Prosocial Outcomes of Hotel’s CSR-Perceived Motives

Abstract

This study explores social marketing effects of a hotel’s proenvironmental practices. With an emphasis on consumers’ perceptions of a hotel’s corporate social responsibility motives, it looks at how perceived motives influence consumer responses—attitudes toward a hotel and hotel selection, intentions to participate in a hotel’s green program, and willingness to pay a premium to support its efforts. Findings indicated that a consumers’ perceived public-serving motive positively influenced consumer responses, while a self-serving motive had negative impacts. Additionally, this study revealed that consumers’ perceived motives varied significantly by hotel user segments but not by hotel class. That is, luxury hotel users had a tendency to consider the motive as public serving compared to an economy hotel user group. Further, perceived motive mediated the relationships between hotel user segments and consumer responses, which included prosocial outcomes, like intentions to participate in a green hotel program, along with attitudes toward a hotel, intentions to select a hotel, and intentions to pay a premium.