Sustainability Management from a Behavioral Perspective in Hospitality and Tourism

Submit your paper here

Introduction 

Sustainability has become a crucial issue in the hospitality sector due to growing concerns about environmental degradation, resource depletion, and social inequality (Ben Youssef and Zeqiri, 2022; Karatepe et al., 2022). The hospitality and tourism industries are significant contributors to global carbon emissions, waste generation, and water consumption (Karatepe et al., 2021). Moreover, they are highly dependent on natural resources such as food, energy, and water and are vulnerable to climate change impacts such as extreme weather events and sea-level rise.
In response to these challenges, various stakeholders such as customers, employees, investors, and regulators, have called for more sustainable practices in hospitality and tourism (Gössling and Lund-Durlacher, 2021). Sustainable management refers to the adoption and implementation of practices that reduce the negative environmental and social impacts of hospitality operations, enhance the well-being of stakeholders, and contribute to the long-term viability and resilience of the industry.

Although the significance of sustainable management in hospitality and tourism has been acknowledged, behavioral research remains limited. Behavioral perspective is the study of human attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior in organizational and social settings (Masson and Fritsche, 2021). The behavioral viewpoint acknowledges that sustainable management is not merely a technical issue, but also a social and psychological one including the motivation, involvement, and communication of stakeholders (Sapiains et al., 2016). Thus, this special issue aims to address this gap by investigating how employees and customers in the hospitality tourism industries may promote sustainable management practices.

This special issue invites contributions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, such as organizational behavior, human resource management, marketing, and consumer behavior, to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms and factors that influence sustainable practices in hospitality and tourism. The special issue also seeks to emphasize the challenges and possibilities associated with the implementation of sustainable practices in hospitality and tourism, particularly in the context of various stakeholder expectations, resource restrictions, and legal mandates.

List of topic areas •    Topics: The special issue invites original research articles, reviews, and case studies that explore the following topics (but not limited to): •    Green and nongreen work outcomes of employee participation in sustainable practices, •    Green human resource management practices (e.g., green job design, green recruitment, green training and re-training, green rewards) and its role in enabling employees to engage in sustainable practices, •     Factors facilitating or impeding customer participation in sustainable behaviors, •    Green personal resources (e.g., green passion, environmental self-identity, green values) and green employee behavior, •    Mechanisms underlying the link between management commitment to the ecological environment and green employee behavior, •    Green corporate culture, sustainable management techniques, and green competitive advantage, •    Green leadership (e.g., green inclusive leadership, green servant leadership, green transformational leadership) and its role on employee behaviors and sustainable practices, •    Green and nongreen work consequences of green leadership participation in sustainable practices, •    Destructive leadership and employee participation in sustainable behaviors, •    Stakeholder participation and sustainable management practices, •    Technology, digitalization and sustainable management practices, •    Technology-enabled sustainable practices and their potential outcomes, •    Dark side of sustainability such as greenwashing, •    Sustainable management practices during crises and disasters, •    Sustainable management practices, social media, and customer participation,  •    Eco-guilt and eco-shame, and their role in facilitating or impeding pro-environmental behaviors and practices, •    Sustainable management practices and middle-class consumer preferences regarding green products and services, and •    Generation Z and employee engagement in sustainable behaviors and practices.

Guest Editors 

Osman M. Karatepe, Eastern Mediterranean University, Türkiye, [email protected]

Muhammed Farrukh,  Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, China, [email protected] 

Elisa Rescalvo-Martin, University of Granada, Spain, [email protected]

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Author guidelines must be strictly followed. 

Submit via ScholarOne

Author Guidelines 

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions (if agreed with publisher): 01/06/2024
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30/09/2024