Ambidexterity, Alliances and Environmental Management System Adoption in Spanish Hotels

Montserrat Boronat-Navarro,Alexandra García-Joerger

doi:10.3390/su11205815

Montserrat Boronat-Navarro, Alexandra García-Joerger

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205815

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Oct 20, 2019
Citations: 7	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Jaume I University

Abstract

Competitiveness in the hotel sector and its effect on the environment involves integrating environmental issues in hotel management. Current environmental challenges often require firms to cope with contradictory processes. Ambidexterity is a firm’s capability to deal with conflicting demands and could be helpful in increasing a firm’s environmental management system (EMS) adoption. Furthermore, given the complexity of technological advances, environmental requirements demand inter-firm collaboration. The aim of this study is to further an understanding of how hotels can increase EMS adoption by providing a framework of the contributing effect of alliances and ambidexterity. Results from tests using logistic regression and bootstrapping techniques on a sample of 306 Spanish hotels confirm the importance of ambidexterity because of its positive and direct effect on EMS adoption, and because of the mediating effect, which helps transform the benefits of firms’ participation in strategic alliances into their adoption of EMS. This study contributes to the literature on ambidexterity by highlighting the importance for firms to develop this capability. It also contributes to a better understanding of the drivers of EMS adoption, introducing the integrated effect of hotel participation in alliances and ambidexterity. Hotel managers should endeavor to develop ambidexterity capability to facilitate EMS adoption.

Highlights

The main purpose of this study is to further an understanding of how alliances and ambidexterity help improve environmental management system (EMS) adoption
We focus on environmental management systems (e.g., ISO14001 and EMAS), recognized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2013) [10], as an important innovation for a green economy in the tourism industry
As for control variables, the effect is not significant in models where environmental performance is a dependent variable, and the chain affiliation variable has shown no significant effect in any of the models, control variables have shown their importance in Model III, supporting the effects on Ambidexterity of size, competitiveness, and family firm, proposed in the literature

Summary

Introduction

The main purpose of this study is to further an understanding of how alliances and ambidexterity help improve environmental management system (EMS) adoption. By managing environmental performance, hotels both contribute to society and increase their competitiveness with better market opportunities toward increasingly environmentally conscious consumers [8], with cost reductions, and with access to better resources [9]. We focus on environmental management systems (e.g., ISO14001 and EMAS), recognized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2013) [10], as an important innovation for a green economy in the tourism industry. This consideration is in line with the literature that includes environmental certification as indicators of environmental innovations (e.g., [11,12])

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