Organisational behaviour and strategies in the adoption of certified management systems: an analysis of the Spanish hotel industry

Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1455e1463

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Organisational behaviour and strategies in the adoption of certified management systems: an analysis of the Spanish hotel industry María del Mar Alonso-Almeida*, José Miguel Rodríguez-Antón 1 Business Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Autonomous University of Madrid, Carretera de Colmenar Viejo, km. 15, Módulo E-VIII, 28049 Madrid, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 24 November 2010 Received in revised form 24 April 2011 Accepted 27 April 2011 Available online 5 May 2011

While the literature over the last ten years has dealt with the implementation of quality, environmental and other management systems in terms of the interest aroused and results obtained, little has been written about organisational behaviour and the extent to which such standards have been adopted in the service sector. The present article explores these variables in the hotel industry, based on information collected from 403 hotels. The empirical analysis conducted evinces significant differences in behaviour and penetration between the service and manufacturing sectors, as well as between the implementation of management systems and the introduction of other business practices in the hotel industry. The results shed light on the importance of implementing certified management systems for conducting the hotel business. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Management system strategy Organizational behaviour Environmental management system Hotel industry

1. Introduction One aspect of organisational practice that has been the object of analysis in recent years, given its importance for business, is the adoption of standardised management systems (SMSs) (Guler et al., 2002). The first such systems, which addressed quality, were largely adopted by the manufacturing sector in the nineteen eighties. These standards were subsequently adopted by the service sector beginning in the nineteen nineties. Other standards have proliferated in recent years, some designed to improve working conditions and others addressing generic, industry, national or international requirements relating to the system overall or some specific aspect of it (Karapetrovic, 2006). All these standards adopt very similar methodologies respecting standard creation, structures, implementation processes and mandatory third party verification (Castka and Balzarova, 2008), for they are all based on the PDCA cycle for continuous improvement (Alonso-Almeida et al., 2006; Camisón et al., 2006; Bernardo et al., 2009). These similarities have led companies to adopt standards under criteria of additionality. In other words, the number of management standards implemented grows either by increasing the number of standards

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 91 497 31 86; fax: þ34 91 497 2994. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. del Mar Alonso-Almeida), josem. [email protected] (J.M. Rodríguez-Antón). 1 Tel.: þ34 91 497 40 59; fax: 91 497 2994. 0959-6526/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.04.015

by assimilation of new standards or by concentrating in greater depth on some aspect of the application of a management standard already in place (Karapetrovic, 2005). Nonetheless, while many empirical studies have been conducted on the adoption and dissemination of some of these standards, primarily the ISO 9001 and 14001 series, most refer to the manufacturing sector or the service sector in general (Hendricks and Singhal, 2001; Sun and Cheng, 2002; Behesti and Lollar, 2003; Bendell and Boultier, 2004; Boiral and Roy, 2007; Danes et al., 2008). The present study, in contrast, contributes to expanding the scant evidence at hand in this respect on the tourist industry, and more specifically the hotel industry. It analyses the penetration of quality and environmental standards in the industry, the characteristics and organisational behaviour of hotels and the adoption strategies followed. The findings have practical implications for hotel companies in connection with the implementation of SMSs and the strategy that companies should adopt to compete on a new playing field characterised by profound supply- and demand-side change. 2. Theoretical Framework 2.1. Importance of standardised management systems in the tourist industry The implementation of SMSs is highly significant to the tourist industry because of the changes taking place world-wide in tourist

