Sustainability’s Impact on Customers’ Hotel Selection

New York University

Sustainability’s Impact on Customers’ Hotel Selection

Research Proposal

Zhuwei Gan

Applied Research Methods TCHS1-GC. 1050

Professor Frederic Mayo

2 May 2017

Executive Summary

This research proposal starts with an introduction of background information, research purpose and research questions. After that, literature review will review quality and range of studies about 1) sustainability in hotels, 2) traditional and contemporary sustainability approaches, 3) customers’ perception of sustainability and 4) willingness to pay for green services and green products and 5) different dimensions of sustainability as well as the common limitation and mythology of previous studies.

Research design section will present the overall picture of this research. This research will implement triangulation design which includes interview, questionnaire and Delph panel to collect the data. The data is expected to collect from hotel managers through interviews and hotel guests through questionnaires, which will be discussed in data collection section. The next section is sampling strategy. Both hotel managers and guests are sampled by convenience sampling from different levels of hotels in Asia, Europe and North America.

Reliability and validity will be specifically discussed before analysis of data section. The collected data will be analyzed by statistical techniques: Statistical Package for the Social Science. In addition, this research proposal also will discuss ethical issues such as access issues, privacy issues with data, harm, integrity, record keeping and publishing issues. After that, expected results and findings section will list the possible findings of this research. Limitation and opportunities will be addressed at the end of this research proposal.

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………4

Literature Review……………………………………………………………………………..…5

Research Design………………………………………………………………………………...12

Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………………13

Sampling Strategy………………………………………………………….…………………14

Reliability and Validity………………………………………………………………………15

Analysis of Data……………………………………………………………………………….17

Ethical Issues…………………………………………………………………………………18

Expected Results and Findings……………………………………………………………….18

Limitations……………………………………………………………………………………..19

Summary………………………………………………………………………………….........20

Annotated Bibliography………………………………………………………..……………23

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………...……………34

1. Introduction

In the current decade, sustainability has increasingly become an essential part of conducting business in any industry all over the world. For business organizations to balance their environmental, social and financial risks, opportunities and obligation, it will be necessary to address global matters relating to population, climate, poverty, human rights, corruption, health, energy, food and water, given that they often interfere with social well-being and therefore are considered pillars of a healthy business. Based on a number of research studies, business sustainability is connected the ability of a company to attain its set goals and rise long-term value of its shareholders by incorporating social, economic, political and environmental opportunities into its corporate strategies (dos Santos et al. 217; Maczulak 141; Mondéjar et al. 1519; Park et al. 41; Roblek et al. 388; Sayigh 20; Xu et al. 116; Zupan and Borut 513). In some recent studies, ethical dimensions have been addressed as a new consideration of sustainable management (Park et al. 52).

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect that sustainable practices have on customers’ hotel booking decisions. This research will specifically focus on identifying direct and indirect effect that sustainable practices have on customers’ satisfaction. This study aims to answer the following questions:

• Why is sustainability an important factor to the hospitality industry?
• How do sustainable practices influence guests’ hotel choices?
• How do sustainable practices influence customer satisfaction?
• How do sustainable practices affect hotel operations?

The following literature review explores the relationship between sustainability and hotels, differences between traditional sustainability and contemporary sustainability, customers’ perception of sustainability and their willing to pay more for green products and green services offered by hotels, and different dimensions of sustainability. In the end, the patterns in methodologies and limitations of previous studies will also be reviewed.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Sustainability in Hotels

As the need for environmentally friendly practices and sustainability continues to rise in order to protect natural reserves for the coming generation, hotels, like all other business in different industries have directed their concentration towards the significance of sustainability associated with hotel operation and development, including social, economic, political and environmental impact. Historically, hotels have dramatically impacted on the environment through the consumption of water and energy, the creation of solid and perilous waste, and the utilization of durable and consumable products. However, with the rising expectations of accountability from customers, employees and shareholders of the hospitality industry, several hotels have incorporated sustainability into their corporate strategies (Aznar et al. 8; dos Santos et al. 221; Horng et al. 50; Kim et al. 1344; Melissen et al. 40; Mensah 455; Peng and Zied 66; Perkowsky 56; Roblek et al. 397; Sitawati et al. 52).