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Amidst the technological era, sustainability in the hospitality sector is one of the most crucial aspects that need proper attention in the current scenario. In this respect, it can be stated that the hospitality industry is experiencing immense pressure which should be addressed to mitigate negative environmental impact and promote sustainability practices (Deloitte.com, 2024). This assignment revolves around the Marriott International Hotel Chain which is attaining various initiatives regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies that can be vehemently important for operating the business in a sustainable manner. Along with that, theoretical notions will be discussed to state how to maintain sustainability in the business of the hospitality sector.
Marriott International Hotel Chain is one of the well-recognised organisations in the modern hospitality sector across the world. With the help of the most potential portfolio, this organisation is offering high-quality services through approximately 8800 properties or assets in 139 nations (About Marriott International: Corporate Information, 2024). Apart from that, by the integration of 30 reputed brands, this organisation is providing several means to be related with the people who provide value to the organisation through witnessing a seamless experience. In this manner, the Marriott International Hotel Chain is expanding its business in the modern global business scenario.
Figure 1: Revenue of Marriott International worldwide from 1999 to 2023
(Source: Statista Research Department, 2024)
The revenue generated by Marriott International in the year 2023 was 23.71 billion U.S. dollars, as suggested by the Statista report (Statista Research Department, 2024). In addition to that, this organisation is committing to establish a sustainable and favourable impact so that the UN Sustainable Goals and 2025 Sustainability and Social Development Goals can be met in a systematic manner (Marriott.com, 2024). In this regard, the business leaders of this organisation have focused on the inclusion and diversity domain so that the business objectives of the mentioned organisation can be accomplished as well in the upcoming days.
The understanding of CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility represents the following of a business model which ensures the integration and alignment of environmental and social concerns within organisational operation (Xie, 2022). CSR activity is established with the belief that a business is responsible to fulfil their greater duty towards the society and environment rather than making profit and enhancing job opportunities. It enables organisational leaders to consider improving environmental and societal challenges with organisational support, activity and measures. The below mentioned figure represents a logical understanding of CSR and its different components.
Figure 2: Corporate Social Responsibility
(Source: Xie, 2022)
The exploration of the background knowledge of the Marriott International Hotel Chain represents the focus of the organisation in establishing the Serve 360 Initiative entailing Sustainability and Social impact goals (Serve360.marriott.com, 2019). The primary purpose of the Serve 360 initiative is to nurture the world, empower through diverse opportunities, sustain responsible operations and welcome human rights. As argued by Xie (2022) the CSR efforts of Marriott's are substantial and widespread and it is among the first companies in the hotel industry to consider adopting global diversity and inclusion, environmental concern and sustainability, disaster relief and many more. Among the four initiatives under Serve 360, only three initiatives have been critically analysed here to identify and determine their efficiency (Serve360.marriott.com, 2019).
Figure 3: Serve 360 CSR Initiative of Marriott Internationals
(Source: Serve360.marriott.com, 2019)
The CSR accomplishment related to the Nurture our World initiative Marriott International has played a crucial role in helping the guests, community and associates during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. POPȘA (2023) supports this knowledge by addressing the goal of the initiative to contribute 15M hours of volunteering service. Through serving 15M hours, 50% of the hour will be focused towards serving children and youth at risk of various disadvantages and 50% of its franchise hotel will be participating in community service activities (Serve360.marriott.com, 2019).
Other primary CSR activities related to this particular initiative of Marriott International represent enhancing community engagement, helping towards disaster relief and also performing coral restoration, rainforest protection and reforestation efforts. According to Dev (2024), the approach of preserving biodiversity and following such CSR initiatives represents the genuine commitment of an organisation towards nurturing and protecting the biodiversity of the planet.
Similar to nurturing the world, the empowerment through opportunity initiative of Marriott International is focused towards reducing the situation of unemployment in the job market by helping potential candidates and diverse individuals develop hospitality skills and opportunities and investing $35 Million by the year 2025 to achieve this goal (Serve360.marriott.com, 2019).
The approach of empowering individuals is prominent mostly among women, people with disability, diverse populations, youth, refugees and veterans. Adu-Gyamfi et al. (2021) support this by stating that established CSR initiatives for potential employees represent the action of an organisation concerned towards employees' career opportunities with the offering of training and development, conductive, positive and natural working environment and support in which all the category of people are included irrespective of their gender, age or ability.