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destinations and consumer tastes (Tribe, 1999). Moreover, environmental awareness is growing among the population at large and loyalty to traditional destinations is waning in the face of the qualitative increase in highly competitive offerings from elsewhere. Not only the geography, but also the approach is new, with rural, environmental or adventure tourism becoming more and more popular (O’Connor and Frew, 2002; Kim et al., 2007). And last but not least, an increasingly harsh competitive environment obliges tourist companies to roll out new strategies for action (Briggs et al., 2007). On top of all these factors is the importance of tourism worldwide. It accounts for 70% of the global service sector GDP (OMT, 2010). Spain, with 57.4 million visitors in 2008 (INE, 2009), is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. More than that, the prospects are for the industry to continue to gain relevance in the years to come despite the world-wide recession (OMT, 2010). The considerable growth capacity of hotels in Spain in recent decades concurred with the development of the country’s tourist industry. The national hotel offering quadrupled between the nineteen sixties and seventies, and doubled from the seventies to the eighties. While growth has slackened since, it remains highly significant (INE, 2009). At this time, Spain has 14 696 establishments with a total offering of 1.4 million beds (INE, 2009). Spain has a fairly widespread culture of standardised management system implementation across its entire manufacturing fabric, as reflected in the fact that it ranks fourth world-wide in the number of ISO 9001 certifications, after China, Italy and Japan. The country is also a world power in the number of ISO 14001 environmental management systems in place, third only to China and Japan (Casadesús et al., 2008). This culture has not flowed over to the service sector, however. Specifically, tourist companies in Spain have been latecomers to ISO standardised management systems and the uptake has been fairly scant, due primarily to the costs involved in certification and the lack of staff with the necessary expertise (Camisón et al., 2006). Spain has implemented a project known as the Spanish Tourist Quality System, which supplements the ISO quality standards. The idea is to create specific quality systems for tourist sub-industries such as hotels, travel agencies or restaurants. These systems combine the guarantees afforded by certification with the advantages of the ongoing improvement and total quality approach in organisations (Alonso-Almeida et al., 2009; Casadesús et al., 2010). In light of this duality in quality standards, Spanish hotel companies can choose to certify under the international or the national systems or both indistinctly, for they are not mutually exclusive. Rather, the latter are supplementary schemes that focus on industry-specific operating issues (Casadesús et al., 2010). The progressive degeneration of the environment, in turn, along with social concern in this regard, have made environmental management systems a subject of growing business interest. Running a hotel involves operations that expend substantial volumes of water and use environmentally detrimental materials such as disposable plastic containers, non-recyclable packaging and detergents, to name a few (Álvarez et al., 2001). As in quality management, national environmental management standards have been developed that can be implemented separately or in conjunction with international standards. Finally, anothers standardised management systems (OHSAS 18001; People; SA 8000) arose out of employers’ concern for their employees, with a view to easing legislative pressure and lowering occupational risk. One of the factors that has contributed to the adoption of this type of management standard is the perception of their analogies with other standards, such as quality or environmental schemes (Powell, 1995; Corbett and Cutler, 2000). Other similar codes include the ISO 10000 family on dispute settlement and customer satisfaction measurement and monitoring, the ISO

26000 series on social responsibility, international excellence models such as EFQM and other sundry national standards. 2.2. Determinants for implementing certified management systems in the hotel industry The preceding list of SMSs available to hotel companies says little about the strategy followed by these companies when adopting these systems, or about other corporate attributes. The present study analyses the driving factors behind the adoption of management standards and the characteristics of the hotel companies involved. It also reviews their adoption strategies, which depend on hotel characteristics, management commitment, environmental pressure and the perception of the benefits to be reaped with management standards (see Fig. 1). Previous research found evidence to the effect that these factors affect tourist companies’ organisational behaviour (Jacob et al., 2003; Vich-iMartorell, 2004; Orfila-Sintes et al., 2005; Sundbo et al., 2007; Jacob and Groizard, 2007; Orfila-Sintes and Mattsson, 2009). The company characteristics to be analysed include factors common to any industry, such as size, and others specific to hotels, such as organisational structure and the type of tourism prevailing among their customers. Most studies on management practices assume the existence of a positive relationship between size and the institution of certified management systems (Ragothaman and Korte, 1999; MolinaAzorín et al., 2009). This is because larger companies are better able to defray the costs of implementing new standards and draw from economies of scale to capitalise on standardised management schemes. They also tend to have qualified staff who can continue to maintain the certified management systems implemented (Rao et al., 1999; Dissanayaka et al., 2001). These considerations lead to the following hypothesis: H1. More standardised management systems are adopted by large than by small hotels. Castka and Balzarova (2008) asserted that certain factors, such as organisational design, structure and ownership, have an effect on the number of standards adopted and the strategy deployed. The primary dimension studied in the hotel industry is operational independence: i.e., whether or not an establishment forms part of a hotel chain (Garau and Orfila-Sintes, 2008; Molina-Azorín et al., 2009). The reasons for this are two. Firstly, hotel chains normally have access to more markets and customers than independent hotels, which

Fig. 1. Working model proposed.

