A club perspective of sustainability certification schemes in the tourism and hospitality industry

Abstract

Drawing on club theory, this study examines the challenges and opportunities facing a sustainability certification program, the Green Key scheme, in terms of its recruitment and retention of members within the Dutch tourism and hospitality industry. Extant literature on sustainability certification in this industry tends to focus narrowly on motivations and retention problems at the firm level, or else on drivers of or barriers to the adoption of sustainability certification schemes. The links between scheme design characteristics and scheme effectiveness and their implications for recruitment and retention thus have remained relatively unexamined. To address this gap, this study proposes a theoretical framework that highlights how different design features of sustainability certification schemes might inform the recruitment and retention challenges that scheme managers often face.

Keywords:

• Club theory
• collective action sustainability certification
• hospitality
• scheme design
• tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See http://www.greenkey.global/history/.

2 See https://www.greenkey.nl/watisgreenkey.

3 For more details about the sample and data collection tools used, please refer to Table A1 in the supplementary appendix.

4 Please see supplementary data.

5 Please see supplementary data.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Ngawenja Mzembe

Dr Andrew Ngawenja Mzembe is a Lecturer in Sustainable Business at the Academy of Hotel and Facility Management, Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. He is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg’s School of Tourism and Hospitality in South Africa. Some of his research work has appeared in international journals and edited books in Business and Management.

Adam Lindgreen

Dr Adam Lindgreen is Professor at Copenhagen Business School where he heads the Department of Marketing. He is also Extra Ordinary Professor with University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science. Dr. Lindgreen received his PhD from Cranfield University. He has published in California Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Product and Innovation Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of World Business and Organization Studies, amongst others. He also has published 23 books.

Uwafiokun Idemudia

Uwafiokun Idemudia PhD is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Science, in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University, Toronto, Canada. He teaches in the International Development Studies and African Studies program. His research interests are in the area of Business and development, natural resource governance and Conflict and development. His recent book is tilted Africapitalism: Sustainable Business and Development in Africa (Routledge), and other works have appeared in journals such as Business Strategy and Environment, Environmental Science and Policy, Organization and Environment, and Natural Resources Forum.

Frans Melissen

Dr Frans Melissen is Breda University of Applied Sciences’ Professor of Sustainable Experience Design. He holds a PhD in industrial engineering and management science. His research focuses on the link between sustainable development and human behaviour, with special emphasis on mitigating the social dilemma by means of sustainable experience design. Frans is co-author of the books Co-creating experiences in Events, Tourism and Hospitality and Improving Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry. He has also published extensively in academic outlets on how to implement sustainability in the hospitality industry, as well as on how the hospitality industry could serve as a catalyst for sustainable development of wider society. Finally, he has developed the concept Sustainability Intelligence, together with Dr Lars Moratis, which could serve as a reference point for increasing the success rate of sustainability initiatives in various contexts.