Willingness to Pay for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Does Strategic CSR Management Matter?

Abstract

Within hospitality research, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted plenty of interest, but few studies have investigated a strategic approach to CSR management. Strategic CSR assumes that by systematic investment in responsibility that matches customer demand, a business can earn additional profit while fulfilling societal expectations. However, the details of how such systematic management can be achieved are missing. This leaves the business case for customer-focused, strategic CSR largely conceptual, and offers little advice to hospitality managers wishing to pursue such a strategy. To fill these gaps, our study investigated guest willingness to pay for initiatives that were selected based on a model of strategic CSR management that incorporates key aspects of customer behavior. The results provide empirical evidence on how strategic CSR management can contribute to financial performance and support the need for understanding the guest comprehensively during the strategy development process to achieve the gains.