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may compel them to seek certification under more management standards (Casadesús et al., 2010). Secondly, hotel chains seek to ensure that their customers perceive a uniform quality of service across all the establishments bearing their brand, which may induce them to adopt more SMSs. These considerations lead to the following hypothesis: H2. More standardised management systems are adopted by hotels forming part of a chain than by hotels operated independently. The type of tourism prevailing among a hotel’s clientele is a strategic aspect associated primarily with hotel location and the activities offered (Álvarez et al., 2001). In Spain the predominant types of tourism are leisure -sun and beach, cultural or inland- and business (IET, 2010). The type of tourism that prevails in a hotel may have a bearing on the certified management systems adopted. One of the factors that weighs most heavily in this regard is the length of tourists’ visits. The longer the stay, the more likely are they to use the services provided and perceive the environmental practices adopted. Under these circumstances, the hotel company needs to pay due attention to its services. Since SMSs may lead to improvements in operations that reduce repetitive tasks and variability, the institution of such systems may result in service improvements (Forza and Flippini, 1998; Samson and Terziovski, 1999). Further to statistics on length of stay in hotels in Spain, the establishments where customers stay longest are hotels with a predominance of leisure customers (IET, 2010). In light of the foregoing, a third hypothesis is put forward for study: H3. More standardised management systems are adopted by hotels with a predominance of leisure customers than by hotels with a predominantly business clientele. Business attitudes may explain many strategic decisions in companies (Delmas, 2002). Consequently, the degree of management commitment to the changes that must be made in the company may determine the type and number of certified management systems adopted. If management deems that SMSs are strategic tools that can lead to a competitive edge through the institution of internal improvements (Idris et al., 1996; Huang et al., 1999; Singels et al., 2001; Pan, 2003), it may have more incentives to adopt more management standards. On those grounds, the following hypothesis is formulated: H4. More standardised management systems are adopted by hotels whose management perceives such systems as strategic tools than by hotels that do not view them in that light. While companies adopt management standards voluntarily, according to the literature on the dissemination of such standards, certain players act coercively to change business behaviour (Corbett and Kirsch, 2001; Guler et al., 2002; Neumayer and Perkins, 2005). Some studies have stressed that the key actors in a value chain may impose the adoption of certain standards in contractual clauses (Castka and Balzarova, 2008). Others have pointed out that management standards may be adopted under indirect pressure from competitors with a view to preserving a certain competitive advantage (Taylor, 1995; Hardjomo et al., 1997; Leung et al., 1999; Magd and Curry, 2003; Christmann and Taylor, 2005). The following hypothesis is consequently put forward: H5. Hotels that perceive high pressure in the competitive environment tend to adopt standardised management systems more readily than hotels that fail to perceive such pressure. The literature on SMSs has also shown that the adoption of such systems affords the company a number of advantages, primarily improvements in hotel operations and services, as well as in its brand image. Since most standardised management systems have a direct effect on customer service in terms of error reduction, greater operational reliability or enhanced employee commitment, this translates into an improvement in customers’ perception of the company’s services (Flynn et al., 1995; Choi and Eboch, 1998; Ahire

