Abstracts Business

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study of Scandic Hotels

by Lars Heesbeen

The aim of the thesis is to discover whether Scandic Hotels is perceived as a leader in Corporate Social Responsibility within the hospitality industry. First a definition of CSR is created and the boundaries of research are given. Next the thesis looks into competitive advantages; how are they created and what has Scandic Hotels done to create a competitive advantage regarding CSR? Next an analysis of Scandic Hotels brand is made, and what they have done in the past twenty years regarding CSR. Finally the research focuses on how guests of Scandic Hotels perceive the company. Corporate Social Responsibility is an important concept in the hospitality industry. A variety of definitions can be given yet each definition consists out of the recurring elements voluntariness, stakeholder, social, environmental and economical. These elements are also found in the term sustainability which is an important factor of CSR. Both terms are based upon the triple bottom line framework; people, planet and profit. As many hotel chains are currently investing into CSR policies, Scandic Hotels was one of the early adaptors and has embedded CSR into the core values of the company. A competitive advantage is created when a firm can generate greater sales or margins and retain or attract more customers than the competition. Through the correct implementation of brand management these core values are the base of creating a competitive advantage in the market. In order to conduct the guest perception research a quantitative method has been used. A questionnaire consisting of 17 questions was conducted at the Scandic Grand Marina Hotel in Helsinki Finland. The questionnaire consisted of open and closed ended questions. In addition the use of likert scale questions gave respondents the possibility to rate sustainability aspects of Scandic Hotels. The questionnaire results gave the researcher the possibility to look at various cross tabs, discovering the influence of gender, origin, purpose of travel, age and frequency of travel on guest perception. Overall, Scandic Hotels is considered to be the leader in corporate social responsibility. The guests see the value and importance of the policy and want to contribute in their own way. Scandic has therefore succeeded into embedding CSR into their core values and communicating this to their guests. Yet the guests do not see the CSR policy as a decisive factor when choosing a hotel, and are not willing to pay extra for it. Further research should be conducted in Scandic Hotels worldwide to strengthen the results.