An Exploratory Study on the Internal Impacts of Hotel CSR Activities in Bali

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a central topic within both the academic area and business practice. Academically, this topic has gained much attention through continuous research. Similarly, an increasing practice of CSR by organizations has been evident. However, while it is important that companies demonstrate their concern on CSR activities, it is essential to understand if there are impacts for the companies internally. Limited study has viewed CSR from this point, especially within the hotel context. This paper reports on the results of an initial study that was part of a larger study aiming to examine the relationship between CSR activities and brand image. At its preliminary stage, the research elicited the respondents’ views on CSR activities. Their views were then compared to identify if there are differences. Furthermore, an exploration was undertaken on the internal impacts of CSR program that the hotels face. The study was conducted in Bali, involving twenty hotel managers of 3–5 star hotels. Data were collected using interview method and were analyzed using qualitative approach. The results of the study showed that all hotel managers emphasized the importance of CSR, although their degree of understanding and knowledge varied especially between different hotel star ratings. The majority of the respondents emphasized that CSR activities were programmed in order to meet the government’s requirement. Furthermore, there were eight themes representing the internal impacts of CSR obtained from the data. All of the themes are considered to be favorable impacts and most of them give new insight to the CSR literature as have not been published in the previous studies. They are trust, image, protection, improved closeness to, understanding and knowledge of nature, environment, and society, pride, mouth-to-mouth advertisement, recognition, and profit. The most frequent theme was mainly in terms of increasing brand image. The majority of the themes have not been found in the CSR literature, suggesting a new understanding. Having these results, the follow-up study which was designed as the main study is to be undertaken. That is to statistically examine the link between CSR and brand image. Future research may also investigate the relationships between CSR, brand image, profitability, and sustainability.