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and Dreyfus, 2000; Forza and Flippini, 1998; Dow et al., 1999; Samson and Terziovski, 1999; Ho et al., 2001; Prajogo and Sohal, 2003; Kaynak, 2003; Naveh and Marcus, 2005) and consequently in customer satisfaction (Anderson et al., 1995; Adam et al., 1997; Forza and Flippini, 1998; Choi and Eboch, 1998; Das et al., 2000; Lai and Cheng, 2003). Surveys on the subject also show that the brand image benefits from the introduction of these systems, inasmuch as companies tend to display their certificates and use them as an advertising tool (Polsinka et al., 2003; Casadesús and Heras, 2005; Arana et al., 2006). The foregoing leads to the proposal that: H6. Hotels that perceive that benefits -in terms of customers, operations and image- can be derived from standardised management systems tend to adopt such systems more readily than hotels that fail to perceive these benefits. Karapetrovic (2005) noted that companies adopting management standards may follow a number of strategies in their implementation. One possible strategy is assimilation, i.e., first implementing a given standard on one aspect (such as quality), then another addressing a different area (such as environment or energy management standard), and so on. A second strategy is augmentation, which involves implementing more than one standard on the same aspect, to undertake a more exhaustive review (for instance, ISO9000 followed by an industry-specific quality system). The scant literature on the adoption of more than one standard has concentrated on analysing the results of their assimilative implementation. This is because in most cases companies begin by earning quality certification, to subsequently implement an environmental or an occupational health and safety management system (Karapetrovic and Casadesús, 2009). Assimilation would, then, appear to be the strategy most commonly followed, primarily due to the synergies obtained and the shorter implementation times involved as companies capitalise on prior learning processes. Hence, some authors explain that companies adopting different management systems within the same family may consolidate the aspects they have in common, such as documentation or internal audit procedures or systems. This has come to be known as the “process approach” (Bernardo et al., 2009, 2010). They may also opt to integrate all these systems into one, further to the PDCA model (Zeng et al., 2007; Bernardo et al., 2009). Since the existing evidence shows that companies follow this strategy, the hypothesis proposed is: H7. Hotels are more apt to follow an assimilation than an augmentation strategy when adopting management standards. 3. Methodology 3.1. Sample The present study is limited to hotel companies that have adopted: 1) some international quality system such as ISO 9001 or a national system specific to hotel establishments such as UNE 18000; 2) some environmental management system such as ISO 14001 or EMAS or a national system such as Biosphere; 3) an occupational risk prevention system such as OHSAS 18000; or 4) other certified systems. The first step, then, was to review the ISO and Spanish certifying companies’ (AENOR ICTE and other public administration’s data) databases. Telephone contact was subsequently established with the hotel companies concerned to confirm which management standards had been adopted and ascertain the name of the manager best positioned to reply to the survey. The survey was conducted across the entire population to obtain results liable to generalization. The total population came to 943 hotels that had earned some manner of certificate. In all, 403 or 42.74% furnished information, regarded to be an appropriate response rate for this type of studies (Malhotra and Grover, 1998).

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3.2. Variables 3.2.1. Dependent variable The present study addresses organisational behaviour in connection with the adoption of standards in the Spanish hotel industry. The first variable defined to that end gives the total number of management certificates in place in each hotel. This numerical variable, denominated TOTAL, ranged in value from 1 to n. This approach to measuring organisational behaviour has been used in other studies in which hotel companies’ ability to innovate was associated with the type of information technology adopted (Garau and Orfila-Sintes, 2008; Schmidt et al., 2008). 3.2.2. Explanatory variables Hotel size was represented under the variable SIZE, defined to be the log-normal value of the number of hotel employees. CHAIN, a binary variable, adopted the value of 1 if the hotel was part of a chain and 0 otherwise. Further disaggregation of this variable was deemed to be inappropriate, because the study was conducted on a specific but partial sample of hotels. Moreover, historically in Spain owner management has prevailed over other types of arrangements. Franchised hotels, for instance, account for a mere one per cent of the total (DBK, 2009). In the hotel industry the main types of customers are leisure or business clients. A binary variable denominated LEISURE was therefore created, whose value was 1 when the hotel’s clientele was primarily leisure-oriented and 0 otherwise. The motivations for and benefits of adopting a certified management system were studied by conducting a factorial analysis of the 18 items identified in previous literature or addressed as part of the present study (see Table 1). The value of 0.834 obtained with the KMO test was indicative of a good fit. The values obtained with Bartlett’s test of sphericity, in turn, 1256.302 for the statistic and a critical probability of 0.000, showed that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. The extracted factors were only

