CSR program :

• Increase customers and employees’ loyalty and satisfaction level, improve brand image and reputation, and generate long-term financial benefits (Lee & Hoe, 2009; Lee & Park, 2009; McGee et al., 2009).

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IntroductionCSR Definition

• CSR definition basically refers to five dimensions (Dahlsurd, 2008):

• Environmental• Social• Economic• Stakeholder• Voluntariness

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IntroductionCSR Measurement Model

• Carroll’s (1979) “Corporate social performance model” (CSPM)– Contain 3 aspects : social responsibility categories,

social issues, and social responsiveness.

• Elkington’s (1999) “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL)– Comprised 3 dimensions : people, profit, and

planet. – Widely adopted as various CSR reporting standards,

such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

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IntroductionCSR Communication

• Traditional: – companies communicated CSR efforts through

expensive and inefficient traditional media, such as annual report, sustainability report, television advertising, and leaflets or newspapers (Wandered et al., 2008).

• Contemporary: – the invention and popularity of the Internet have

provided an alternative. The Internet has allowed companies to present and update information for different audience regardless of time and space (Adams & Frost, 2004; Frost et al., 2005; Wang & Chaudhry, 2009)

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IntroductionWebsite evaluation

• Prior research had contributed to knowledge of website evaluation, mainly from three approaches: 1. Website functionality approach;

2. Customer usability approach; and

3. Website functionality and customer usability

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IntroductionWebsite evaluation

• Murphy et al. (1996)– First study to evaluate hotel website performance from

functionality approach and identified four dimensions:• promotion and marketing content; service and information;

interactivity and technology; and management

• Morrison et al. (1999)– Modified “Balanced scorecard model” (mBSC)

developed by Kaplan and Norton (1992), and the model comprised four perspectives:

• Technical, customer, marketing and internal.

• Wang and Russo (2007)– Developed an ICTR (Information, Communication,

Transaction and Relationship) model to evaluate the effectiveness of Destination Marketing System function.

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IntroductionHotel CSR web-based communication

• The hospitality industry is still at an early stage of web-based CSR communication.

• Only four studies evaluated the CSR communication practice on hotel websites:– Holcomb et al. (2007) and Nyahunzvi (2013)

• Identify different CSR themes discussed on the websites– Hsieh (2012)

• focused on environmental issues– de Grosbois (2012)

• concentrated on the CSR commitment and achievement data and examined the communication methods that hotels employed in presenting CSR efforts on the websites

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IntroductionResearch Gap

• First, prior studies only focused on examining the CSR content provided in corporate websites, and most of them evaluated the CSR communication practice from a traditional CSR reporting approach, ignoring the usability and interactive elements of a website.

• Second, prior studies focused only on examining the largest hotels in non-Asian countries.

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IntroductionResearch aim & Objectives

Aim: •to examine Hong Kong hotels’ web-based CSR communication performance.

Objectives:

1.to examine the web-based CSR communication practice in Hong Kong hotel;

2.to evaluate the performance of Hong Kong’s hotel websites in communicating CSR effort from functionality approach; and

3.to compare website performance in communicating CSR practices among three different types of hotel in Hong Kong.

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Methodology

• This study evaluated the website performance in terms of communicating CSR practices based on content analysis of websites of Hong Kong hotels. – Content analysis is a technique employed to

collect and analyse text, picture, symbols, themes, or ideas communicated (Neuman, 2002).

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MethodologyTarget Sample

• 124 hotels in Hong Kong were listed as members of the Hong Kong Hotels Association

• Hotels are classified into three categories:– International hotel (42)– Regional hotel (32)– Local hotel (50)

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MethodologyHotel Classification

Types of hotel

Classification

International The hotel is an operating or/and managing property worldwide

Regional The hotel is an operating or/and managing property in the Asia-Pacific region

Local The hotel is an operating or/and managing property in Hong Kong

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MethodologyData Collection & Analysis

• All 124 hotel official websites were inspected for CSR related information and documentations in March 2014

• Content analysis– All 50 criteria listed in the research model was scored

by either 0 (criterion not exist) or 1 (criterion exist) point.

– Only consider the information listed on property website.

– The website section that hotel use to communicate CSR information was also recorded.

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MethodologyModified ICTR Model

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MethodologyModified ICTR Model

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Findings & DiscussionsCSR communication practice at HK hotel websites

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• http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/hkgap-hong-kong-skycity-marriott-hotel/• http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/hkgcy-courtyard-hong-kong/

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Findings & DiscussionsThe Website Section hotel use to provide CSR Information

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Findings & DiscussionsCSR communication performance of HK hotel websites

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Findings & DiscussionsCSR communication performance of HK hotel websites

• Information:– For the quantity aspect, these hotel were providing

limited CSR topics from narrowed CSR themes:• “Social and community action “ – 87.9%• “Environmental action” – 81.8%• “Economic action” – 33.3%• “ Diversity & disable accessibility action” – 33.3%• “Employment action” – 21.2%

– For the quality aspect, these hotel show better performance, 51.5% of the hotels received half weight or above performance score for this factor.

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Findings & DiscussionsCSR communication performance of HK hotel websites

• Communication:– All of the samples hotel in this study received a poor

performance score:• 30.3 % of the hotels received 0 point • Remaining hotels provided 1 to 2 communication tools in

their website• 60% of the hotels provided interactive communication

tools

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Findings & DiscussionsCSR communication performance of HK hotel websites

• Technical merit:– Most of the hotels performed well in this dimension,

and had good performance in website accessibility, such as :

• Raid access – 90.9%• Language option – 87.9%• Link without errors – 78.8%• Engine recognition – 75.8%

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Findings & DiscussionsCSR communication performance

among three different types of hotel in HK

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Conclusion

• Property website is not a popular medium for communicating CSR efforts in the HK hotel industry.

• Most of international and local hotels tend to provide CSR efforts through Facebook.

• Most of the hotels seldom provide information in specific CSR section and were presenting CSR information through hotel information section (International hotels) and award section (Regional and local hotels).

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Conclusion• Most hotels performed poorly on web-based CSR

communication. – Only provided limited CSR information under narrowed CSR

themes in the websites and seldom disclosed the achievement data.

• Moreover, many hotels performed poorly in communicating their CSR efforts.– Sample hotels in this study received a poor performance score in

“communication function” with average score 1.82 out of 12 and ranged from 0 to 4.

• CSR efforts are not regarded as important information on the property websites, and the goal in providing information on CSR efforts on the website is mainly for marketing and customer approach.

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Future Research

• Including customer opinions• Modify the evaluation model, consider the

information's volume• Include other web-based media in evaluating

CSR communication performance in the hotel industry.

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