Can external and internal corporate social responsibility contribute to green customer behaviour? The mediating role of green trust in hotels

Abstract

To date, hospitality literature has mainly used an aggregated measure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to assess hotels' green trust (GT) and green customer behaviour (GCB). The differential impact of internal and external CSR on GT and GCB is crucial as this may lead to different levels of impacts on hotels' environmental performance. This study investigates how internal and external CSR impact customers' GT and GCB. It also investigates how GT mediates the relationship between internal and external CSR and GCB. Using survey data from 304 customers from eight green hotels in Manila and employing the PLS-SEM technique for analysis, the results show that internal and external CSR positively impact GT and GCB. Moreover, GT mediates the relationship between internal CSR and GCB, but not between external CSR and GCB. This study extends stakeholder theory and the theory of planned behaviour by providing novel insights into how customers' GT and GCB may differ in relation to internal and external dimensions of CSR.