considered if their values were one or over. The axes were rotated using Kaiser’s varimax procedure, in which only factorial loads of over 0.4 were used. The aforementioned factors were found to explain 68.80% of the total variance. This analysis yielded the five factors listed in Table 1. The first, denominated PRESSURE, indicated the existence of environmental pressure as a reason for adopting a certified system. The second, STRATEGY, denoted management commitment to making certified management systems a part of company strategy, for whatever reason: to anticipate threats (emerging, for instance, during economic downturns), to perceive opportunities in advance and be prepared to seize them as they arise, or to improve the company’s image, thereby maintaining or widening its competitive advantage. The third factor, closely related to the improved customer service provided, was denominated CUSTOMER. The fourth, OPERATIONS, referred to perceived improvement in hotel operations and services. Lastly, the fifth factor, IMAGE, was a measure of the effect of certification on other company stakeholders, in light of the greater visibility attained through participation in more social projects, greater transparency and, in a word, greater confidence. Two further binary variables were generated to analyse hotel company strategy in terms of the adoption of management standards. ASIMILA adopted the value of 0 for companies with a single management standard and 1 for hotels with more than one standard in place addressing different aspects, i.e., hotels following an assimilation strategy. The value of AUGMENT, in turn, was 0 if the augmentation strategy was not followed, and 1 if it was, i.e., when more than one standard addressing the same aspect was adopted. 3.2.3. Control variables The control variable, a numerical variable denominated AGE, was expressed in years the hotel had been in operation. This variable has been widely used in previous research as a control variable for analysing business practices (e.g., Arthur, 1994; Simons and Pelled, 1999; Lafontaine and Swan, 2005).

Table 1 Factors resulting from model analysis. Factors Factor 1 PRESSURE Pressure from competition Customer demands Supplier demands Factor 2 STRATEGY Maintain competitive position even in crisis time Usage MSs as stategic tools Factor 3 CUSTOMER Reduced complaints

Loads

Cronbach a

References

0.781 0.619 0.828 0.460

Taylor (1995); Hardjomo et al. (1997); Leung et al. (1999) Hardjomo et al. (1997); Bendell and Boultier, 2004; Magd and Curry, 2003 Hardjomo et al. (1997) 0.743

0.690

New

0.676

New 0.886

0.693

Greater customer satisfaction

0.745

Greater customer loyalty Greater personal attention for clients Innovation in customer’s problems Factor 4 OPERATIONS Reduced errors

0.679

Anderson et al. (1995); Adam et al. (1997); Forza and Flippini (1998); Choi and Eboch (1998); Das et al. (2000); Lai and Cheng (2003) Anderson et al. (1995); Adam et al. (1997); Forza and Flippini (1998); Choi and Eboch (1998); Das et al. (2000); Lai and Cheng (2003) Das et al. (2000); Ahire and Dreyfus (2000); Sun and Cheng (2002); Lai and Cheng (2003)

0.763 0.723

Das et al. (2000); Ahire and Dreyfus (2000); Sun and Cheng (2002); Lai and Cheng (2003) Prajogo and Sohal (2003)

Improvement reliability of operations

0.680

Improvement of hotel services Less overall effort to maintain service levels Factor 5 IMAGE Improved hotel image and reputation Priority position in minds of customers Enhanced information transparency from the hotel Greater confidence in the hotel

0.682 0.636

0.802 0.747

Taylor (1995); Idris et al. (1996); Huang et al. (1999); Singels et al. (2001); Harrington and Akehurst (2000); (Jeffrey et al., 2002); (Susskind et al., 2007). Singels et al. (2001); Magd and Curry (2003); Harrington and Akehurst (2000); Susskind et al. (2007). Choi and Eboch (1998); Sun and Cheng (2002); Lai and Cheng (2003); Nield and Kozak (1999) Choi and Eboch (1998); Sun and Cheng (2002); Lai and Cheng (2003); Testa and Sipe (2006) 0.722

0.659 0.537 0.727

Polsinka et al., 2003; Casadesús and Heras, 2005; Arana et al., 2006 New Polsinka et al., 2003; Casadesús and Heras, 2005; Arana et al., 2006

0.587

New

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3.3. Data analysis

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Table 3 Types of MSs certificates.

