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Understanding corporate social responsibility in the tourism industry

Posted on:2010-05-20Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:University of FloridaCandidate:Kim, Jung EunFull Text:PDF
GTID:1449390002973831Subject:Business Administration
Abstract/Summary:
The primary purpose of this study was to understand corporate socially responsible behaviors of tourism organizations and tourism professionals’ attitudes toward corporate social responsibility (CSR). The secondary purpose was to examine the determinants (corporate ethical value, perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility, respondents’ profiles, and organizations’ profiles) of corporate socially responsible behaviors of tourism organizations and tourism marketing professionals’ attitudes toward corporate social responsibility. Details of achieving these purposes are described in the following chapters adopting the format of three articles.;First, a measurement of socially responsible behaviors of tourism organizations was developed. This study was performed using multiple procedures and data collected from tourism professionals participating at THETRADESHOW 2008 hosted by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA). It was found that the measurement of socially responsible behaviors of tourism organizations can be themed into (1) managing impacts and (2) Support of local and fairness. In addition, the corporate ethical values and the age of organizations were significantly associated with more responsible behaviors by tourism organizations. Multiple regression analysis, MANOVA, and ANOVA used for the analysis.;Second, the study investigated how corporate ethical values and the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility affect tourism professionals’ attitudes toward CSR of tourism organizations. The results suggested tourism practitioners’ attitudes toward corporate social responsibility of tourism companies were influenced by the corporate ethical values and perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility.;In the third study, only travel agents from the samples were polled to examine the relationships between demographic factors and job-related factors of travel agents and their attitudes toward CSR. The results revealed that only gender and work experience had significant influences on travel agents’ attitudes toward CSR. Further, travel agents’ attitudes toward CSR were significantly associated with travel agencies’ CSR of behaviors.;As future research, it is suggested that the measurement tool of socially responsible behaviors developed in this study be applied to a variety of samples to test its validity. Methodologies such as contents analyses and in depth qualitative interview with the practitioners are suggested to acquire more profound information about the CSR behaviors of tourism organizations.
Keywords/Search Tags:Tourism, Corporate, Social responsibility
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