An Exploration of CSR Initiatives Undertaken by Malaysian Hotels: Underlying Motivations from a Managerial Perspective

Abstract

As one of the major sub-sectors of the tourism industry, the hotel industry's operations are inextricably tied to, reliant upon and/or largely derives from the varied environments and societies where it operates. In fact, the industry, as a whole, often impacts the very social and cultural fabrics of societies besides the surrounding natural environment and local resources. It is therefore unsurprising that, of late, many hospitality businesses worldwide have been subjected to growing calls from the responsible business movement to adopt a more environmentally-friendly and also socially responsible approach to their respective operations. While the focus of past empirical research is mostly on environmentally-friendly initiatives, the social initiatives component as well as motives influencing the adoption of such initiatives have been ignored thus far. This paucity is even more pronounced in non-Western societies such as Malaysia and, in particular, locally-owned hotels. Therefore, this study aims to make a contribution by exploring the motives underlying local hotels’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that focus on social/societal issues. Due to the distinctive nature of CSR, a qualitative approach was adopted for the purposes of this study. Specifically, semi-structured interviews are conducted with the general managers of 10 local Malaysian hotel chains. Our findings has implications on the conceptualization of CSR in developing countries, insights into the specific kinds of CSR initiatives undertaken as well as corresponding underlying motives and concludes with the implications of the findings, limitations and directions for future research.