A descriptive analysis of the explanatory variables for the sample revealed that the mean age of the hotels was 27.77 years and their mean was headcount 47.46. A significant 75.04% of the hotels belonged to a chain and in 71.46%, the clientele was primarily leisure-oriented. Table 2 gives the distribution for the number of certified standards adopted. As the table shows, 65.3% of the hotels had two or more certificates, an indication that, a priori, hotel companies followed a trend observed in other industries, namely to implement several certified management standards (Gupta and Sharma, 1999; Corbett and Cutler, 2000; Theyel, 2000). Table 3 gives the number of certifications per type of certificate and the mean time they had been in effect for the sample as a whole. The mean age of the certificates was very small, indicating that the adoption of certified management systems is a fairly new practice in the hotel industry (Casadesús et al., 2010). The SMS first adopted in the industry was the ISO 14001 environmental system, in effect for a mean of 7 years. The industry-specific quality system was the second scheme to be implemented, in effect for a mean of 6 years. This was a significant finding, for it differed from the sequence observed in other industries (Karapetrovic and Casadesús, 2009). However, the certified system most popular among hotels was the industry-specific quality standard, which covers both quality management and a number of requisites that define environmental good practice. Two managemenet systems were classified under “”others”. The more widely extended of the two was occupational health and safety standard OHSAS 18001. The second was the group of management systems developed by regional governments. These regional management systems have become very popular in Spain since the middle of the last decade, in the wake of the descentralisation pof political power in certain areas such as tourism. This has prompted each regional government to offer certificates of its own (Camisón et al., 2006; Alonso-Almeida et al., 2006). These systems were found to have been in place for much less time than the others for two reasons. Firstly, as previous research has shown, occupational health and safety or people management systems are normally adopted after environmental or quality management systems (Zeng et al., 2007; Bernardo et al., 2009; Karapetrovic and Casadesús, 2009). And secondly, regional management systems were developed primarily in the early years of the twenty first century and only began to be adopted after around 2005 (Camisón et al., 2006; Alonso-Almeida et al., 2006). A so-called “stepwise” multiple regression method was used to identify the independent variables that impact management standard adoption. The approach chosen was based on a “forward” selection, in which the input and output variables in the regression equation were based on Student-t values (Stevens, 1996). The standardised coefficient was calculated for each variable at each step, assuming that it would enter the model in the following step, along with the t-test value and significance level. This approach prevented co-linearity and selected the independent variables with Table 2 Sample distribution by number of certificates. No Certificates

No Hotels

%Sample

%Cumulative

1 2 3 4 5 6

174 79 38 33 77 2 403

43.18 19.60 9.43 8.19 19.11 0.50 100.00

43.18 62.78 72.21 80.40 99.50 100.00

Sector ISO 9001 ISO 14001 EMAS Sector Others specific QMS EMS EMS specific EMS No. hotels certified 312 Mean years in effect 2004

216 2005

182 2003

92 6 2005 2005

257 2008

the greatest weight in the model. The input criterion used was a significance level of under 0.05, while for the outputs, the significance level was defined to be >0.1. The results are given in Table 4. The model obtained explained 89.9% of dependent variable variance, and all the variables selected proved to be significant. Further to the results obtained, hotels with a larger number of quality certificates followed both assimilation and augmentation strategies, although with a coefficient of 0.849, assimilation predominated slightly over augmentation (0.805). These two variables are correlated, with a value of 0.274**. They do not correlate to the dependent variable, however. The positive correlation between these two variables confirmed that hotels implementing an assimilation strategy also tended to apply an augmentation strategy. Moreover, adoption of these standards was the outcome of a deliberate, planned decision, as reflected in the positive value (0.323) found for the variable STRATEGY. The likewise positive value found for LEISURE (0.284), was an indication that hotels geared to this type of clientele were more aware of the need to implement quality and environmental standards. Hotel size (SIZE, 0.081) was also found to be a significant variable, as maintained in the literature. In contrast, forming part of a chain and the existence of environmental pressure contributed negatively to management standard adoption, as attested by the minus signs on the values for these two variables: PRESSURE (0.064) and CHAIN (0.151). The inference is that independent rather than chain hotels were more bound to implement standards. Similarly, the hotels under less environmental pressure were more apt to implement standards. This would appear to be logical and consistent with the adoption of management systems as part of a deliberate business strategy, rather than as a defencive measure prompted by a competitive environment. The perception of benefits, in turn, yielded mixed results. On the one hand, IMAGE had a positive value (0.200), meaning that companies incorporating management standards more intensely perceived that they improved the hotel’s public image, contributing to a competitive edge and raising stakeholder confidence. On the other, however, the CUSTOMER variable was negatively related (0.059), although it was the variable with the smallest impact. Table 4 Regression model results. Coefficient (Constante) ASIMILA AUMENT STRATEGY PRESSURE LEISURE SIZE CHAIN CUSTOMER IMAGE R-Squared Adjusted R-Squared F-statistic

0.512 0.849 0.805 0.323 0.064 0.284 0.081 e0.151 0.059 0.200 0.899 0.897 399.200

Std. error

t-Stadistic

Prob.

