The role of government initiatives in sustainability practice and performance in the UK hotel sector

Abstract

Sustainability has become increasingly important in today’s business world, with companies recognising the need to integrate ethical, social and environmental considerations into their operations. The hotel sector is no exception, and interest in promoting sustainable practices within the industry continues to grow. Although the UK government has introduced several initiatives to advance sustainability in hotels, a comprehensive understanding of their effectiveness as well as the challenges and opportunities that accompany their implementation remains limited. The main objectives and contributions of this research are to assess the impact of government initiatives on sustainability practices and performances in the UK hotel industry and to identify effective strategies and mechanisms to encourage sustainable practices. There is a lack of a holistic framework that not only explains how government initiatives drive sustainability practices and performance, but also how the various elements of government initiatives, sustainability practices, and performance influence one another, including the interrelationships among these elements. This study adopts institutional theory to examine how external drivers and pressures, i.e. government sustainability initiatives, shape sustainability practices and performance in organisations. Semi-structured interviews with hospitality managers and employees provide a fresh empirical perspective and add a new dimension to the existing body of knowledge. The findings of this research demonstrate that there are four key government initiatives that encourage sustainability practices in the hotel industry in the UK i.e. norms and culture, set of rules, decision-making process and innovative initiative entrepreneurship. The research outcome was the development of the new holistic framework based on empirical results, institutional theory and the previous literature discussion, which resulted in the final research framework, as being a significant theoretical contribution of this research. Policymakers, hotel‐industry stakeholders, and researchers can apply this framework to devise government strategies that advance sustainability practices and performance across the hospitality sector and the wider service economy.