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Environmental knowledge strategy: driving success of the hospitality industry

Aurora Martínez-Martínez (Economía de la Empresa, Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain)
Juan Gabriel Cegarra Navarro (Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain)
Alexeis García-Pérez (Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University, Coventry, UK)
Ana Moreno-Ponce (Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain)

Management Research Review

ISSN: 2040-8269

Article publication date: 21 January 2019

Issue publication date: 13 June 2019

1149

Abstract

Purpose

The dynamics of tourism as both an activity and an industry, combined with the growing concerns about the environment, call for continuous efforts in seeking new approaches, tools and perspectives for the acquisition of environmental knowledge by organisations in the hospitality sector. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between environmental knowledge, organisational learning and business performance in the context of the tourism industry. Emphasis is made on understanding the process of updating the environmental knowledge base of an organisation through appropriate learning processes within the business.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a structural equation model, feedback received from 87 companies from the Spanish hospitality sector in a longitudinal study consisting of two distinct phases in 2008 and 2014 was studied.

Findings

The results of the analysis indicate that environmental knowledge has a positive impact on business performance. Also, the study found that a review of the levels of awareness about environmental problems across the organisation is required at regular intervals (in this research, six years after the initial analysis).

Practical implications

The focus on the hospitality sector makes this research relevant for a significant number of hotels and their supply chains around the world.

Originality/value

The research has addressed the challenges of sustainability and environmental performance from a perspective not previously covered in the extant literature, an approach further improved by the longitudinal nature of this study, performed over a period of six years.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad of the Spanish Government for financing the research project ECO2017-88987-R (MINECO/FEDER;UE), cofinanced from the European Union FEDER funds.

Citation

Martínez-Martínez, A., Cegarra Navarro, J.G., García-Pérez, A. and Moreno-Ponce, A. (2019), "Environmental knowledge strategy: driving success of the hospitality industry", Management Research Review, Vol. 42 No. 6, pp. 662-680. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-02-2018-0091

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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