0.129 0.045 0.038 0.089 0.019 0.081 0.024 0.050 0.026 0.053 SE of reg Sum squared resd. Prob (F-stadistic) Durbin- Watson

3.984 18.733 21.073 3.639 3.370 3.500 3.392 2.986 2.235 3.536 255.261 28.535 0.000 1.173

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.003 0.026 0.000

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This latter result would initially appear to clash with the perceived improvements in company image. The explanation can be sought in the timing of the improvements associated with the implementation of subsequent standards, which are not immediate and externally visible as in the case of the first standard instituted, but rather introduce values in the business culture geared to long-term survival (Naveh and Marcus, 2005). The AGE (hotel age) variable was neither significant nor a predictive variable in the model.

Table 5 Findings for working hypotheses. Hypothesis

Result

H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7

Supported Not supported Supported Supported Not supported Partially supported Supported

4. Implications for Management As the literature shows (Rao et al., 1999; Dissanayaka et al., 2001), larger companies tend to adopt standard management systems more readily, for they can devote more financial and human resources to adapting the organisation to the changes required by system certification. While chain hotels exhibit a higher rate of adoption of other innovations (such as ICTs) than independent hotels (Garau and Orfila-Sintes, 2008), they are less prone to adopt management standards, as the significant but negative value for this variable showed. The explanation may be found in the geographic dispersion of the establishments in a chain. That physical distance would mean that a certain amount of time would have to be invested in the certification of each, not only for implementation, but also to verify that subsequent operation is standard-compliant and that each hotel introduces the requirements as specified by the chain. Under such circumstances, hotel chains delay the introduction of standards more than independent hotels. Furthermore, they prefer to consolidate the implementation of a standard in all or most of the chain before embarking on certification under a new standard. The scale of implementation is consequently smaller in hotel chains. As reported by other authors (eg. Álvarez et al., 2001), in this study the hotels with a predominance of leisure customers were found to have adopted a larger number of quality, environmental and other management standards. Quality management systems help standardise operations, reduce waste and eliminate repetitive tasks by simplifying procedures, all of which makes customers’ stay more enjoyable. Moreover, hotels with a predominantly leisure clientele are usually located on the coast or in mountain areas, where particular attention must be paid to protecting the environment and where such establishments are called upon to follow good practice. Moreover, a major share of leisure clientele are couples or families who tend to attach more importance to the quality of hotel services and environmental practices, whereas business clients focus more on their extra-hotel activities. One way of effectively interiorising environmental good practice and making customers aware of the effort is by implementing a certified environmental management system. Although most leisure customers are unaware of the consequences for them personally of an establishment’s adherence to management standards, the hotel can play a prominent role in showing its customers just what those practical implications are. One example is to be found in the notices often posted in hotel rooms, explaining that using a towel more than once entails a substantial savings in water or reminding guests to turn off the faucets or the lights when they are not being used. Another measure is to let customers know that the hotel uses proximity mechanisms for faucets and lights, low energy or led lighting, or recycled water for lawns and gardens. Perhaps the most significant difference between the present and prior studies lies in the findings on the importance attached by hotel management to standardised management systems. Indeed, forming part of company strategy has not been observed to be