According to Achmad & Yulianah (2022), the CSR initiatives or actions of a tourism organisation are established with the responsible use of natural resources which also promotes the necessity of positively influencing the socio-economic development of the community or society. This critical perspective justifies the responsible operation initiative of Marriott International as under the Serve 360 goal, the firm has focused towards reducing environmental footprints such as Water (15%), Carbon (30%), Waste (50%) and the achievement of 30% renewable energy by 2025.
Moreover, the achievement of sustainable certification, following sustainable building standards and performing responsible sourcing of food items and other essential resources locally justifies the approach of the organisation to sustain its responsible operation (Serve360.marriott.com, 2019). Cezarino et al. (2022) justify the perspective by arguing that the environmentally friendly behaviour of an organisation is known to stimulate the pool of CSR options and helps an organisation to be more responsible not only for the organisation but also towards the betterment of society.
With the objective of perceiving how the organisation needs to cope with sustainability measures so that this organisation can take a positive turn in achieving the business goals in the near future. In this respect, the Triple Bottom-Line Theory is inevitable since this theory argues that organisations should concentrate more on credible or responsible attitudes towards society and the environment (Shim, Moon, Lee & Chung, 2021). To add more, organisations need to look into the financial aspects as well since sustainable management techniques can be achieved with the help of profitability in contemporary society.
Figure 4: Triple Bottom-Line Theory
(Source: Miller, 2020)
Marriott International also regulates its business with the help of sustainable approaches so that its impact on the environment and society can bring forth fruitful results in the future. Simultaneously, innumerable benefits of internal competencies can be obtained by utilising triple bottom-line approaches in the present business circumstances (Masud et al. 2019). Thus, this theory can be helpful in portraying how environmental responsibility can be developed and preserved by this organisation.
On the other hand, Carroll’s Four-Part Model of CSR initiatives can be another significant notion that can be meaningful in describing how the organisation can influence responsibilities regarding CSR in contemporary society. In this context, four domains of this theory such as legal, ethical, economic and philanthropic responsibilities have been necessary in order to enhance the favourable impact on society as well as the environment (Moran, Chavez & Hubbard, 2019). This framework defines that the company needs to manufacture services or goods that are required in society. Thus, the company can improve its profitability and productivity and can maintain its competitive advantage in the upcoming times.
Figure 5: Carroll’s Four-Part Model
(Source: Thacker, 2021)
Along with that, Carroll’s Four Part Model has been imperative with the objective of analysing the corporate responses which are noteworthy in developing the strategic actions of the business in the current scenario (Narayanan, Wokutch, Ghobadian & O'Regan, 2021). Therefore, it can be asserted that by keeping in mind the labour laws and value for shareholders, the business can be administered in a proficient manner by Marriott International.
Based on the exploration of the Triple Bottom Line theory and Carroll’s Four-Part Model of Sustainability, the theoretical understanding entails the necessity of exploring the validity, effectiveness and results of the initiatives that Marriott International has established as its Corporate Social Responsibility (Serve360.marriott.com, 2019).
The result achieved from the first CSR initiative of Marriott International related to Nurture the World represents 2021 progress of achieving 6.3 Million Volunteer hours since 2016, 33.3% culminating in volunteer hours served towards youth and children and also 29.2% volunteer activities towards skill development (Serve360.marriott.com, 2020). However, each of the goals is behind schedule and has not met the 50% goal of the overall initiative.
Arguing against this result stated by Wang et al. (2020) represents that to be socially responsible and ensure to promote the betterment of society and the world altogether, hotel chains need to connect with the local community first before focusing on solving the collective challenge of employment, skill development etc. Thus, with the result of Marriott International on its first initiative, the evidence-based knowledge here justifies the unreliability and lack of validity of this CSR action and asks for its improvement to achieve the goal by 2025 (Serve360.marriott.com, 2020).
The result achieved from the second initiative which was focused towards empowering through opportunity, 2021 progress indicates an investment of $11.8+ million since 2016 and 45% job opportunity for a diverse population and women which states both initiatives are behind the track. However, by increasing the representation of people of colour and helping 21.4% of diverse people to hold higher job positions, this action is currently on track and progressing effectively.
