Perceptions of Future Employees toward CSR Environmental Practices in Tourism

Diana Corina Gligor-Cimpoieru, Valentin Partenie Munteanu, Renata Dana Nițu-Antonie, Andreia Schneider and Gheorghe Preda
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Diana Corina Gligor-Cimpoieru: Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara 300223, Romania
Valentin Partenie Munteanu: Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara 300223, Romania
Renata Dana Nițu-Antonie: Marketing and International Economic Relations Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara 300223, Romania
Andreia Schneider: Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara 300223, Romania
Gheorghe Preda: Marketing and International Economic Relations Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara 300223, Romania
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Diana Corina Gligor Cimpoieru

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in tourism, with its central evironmental dimension, represents an important component for the sustainable growth of the tourism industry. The related CSR education could prove a major factor for future professional performance in this field of activity. Thus, this article is aimed at identifying the perceptions of current business students about CSR (students from study programs dedicated to business administration in tourism) and the importance they attribute to CSR environmental practices, mainly from their perspective as future employees in the tourism industry. We elaborated a research methodology based on the Ecolabelling principles, designed by the European Union in 2009. Our findings revealed that business tourism students assign more importance to several specific CSR environmental practices and that the importance of these CSR practices is statistically significant (we determined this significance by using the Friedman, Paired-Samples t -, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Bartlett sphericity statistical tests). The elaborated research methodology proved to be statistically highly reliable. Results also show the differences regarding the CSR practices preferred by various categories of students according to their study levels and gender. Our results pointed out that our third-year bachelor students showed a higher interest in CSR practices related to their professional training, while students from the master level degree attached more importance to CSR practices related to the environment. We also confirmed conclusions of previous studies that female respondents attach more importance to environmental issues than male respondents. Thus, we can state that a higher level of education is a key factor that supports CSR development in practice. Also, a significant conclusion of our research is related to the academic curricula for business faculties which must incorporate solid CSR and business ethics-dedicated courses and offer the needed support for the development of thematic projects about CSR Environmental practices in hotels?

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; tourism; CSR environmental practices; CSR strategic approach; future employees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:9:p:1631-:d:111798

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