a reason for adopting a management standard in most other studies. Hotels appear to have realised the importance of competing via customer-oriented strategies, internal improvements and the institution of quality, environmental and excellence practice as a genuine long-term, overall strategy, rather than a merely short-term or cosmetic measure. This contrasts considerably with the manufacturing industry, where the first reason for adopting a management standard is outside pressure (Taylor, 1995; Hardjomo et al., 1997; Leung et al., 1999; Magd and Curry, 2003). Furthermore, like companies in other industries that perceive high rewards for adopting SMSs (Abraham et al., 2000; Briscoe et al., 2005; Balzarova et al., 2006), hotels implementing a larger number of management standards perceive improvements in their corporate image, knowing that the respective certificates can be used in hotel advertising as a selling point for consumers seeking a certain quality of service. According to Terlaak and King (2006), obtaining quality certification is a “market signal” that enables “an organisation to communicate about its unobserved quality attributes” and consequently “a certified organisation may be able to gain an advantage vis-à-vis its non-certified competitors”. Such positioning enables the company to earn stakeholder confidence and raise its present and future profits (Nield and Kozak, 1999; Douglas and Judge, 2001; Kaynak, 2003; Corbett et al., 2005). Finally, the strategy deployed by hotels when adopting standards follows both an assimilative and an augmentative pattern, with a slight predominance of the former, just as observed for the manufacturing industry (Karapetrovic and Casadesús, 2009). The formulation of standards adapted to the industry itself has led to the adoption of augmentative strategies, for such standards are viewed as differential elements that contribute in diverse ways to the company’s global strategy. On the one hand, international standards emit positive signals on foreign markets, where they are acknowledged (Terlaak and King, 2006). On the other, national management standards specific to the hotel industry may help companies improve their in-house procedures (Casadesús et al., 2010). The fact that the two strategies are being developed jointly suggests both a strategic change in hotel management operations and that these standards are becoming a powerful educational tool for more efficient hotel organisation (Rodríguez-Antón and AlonsoAlmeida, 2011), with which the company may acquire a sustainable competitive edge. Table 5 summarises the results of the hypotheses posed. 5. Conclusions While later than in other industries, the hotel industry is adopting quality, environmental and other management standards. These standards may afford hotels competitive advantages difficult to imitate and enable them to develop unique or distinctive skills. The findings of the present study suggest in particular that the adoption of management standards is advantageous for independent hotels, the establishments that are implementing standardised management systems most extensively. These management systems

M. del Mar Alonso-Almeida, J.M. Rodríguez-Antón / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1455e1463

may help independent hotels to institute management processes, which are often lacking, or systematise such processes where they are only informally in place. This is not generally the case in hotel chains, which have clearly defined structures and formal working procedures. Hotel chains may be less enthusiastic because they can draw from the value of their brand, rather than the quality of management practices, to differentiate their offering, knowing that many customers are chain loyal. This does not mean that they have no quality or environmental management problems, for most large chains have developed their own in-house quality systems. But since certification to management standards is a decision made at the corporate level, in chains it is apparently accorded lower priority than other strategic decisions, such as international expansion. The present study also found evidence to the effect that for hotels, certified management systems are not a mere fad or a cosmetic measure, but are incorporated into their strategy as a guideline that will contribute to company survival (Qu et al., 2000; Gray et al., 2000). This is particularly important for independent hotels that need to distinguish their offering, make a favourable and lasting impression on consumers and seek alliances with tour operators to gain access to new markets. Since no outside pressure to implement management standards has been perceived, hotel company managers must analyse their “real” motivations for undertaking certification procedures. Some authors have observed that the value attached to certified systems by companies declines as the number of certificates earned rises (Casadesús and Karapetrovic, 2005). When such standards are adopted to merely keep up with competitors, or superficially but without integrating the systems into the company’s culture or without fluent communication during the implementation process, their application meets with internal resistance. Under such circumstances, the benefits deriving from implementation are small. Existing problems are aggravated because the company is burdened with what is perceived to be bureaucracy (Boiral, 2003), while missing the opportunity to use a strategic tool that could help it in the future. The conclusion that may be drawn is that when certified management systems are incorporated into hotel culture, they are internally and externally beneficial and contribute to maintaining a competitive position. This is hardly surprising, for certified management systems are based on the PDCA cycle for continual improvement, which means that the company commits to monitoring and continually improving its practices. Consequently, when the hotel adopts new certified management systems as part of an assimilation or an augmentation strategy, or both, it can capitalise on the potential afforded by such systems to improve its economic, operational and social performance. For that to actually be the case, however, these systems must be incorporated with a long-term vision and according to plan. Companies must seize the opportunity to improve hotel operations, reduce the time devoted to activities that add no value, introduce environmental good practice and develop a culture of ongoing improvement. This calls for a firm commitment on the part of hotel management, which should integrate the system adopted into all its strategies and allocate sufficient resources for its implementation, ensuring that such commitment is clearly perceived at all levels, in all departments and by all employees. As a future line of research, which falls outside the limits of the present study, the authors propose to explore the sequence of management standard implementation in hotels. According to prior research, international quality standards are implemented first, followed by international environmental standards and lastly by other management systems or excellence models (Karapetrovic, 2002). This sequence and its motivations and impacts have yet to be analysed for the hotel industry, however. The authors likewise propose to ascertain whether earning management certificates has

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