How Effective Are Asian Hotels in Communicating CSR Efforts Through the Property Websites? The Case of Hong Kong

Abstract

Among the areas in the field of hospitality, web-based CSR communi- cation has been rarely investigated. Prior studies have identified various CSR content provided on hotel websites, but have not evaluated web-based CSR com- munication performance based on usability factors and interactive elements. More- over, existing research focused more on Western-based hospitality organizations. Prior studies on Asian hotel industry have been minimal. This study was conducted to evaluate the web-based CSR communication practice in the Hong Kong hotel industry, and proposed a modified ICTR’s website evaluation model to evaluate the Hong Kong hotel industry’s web-based CSR communication performance. Results show that communicating CSR effort through the property website was not a popular practice among Hong Kong hotels and that international and local hotels tend to communicate CSR efforts through social media sites rather than through hotel websites. Most hotels in Hong Kong have poor overall performance in communicating CSR efforts through the property websites, especially the “Com- munication function” dimension, indicating that hotels in Hong Kong were not effectively communicating CSR efforts through the property websites.