Köseoglu et al. (2021) argue on this perspective by stating that the approach of achieving sustainable competitive advantage, considering the integration of diversity and inclusion policy enables an organisation to achieve an effective amount of social validation and support of the community with an improved brand image and responsibility.
In this context, though two of the actions are behind schedule, the effectiveness of the diversity and inclusion policy and practice of Marriott International is justifying its validity and effectiveness towards solving the challenge regarding the unemployment situation of women, youth, diverse, disabled and refugee population in the society (Serve360.marriott.com, 2020).
Critical analysis of the third initiative focused towards following responsible operation, the result of the initiative represents only a 4.7% reduction of water intensity, 0.30% source of renewable energy, 30% hotel achieving sustainable certification, and also behind schedule with the approach of connecting with local and community suppliers to perform sustainable sourcing (Serve360.marriott.com, 2020).
Yousaf et al. (2021) argue on this factor by addressing that environmental management initiatives are the driving force of an organisation’s CSR initiative and falling short of the expected EMI through CSR activity, can essentially generate a challenge for the firm towards sustaining its responsible organisational operation. The argument here essentially justifies the inadequacy and inefficiency of the CSR initiative of Marriott International (Serve360.marriott.com, 2020).
Figure 6: Nurture our World
(Source: Serve360.marriott.com, 2020)
To preserve the CSR accomplishment, the “Nurture Our World” initiative can be useful in enhancing the guidance to the community, guests and associates so that involvement of the community can be experienced in a skilful manner. In this regard, visionary leadership and managerial abilities have been necessary so that the subordinates of the organisation can focus on diminishing the adverse situations in administering the initiatives to attain beneficial results (Xu et al. 2022).
The leadership aspects can be responsible for shaping the behaviour of the employees so that the CSR framework can be maintained and employees can remain committed towards the development of sustainability approaches. Apart from that, to protect the biodiversity aspects, leadership strategies need to focus on investing a huge amount of money so that development in CSR strategies can be gained.
Figure 7: Empower through Opportunity
(Source: Serve360.marriott.com, 2020)
The focus on the reduction of the rate of unemployment in the modern scenario can be managed with the help of leadership aspects. In this regard, the organisation needs to look into the well-being of the employees so that the rate of unemployment can be curtailed and talented as well as suitable employees can be recruited for the betterment of the sustainable practices within the organisation.
Therefore, ethical leadership must be aligned with the employment strategies so that the opportunities can be obtained by the employees in a healthy manner (Fu, Long, He & Liu, 2020). Due to this reason, transformational and democratic leadership can be operated so that training can be provided to the existing employees and the new recruits as well.
Figure 8: Sustain Responsible Operation
(Source: Serve360.marriott.com, 2020)
Various researchers have opined that environment-friendly behaviour must be developed by the employees of the organisations so that the socio-economic enhancement of society can take place in a sustainable manner. In this respect, green and low-carbon development must be improved and administered in the improvement of the business aspects of the organisation since this initiative can be helpful in decreasing the negative influence in the near future (Mi et al. 2019). In support of that, some technical equipment must be incorporated so that unfavourable effects can be eradicated and the company can focus on the business goals that must be achieved to maintain the competitive advantage.
This assignment consists of how sustainable development can be attained in the Marriott International Hotel Chain in subsequent times. In this regard, the CSR strategies of the organisations have been depicted in this discourse. Theoretical concepts have been defined with the help of Carroll’s Four-Part Model and Triple Bottom-Line Theory so that how the CSR strategies can be accomplished in gaining a favourable impact can be illustrated. The validity and usefulness of the initiatives have been discussed as well. The recommendations have been portrayed with the help of which the organisation can concentrate on the business in recent times.
