CSR/Environmental performance, governance structures and performance in tourism firms: A systematic literature review and global empirical evidence

Abstract

There is a rapidly increasing awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)/environmental responsibility in the tourism industry. However, there is an acute lack of evidence relating to the extent to which social and environmental responsibility and governance structures are associated with financial performance in tourism firms. This thesis seeks to contribute to the extant literature by addressing this knowledge gap through three distinct but closely related studies. The first study provides a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) of existing CSR and corporate outcomes research in tourism firms. The objectives were to synthesise, appraise and extend the current understanding of existing theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence in a wide range of financial/non-financial corporate outcomes. This study produced interesting findings, not least that a large number of recent studies are descriptive and/or draw on single rather than multi-theoretical perspectives, focusing mainly on how CSR is related to financial performance to the detriment of other measures, such as executive compensation (EC), environmental performance (EP), governance and culture. Furthermore, opportunities for future tourism research were outlined. With these results in mind, the second study investigated the influence of environmental performance (EP) on financial performance (FP) in tourism-related firms. As the first study of its kind in this field, the moderating roles of corporate/national governance (CG) / (NG), and national culture (NC) and their impact on the EP-FP nexus were also analysed. Drawing on a global sample of tourism firms, the results revealed that better EP performance is positively associated with FP and vice-versa. Further, the findings suggest that NG and NC have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between EP and FP. Following similar analysis, the third study examined the impact of Executive Compensation (EC) on Environmental Performance (EP) and the moderating effect of CG, NG and NC on the EC–EP nexus in the context of tourism. Using a worldwide sample of tourism firms, the findings suggest that there is a positive effect of EC on EP. Additionally, the results indicate that the EC–EP nexus is significantly moderated by CG, NG and NC. The empirical findings which are generally robust to alternative measures, estimation techniques and endogeneities are interpreted within CG/CSR/EC/EP theories. The findings have important implications for academics, environmentalists, investors, managers, policy-makers and tourism professionals.

Keywords: CSR, Corporate outcomes, Tourism industry, Corporate governance, Systematic literature review, Environmental performance, Financial performance, Executive compensation, Governance, Culture and Multi-theory

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ORCID for Collins Ntim: orcid.org/0000-0002-1042-4056

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