The barriers to the adoption of environmental management practices in the hotel industry: a study of Malaysian hotels

Abstract

Purpose – The objective of this study is to investigate if the five barriers, namely, Regulation/Government, Customer Demand, Level of Competition, Greenness at the Organizational Level, and Attitude at the Organizational Level towards Change, greatly impact the costs and potential benefits of environmental management practices (EMPs). Design/methodology/approach – The target population of this research was 208 hotels, which are four- and five-star hotels in Malaysia. Due to small population, questionnaires were sent by mail to all the targeted four- and five-star hotels in Malaysia. Findings – Only Greenness at the Organizational Level was found to have partially supported EMPs. Even though the results show that there is significant impact overall between barriers and EMPs in 40 four- and five-star hotels in Malaysia. In other words, the drivers do influence hotels' application of EMPs but weakly. Research limitations/implications – The limitation that is worth mentioning is regarding the drivers of EMPs chosen in this research. While the result indicated that drivers of EMPs significantly influenced hotels' usage of EMPs, the range of R2 of the five drivers and the two dimensions of EMPs was relatively very low. Originality/value – A definitive conceptual framework of EMPs is essential, which could only be achieved through consensus and close cooperation amongst scholars and practitioners. For that reason, EMPs should not be seen as a mere collection of management systems but more towards management practices that are used within and for hotels' strategic purpose.