The influence of corporate social responsibility, ability, reputation, and transparency on hotel customer loyalty in the U.S.: a gender-based approach.

Sung-Bum Kim,Dae-Young Kim

doi:10.1186/s40064-016-3220-3

Sung-Bum Kim, Dae-Young Kim

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-3220-3

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Abstract

This research explored a conceptual framework incorporating interrelationships among corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate ability (CA), corporate reputation (CR), and CSR-related transparency on customer loyalty within the hotel context. In this study, we also analyzed consumers’ propensity to support CSR initiatives through the socio-demographic indicator of gender. We used independent sample t test and multiple regression analysis to test hypotheses based on 487 responses from American participants. Four antecedents (i.e., CSR, CA, CR, and transparency) exhibited favorable effects on customer loyalty. Among these four factors, the positively perceived CSR initiatives had a greater impact on customer loyalty. In addition, according to our findings, female participants were more likely to have a positive perception of the four antecedents than males.

Highlights

The hotel industry is one of the world’s fastest-growing business spheres, and it plays an indispensable role in the hospitality industry
The findings indicated that corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate ability (CA), corporate reputation (CR), and CSR-related transparency were generally associated with customer loyalty
This research will contribute to the hospitality literature because we found that respondents perceive that CR has a positive influence on overall customer loyalty toward a particular hotel

Summary

Introduction

The hotel industry is one of the world’s fastest-growing business spheres (de Grosbois 2012), and it plays an indispensable role in the hospitality industry. There is strong interest in determining the features that increase guest loyalty to particular hotels; it is commonly believed that loyal customers lead to higher profits. In today’s highly competitive market, researchers have investigated the factors that lead to customer loyalty (Pan et al 2012), The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been an important topic studied by both scholars and practitioners in recent decades. A socially responsible image can differentiate a brand and enhance customer loyalty. Corporate social responsibility helps to enhance sustainability of the hospitality industry and retain customers (Gao and Mattila 2014). Due to the fact that perceived CSR is a complex construct, some scholars are not convinced that customers will take it into account when they decide which hotel to choose

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