ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY AMONG SMEs IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY: PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
There is an increasing social and political awareness of the importance of the development of an environmental responsibility
orientation among firms. However, despite a growing interest of environmental management research in Hospitality Industry in
the last decade, there are still relevant topics that have not received sufficient attention yet. Research tends to focus on large
companies almost neglecting Small and Medium-sized enterprises. Based on evidence from “The Eurobarometer 381 Survey on
SMEs, Resource Efficiency and Green Markets” the authors analyse the environmental responsibility of European SMEs
operating in the Hospitality Industry in Spain, studying their compliance with environmental legislation and how several
environmental management practices can lead to better performance in this industry. The findings show that having an
environmental responsibility orientation has a positive and significant effect on sales growth in this industry. That is, those SMEs
that go beyond environmental legislation and consider environmental concerns among their objectives have a higher increase in
sales.