Environmental management practices for sustainable business models in small and medium sized hotel enterprises

Buffa, Federica; Franch, Mariangela; Rizio, Dina

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.143

Cited by 90 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…The main arguments were related to the safety and easy use of equipment and also to their contribution to growth of efficiency and productivity within the accommodation unit, compared with tourists' saving behavior, which is much more difficult, if not impossible, to control and change. These findings are not in line with other studies [5,42,105,119]. In particular, some researchers [119] postulated that reducing water and energy consumption only using high-performance technologies would not significantly contribute to water and energy saving and thus would have negative consequences for the environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…However, Zhang et al [42] highlighted the importance of managing both operations and customers in order to co-produce balanced environmental-economic outcomes. Likewise, Buffa et al [5] found that both communication-oriented towards customers (i.e., promotion of green events, green reporting, and green marketing activities) and organizational practices (i.e., waste management and use of renewable energy) are key issues in implementing environmental management in small-scale accommodation units and that these are generally carried out by family members, or even by the hotel owner him/herself. The discrepancy between our study's results and other previous research may be attributed to the limited environmental knowledge of the Romanian ATBH owner-managers' and to their lack of awareness regarding the necessary techniques and educational tools that can be employed within their units.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The growing demand for rural tourism has led to an adequate development of specific tourism offers, resulting in an increase in the number of tourist accommodation units and other small business types that support tourists' needs during their holiday in the countryside. As a result, tourism is now posing a potential threat to rural resources, most acutely when they are exploited beyond their carrying capacities, and/or enterprises are not managed in a sustainable manner [5]. All these factors have led to the emergence of many environmental problems in rural tourism, such as environmental pollution, land degradation, resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and more [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Management Practices within Agritourism Boarding Houses in Romania: A Qualitative Study Among Managers

2019

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Small accommodation businesses such as agritourism boarding houses (ATBHs) provide a large share of accommodating capacity in certain rural destinations. Despite their small accommodation capacity, ATBHs consume substantial quantities of water and energy; this consumption implies high environmental costs. The present study aims to explore opinions of ATBH owner-managers regarding water and energy consumption in their businesses, what motivates them to adopt environmental practices, and the specific saving measures used within the tourist accommodation units they manage. A qualitative research was conducted, using semi-structured interviews among 12 Romanian ATBH owner-managers. Data analysis revealed that the interviewed owner-managers understand the importance of natural resource conservation in tourist destinations but they are not willing or have insufficient financial, time, organizational resources, etc. to engage in serious water and energy saving initiatives. Moreover, most interviewed managers indicated that tourists cannot make a significant contribution to natural resources conservation in accommodation units and perceive water and energy saving systems as more effective than the environmental education of visitors in their facility. These findings may be useful to tourism policy-makers and environmental organizations in order to develop effective environmental strategies in ATBHs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Management Practices within Agritourism Boarding Houses in Romania: A Qualitative Study Among Managers

2019

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“…Buffa, Franch, and Rizio [94] utilizing a quantitative approach provide empirical evidence that medium-sized hotel enterprises (SMHEs) in Trentino, a traditional tourist destination in the Italian Alpine Arc, apply sustainable business models. They argue that these SMHEs adopted three different sets of environmental management practices (EMPs) to accomplish their sustainability goals of their business models.…”

Section: Developing Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Business Models: A Review

et al. 2019

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During the past two decades of the e-commerce growth the concept of business model has become increasingly popular. More recently, the research on this realm has grown rapidly with a diverse research activity covering a wide range of application areas. Considering the sustainable development goals the innovative business models have brought a competitive advantage to improve the sustainability performance of organizations. The concept of the sustainable business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value, in economic, social, cultural or other contexts in a sustainable way. The process of sustainable business model construction forms an innovative part of business strategy. Different industries and businesses have utilized sustainable business models' concept to satisfy their economic, environmental and social goals simultaneously. However, the success, popularity, and the progress of sustainable business models in different application domains are not clear. To explore this issue, this research provides a comprehensive review of sustainable business models literature in various application areas. Notable sustainable business models are identified and further classified in fourteen unique categories, and in every category, the progress -either failure or success-has been reviewed and the research gaps are discussed. Taxonomy of the applications includes innovation, management and marketing, entrepreneurship, energy, fashion, healthcare, agri-food, supply chain management, circular economy, developing countries, engineering, construction and real estate, mobility and transportation, and hospitality. The key contribution of this study is to provide an insight into the state of the art of sustainable business models in various application areas and future research directions. This paper concludes that popularity and the success rate of sustainable business models in all application domains have been increased along with the increasing use of advanced technologies.

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“…The research is done in the common field of business model sustainability and hotels are still in the infancy stage. (Buffa, Franch et al 2018), utilizes a quantitative approach, provide empirical evidences that to introduce sustainable business models in this industry. They argue that these SMHEs adopted three different sets of environmental management practices (EMPs) to accomplish their sustainability goals of their business models.…”

Section: Sustainable Business Models In Tourism Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Business Models in Biosphere Reserves: Case of Hungary

Mosavi¹

2019

Preprint

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The goal of Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme is to support sustainable development through effective management, innovative technologies, policy suggestion and governance. Today, the concept of Biosphere Reserves plays an important role in scientific investigations, generating knowledge, and experiences to link socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation for human well-being. This research, through an independent study which takes place in the Hungarian Biosphere Reserves of Pilis and Kiskunság aims at identifying practical sustainable business models which are suitable for supporting livelihood of locals. In this research, the two Biosphere Reserves serve as the learning sites under the light of global principles and state-of-the-art-of knowledge on sustainable development and sustainable business models. To do so, the state-of-the-art-of sustainable business model has been investigated through a comprehensive academic research. The lessons that learned from this investigation are used to support the data gathering method and planning the field trips to identify the sustainable business models currently in use at the Biosphere Reserves. This research particularly had been interested in small-sized sustainable business models practiced by small communities or families in various zones of Biosphere Reserves. First set of interviews and questionnaires designed to identify the business models in practice. The results identify foraging the wild plants in the buffer zone and transition areas as a potential sustainable business model in practice. Further interviews and surveys were conducted with foragers shows the beneficial of their practice on the local ecosystem and in increasing awareness on the deep connection with the ecosystems. The sustainable business model of foraging in addition to providing a sustainable livelihood for the locals maintains a spiritual connection between people and land. The identified sustainable business model can further be educational and practical for other 685 biosphere reserves.

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Environmental management practices for sustainable business models in small and medium sized hotel enterprises

Cited by 90 publications

References 82 publications

Environmental Management Practices within Agritourism Boarding Houses in Romania: A Qualitative Study Among Managers

Environmental Management Practices within Agritourism Boarding Houses in Romania: A Qualitative Study Among Managers

Sustainable Business Models: A Review

Sustainable Business Models in Biosphere Reserves: Case of Hungary

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