María Dolores López Gamero

The implementation by organizations of environmental practices related to circular economy can play a key role in helping solve important environmental problems such as climate change, pollution, and overconsumption of natural resources. A relevant theoretical and practical research topic is to study the role of internal determinants that can facilitate the implementation of circular economy. Circular economy has been mainly examined in manufacturing organizations, with few studies in the service industries. This paper examines two important internal drivers of circular economy (quality management and digitalization) in the hotel industry, using a questionnaire completed by 268 Spanish hotels and PLS‐SEM as the analytical method. Results show that quality management and digitalization positively influence circular economy, and that digitalization plays a mediating role between quality management and circular economy.

Firms need to develop dynamic capabilities to anticipate, adapt and respond to a changing competitive environment. Quality management, absorptive capacity and sustainability can act as dynamic capabilities, helping firms to adapt better and more quickly to new stakeholder demands. Some dynamic capabilities can help develop others. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of quality management and absorptive capacity as enablers and drivers of environmental, economic and social sustainability development, and to study the mediating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between quality management and the three dimensions of sustainability. Through structural equation modelling and using data from Spanish hotels, this study adds value to the dynamic capabilities theory by empirically demonstrating that quality management and absorptive capacity, used together, positively influence (directly or indirectly) the environmental, economic and social sustainability of hotels in order to reduce their environmental impact, and improve the social well‐being of stakeholders and the economic development of the region.

The success of hotels and their contribution to the destination depends on the development of sustainability practices. The aim of this paper is to study possible interactions between environmental, economic and social sustainability practices with each other and with hotel performance. In these interactions, hotel performance is not considered as the final dependent variable. Hotel performance may play a mediating role as it may be considered as a consequence of environmental sustainability practices and as a means for economic and social sustainability practices. From a PLS analysis using data from 365 Spanish hotels, we find that environmental sustainability practices influence hotel performance and economic and social sustainability practices; hotel performance positively influences economic and social sustainability practices; and economic sustainability practices influence social sustainability practices. Moreover, hotel performance mediates the relationship between environmental sustainability practices and the other two dimensions of sustainability practices; and economic sustainability practices mediate the link between environmental and social sustainability practices. This study has theoretical and practical implications because it shows that environmental sustainability practices contribute to hotel performance, creating value for shareholders and owners; and environmental practices and the availability of financial resources contribute to the development of economic and social sustainability practices, also creating value for other stakeholders.

The hotel industry is characterized by operating in a global, dynamic and uncertain environment where stakeholders' concerns on sustainable development are growing. However, there is limited research on whether hotels have flexibility and capacity for change, to develop environmental practices that meet stakeholder demands and improve their competitiveness. Through the dynamic capabilities theory, the resource‐based view and the stakeholder theory, this paper develops a model that considers agility and innovation as antecedents of environmental management and competitive advantages as consequences. A Partial Least Squares analysis is carried out based on data from Spanish hotels. The results indicate that agility and innovation influence environmental management positively; agility influences innovation positively; and agility influences environmental management indirectly through innovation. Moreover, environmental management positively influences cost and differentiation competitive advantages. This study contributes to the literature by examining the role of two important dynamic capabilities and their impact on environmental management and showing how the interaction and mediation between these capabilities favors competitive advantages.

Previous studies have analysed the link between sustainability and performance without reaching a consensus in the hotel industry. This research work examines the relationship between sustainability and performance, and the mediating effect of cost and differentiation competitive advantages in this relationship. The results show that sustainability positively influences perceptual performance and revenues per available room; sustainability has a direct relationship with costs and differentiation advantages; and differentiation advantage mediates the relationship between sustainability and performance. La relación entre sostenibilidad y desempeño ha sido analizada en estudios previos sin llegar a un consenso en la industria hotelera. Este estudio examina la relación entre sostenibilidad y desempeño, y el efecto mediador de las ventajas competitivas en costes y diferenciación en dicha relación. Los resultados muestran que la sostenibilidad influye positivamente sobre el desempeño perceptual y sobre los ingresos por habitación disponible; la sostenibilidad tiene una relación directa con las ventajas en costes y diferenciación; y la ventaja en diferenciación media la relación entre sostenibilidad y desempeño.

The relationship between sustainability, competitive advantages, and performance is a topic with no conclusive results in the tourism industry. To contribute to the debate, the purpose of this study is i) to analyze the influence of sustainability on cost and differentiation competitive advantages and ii) to examine the possible synergistic relationship between sustainability and performance. Perceptual as well as hotel-specific objective performance measurements are used, such as occupancy rate, average daily rate (ADR), and revenues per available room (RevPAR), to examine all the relationships. Structural equation models based on Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM) are applied to test all the hypotheses. Data is collected from 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels in Spain. The results show that sustainability positively and significantly influences cost and differentiation advantages, perceptual performance, ADR, and RevPAR. In addition, those hotels with these three performance variables whose values are above the median obtain a significant relationship between sustainability and performance. Consequently, there is evidence of a synergistic sustainability-performance relationship in the hotel industry. Therefore, this study offers academic evidence on the strong relationships that exist between these variables in the hotel industry. This research work analyses all three sustainability pillars (economic, environmental, and social sustainability), and the practices that best explain each of the three sustainability pillars are indicated so that hotel managers can optimize their sustainable management.

The main purpose of this paper is to integrate the literature on human resource management (HRM) and environmental management. Moreover, the paper shows the role that green human resource management (GHRM) plays in environmental management activities. This article examines the main relationships between human resource management and environmental strategy, emphasizing reciprocal influences. Moreover, the main human resource practices used in the literature are examined. In addition, methodological approaches that can be appropriate to advance the study of the link between human resource management and environmental strategy are proposed. Ideas for future research are also provided. As the role of human capital in implementing environmental management is a mature field of research, a new topic known as green human resource management has emerged. We examine studies that analyze both the relationship between general human resource management and environmental strategy and between green human resource management and environmental strategy.

This work empirically examines the importance of the internalization of a quality standard for environmental sustainable development in Spanish hotels. It aims to examine the direct relationships between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental practices and performance and the mediating role of environmental practices on the relationship between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental performance. The work uses a sample of 176 hotels and applies the partial least squares (PLS) approach to test these relationships. The results show that (a) the internalization of a quality standard (through daily practices and continuous improvement) is positively related to environmental practices and performance and (b) environmental practices partially mediate the relationship between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental performance. The study extends the literature by explaining that the internalization of a quality standard strengthens environmental sustainable development.

This work aims to identify quality standard adoption levels and their relationship with quality management practices and performance (customer, employee and social results, and organizational performance) in tourism organizations in Spain. This work uses 279 tourism organizations in the following subsectors: hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, and rural accommodations. The work applies cluster and regression analyses. Results show three levels of adoption and a lower degree of development of the continuous improvement dimension. Organizations with a significantly lower level of development of the quality standard have started to integrate the quality requirements in their daily practices to some extent and where continuous improvement practices are little developed. These organizations have significantly lower results than those organizations with higher adoption of quality. The results also indicate that a greater level of adoption of a quality standard leads to a higher development of QM practices. These results are interesting for managers, destination managers, and the wider tourism professional community. It contributes to supplementing previous studies about taxonomies of quality standard adoption in the particular case of tourism organizations in Spain and may serve as a starting point for further research on that topic.