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Achmad, W., & Yulianah, Y. (2022). Corporate social responsibility of the hospitality industry in realizing sustainable tourism development. Enrichment: Journal of Management, 12(2), 1610-1616 https://doi.org/10.35335/enrichment.v12i2.447
Adu-Gyamfi, M., He, Z., Nyame, G., Boahen, S., & Frempong, M. F. (2021). Effects of internal CSR activities on social performance: The employee perspective. Sustainability, 13(11), 6235.https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116235
Cezarino, L. O., Liboni, L. B., Hunter, T., Pacheco, L. M., & Martins, F. P. (2022). Corporate Social Responsibility in emerging markets: Opportunities and challenges for Sustainability Integration. Journal of Cleaner Production, 362, 132224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132224
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Dev, A. (2024). Harmony in Practice: A Case Study Approach in Exploring the Intersection of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Stewardship. Journal of Law and Legal Research Development, 13-19 https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1662360
Empower Through Opportunity- CSR. Marriott. (2024a). https://serve360.marriott.com/empower/
Fu, J., Long, Y., He, Q., & Liu, Y. (2020). Can ethical leadership improve employees’ well-being at work? Another side of ethical leadership based on organizational citizenship anxiety. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 1478. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01478
Köseoglu, M. A., Hon, A., Kalargyrou, V., & Okumus, F. (2021). Hiring people with disabilities as a CSR strategy in the tourism industry. Tourism Analysis, 26(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.3727/108354220x15758302602547
Marriott.com, (2024). Home - CSR. marriott. (2024). https://serve360.marriott.com/
Masud, M. A. K., Rashid, M. H. U., Khan, T., Bae, S. M., & Kim, J. D. (2019). Organizational strategy and corporate social responsibility: The mediating effect of triple bottom line. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(22), 4559. doi:10.3390/ijerph16224559
Mi, L., Gan, X., Xu, T., Long, R., Qiao, L., & Zhu, H. (2019). A new perspective to promote organizational citizenship behaviour for the environment: The role of transformational leadership. Journal of Cleaner Production, 239, 118002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118002
Miller, K. (2020, December 8). The triple bottom line: What it is & why it’s important. Business Insights Blog. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-the-triple-bottom-line
Moran, A., Chavez, C., & Hubbard, E. (2019). Influential Article Review-Examining Carroll's CSR pyramid. American Journal of Management, 19(6). https://articlearchives.co/index.php/AJM/article/download/1419/1400
Narayanan, V., Wokutch, R. E., Ghobadian, A., & O'Regan, N. (2021). Toward a strategic approach to studying COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Strategy and Management, 14(3), 285-299. https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/43086/1/Covid_paper.pdf
Nurture our World - CSR. Marriott. (2024). https://serve360.marriott.com/nurture/
POPȘA, R. E. (2023). Importance of Sustainability in the Hotel Industry. Expert Journal of Business and Management, 11(2). ORCID: 0009-0007-8691-7811
Serve 360 2022 report. (2022). http://serve360.marriott.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Marriott-2022-Serve-360-ESG-Report-accessible_F.pdf
Shim, J., Moon, J., Lee, W. S., & Chung, N. (2021). The impact of CSR on corporate value of restaurant businesses using triple bottom line theory. Sustainability, 13(4), 2131. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042131
Statista Research Department (2024) Marriott Revenue Worldwide 2023, Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/266279/revenue-of-the-marriott-international-inc-hotel-chain/#:~:text=Global%20hotel%20giant%20Marriott%20International%20generated%20approximately%2023.71,global%20travel%20restrictions%20severely%20impacted%20the%20hotel%20industry.
Sustainability & Social Impact Goals. (2019). https://serve360.marriott.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Serve-360-goals-page-tabloid_2-updated-20180916-English.pdf
Thacker, H. (2021, March 25). Understanding the four levels of CSR. The CSR Journal. https://thecsrjournal.in/understanding-the-four-levels-of-csr/
Wang, C., Hu, R., & Zhang, T. (Christina). (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility in international hotel chains and its effects on local employees: Scale Development and empirical testing in China. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, 102598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102598
Xie, Y. (2022). Corporate Social Responsibility: Concept and cases. Proceedings of the 2022 7th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2022). https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.220405.232
Xu, L., Mohammad, S. J., Nawaz, N., Samad, S., Ahmad, N., & Comite, U. (2022). The role of CSR for de-carbonization of hospitality sector through employees: A leadership perspective. Sustainability, 14(9), 5365. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095365
Yousaf, Z., Radulescu, M., Nassani, A., Aldakhil, A. M., & Jianu, E. (2021). Environmental management system towards the environmental performance of the Hotel Industry: Does Corporate Social Responsibility Authenticity matter? Engineering Economics, 32(5), 484–498. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.32.5.28619
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