The U.S. hospitality industry's profitability has been shifting to environmental management and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Hospitality industries accounted for 5% of the global market in 2015 and are expected to increase by 130% in 2035. Grounded in stakeholder theory, this correlation study examined the relationship between corporate sustainability officer (CSO) CSR, CSO environmental management, and hospitality business profitability. Secondary data were collected from 97 hotel websites of the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota from 2014 to 2016. The multiple linear regression combinations of CSR and environmental management (EM) measured significantly related to the profitability index, F(3, 93) = 4.67, p < .001, adj. R2 = .13. The sample multiple correlation coefficients were .36, indicating approximately 13% of the variance of the profitability index. The multiple linear regression combinations of CSR measures significantly related to the profitability index, F(2,94) = 6.05, p < .001, adjusted R2 = .11. The sample multiple correlation coefficients were .34, indicating approximately 11% of the variance of the profitability index. The linear combination of EM measures were not significantly related to the profitability index, F(2,94) = 2.91, p < .001, adjusted R2 = .06. The sample multiple correlation coefficients were .24, indicating approximately 6% of the variance of the profitability index. The implications for positive social change include the potential to identify hospitality industry leaders involved in environmental management who have a CSR to promote social change in their communities.

Many companies recognize the importance of corporate social responsibility, but seek to understand how this can be harmonized with current profitability. This new approach draws upon many contemporary examples to show how to balance short term profitability with long term sustainability.

CSR encompasses broad questions about the changing relationship between business, society, and government. An authoritative review of the academic research that has both prompted, and responded to, these issues, the text provides clear thinking and perspectives on CSR and the debates around it.

Sustainability of Business in the Context of Environmental Management studies the newly emerged concept of ‘sustainable business’ in view of the growing Indian economy. It explores the current corporate social responsibility practices adopted with special reference to environmental management in Indian companies. The book compares the legal, financial, economic, industrial, and social behavioural aspects. Out of these aspects, industrial aspect in view of ‘environmental management’ is discussed in detail. It also explores the forces driving the changing relationship between business and society and corporate leadership reacting to environmental challenges. Finally, the book restates the concept of increasing profitability through societal development. Please note: This volume is Co-published with The Energy and Resources Institute Press, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

The decision to engage in corporate social action (CSA), and the debates regarding its costs, benefits and implications to corporate performance represent a demanding issue for scholars and managers. Research is inconclusive regarding the causal relations between CSA, corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP), despite numerous empirical and theoretical studies devoted to the issue. This book presents an in-depth study of corporate social action and the factors influencing a decision to engage in it. Going beyond the causal relationship between CSA and firm performance, the book stresses the link between CSA and a firm's core managerial policies and practices, reflecting the complexity and varied facets of CSA and the numerous internal and external factors that influence its outcomes. The book draws on the experiences of various industrial sectors to reveal the importance of a range of issues such as top management pay dispersion and ownership structure, which may influence the firm's decision to engage in CSA. It also explores some of the external influences on firms, such as institutional norms, the geopolitical environment and the industrial sector. The first part of the book provides an overview of the thematic issues of CSA and performance. The second part presents a series of empirical studies that examine factors and determinants of CSA. The third part presents case studies to illustrate the processes and outcomes of CSA policy and strategy in environmentally hazardous industries.

Everyone agrees that firms should obey the law. But beyond what the law requires-beyond bare compliance with regulations-do firms have additional social responsibilities to commit resources voluntarily to environmental protection? How should we think about firms sacrificing profits in the social interest? Are they permitted to do so, given their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders? Even if permissible, is the practice sustainable, or will the competitive marketplace render such efforts and their impacts transient at best? Furthermore, is the practice, however well intended, an efficient use of social and economic resources? And, as an empirical matter, to what extent do firms already behave this way? Until now, public discussion has generated more heat than light on both the normative and positive questions surrounding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the environmental realm. In Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms, some of the nation‘s leading scholars in law, economics, and business examine commonly accepted assumptions at the heart of current debates on corporate social responsibility and provide a foundation for future research and policymaking.

This dissertation approaches the question of sustainability and its influence on company performance, with special focus on the manufacturing industry. In the contemporary production environment, manufacturing operations must take into account not only profit, but also environmental and social performance, in order to ensure the long-term development of the company. Companies have to decide whether they should allocate resources to environmental and social practices in order to improve their competitive advantage. Consequently, in decision-making processes concerning operations, it is important for companies to understand how to coordinate profit, people, and planet. The objective of this dissertation was to investigate the current situation regarding manufacturers’ sustainable initiatives, and to explore the relationship between these sustainable practices and companies’ performance, including financial performance, operational performance, innovation performance, environmental performance, and social performance. First of all, a structured literature review was conducted to identify sustainable factors considered to be important in the decision making of manufacturing operations. The findings were synthesized into a conceptual model, which was then adopted as the basis for designing the survey instrument used in this dissertation. Drawing on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reports, empirical research was performed to explore the relationship between environmental management practices and company performance. Interestingly, the findings showed that many environmental management practices had a strong positive impact on innovation performance. Sustainability disclosures and financial performance were further analyzed using extended data from the GRI reports. The results also showed that several sustainability performance indicators, such as product responsibility, human rights, and society, displayed a significant and positive correlation with return on equity in the sample companies. In order to further explore the research area and to verify these findings, a triangulation approach was adopted and new data were collected via a survey conducted among middle and large sample companies in the Swedish manufacturing industry. The results indicated that the sustainable improvement practices had a positive impact on company performance. Some environmental and social improvement practices had a direct and positive correlation with product and process innovation. Furthermore, findings suggested that better cooperation with suppliers on environmental work could help to strengthen the organizational green capabilities of the focal companies. When considering the company’s general approach to implementing sustainable practices, some interesting findings emerged. There were limited significant differences in sustainable practices when comparing different manufacturing sectors, and different countries and regions. However, the results showed that Swedish manufacturing companies often place higher priority on implementing economic and environmental sustainability practices than on social ones. This dissertation contributes to the literature on manufacturing sustainability. The study expands the understanding of how environmental, social, or economic perspectives as a triple bottom line can influence company performance and to a certain extent the supply chain. Identifying and understanding such relationships gives companies the opportunity to integrate sustainability into their manufacturing operations strategy in order to sustain their manufacturing operations over the long term.