环保与盈利:环境管理对酒店绩效的影响

Environment Protection and Profit: Impact of Environmental Management for Hotels Performance

环境管理对酒店绩效的影响越来越受到人们的关注。国外学者使用了不同的方法来研究其关系,但至今没有一个明确的定论。以"波特假说"为代表的学者认为,环境管理所带来的效益可以弥补环境管理所需的费用,并让酒店产品产生差异化,增加新的竞争力。然而,一些学者却认为,对环境管理的投入会减少酒店的利益和酒店的竞争力,因为其所节约的成本不足以弥补所要付出的费用。为了对这两种观点在实践中的表现进行验证,该文通过对广州高星级酒店的调查,获取第一手数据,借SPSS统计软件的相关功能,确定酒店环境管理对其绩效的影响表现。结果显示,酒店环境管理的投入越多,其对绩效的积极影响越明显。同时,酒店环境管理中的几个变量对酒店绩效存在着不同程度的影响,可得到酒店环境管理对其绩效产生影响的回归方程。最后,文章提出了一些建议及研究展望。

The impact of environmental practices on hotel performance is gaining more and more attentions from all over the world. Different methods have been employed to study the relationship between environmental practices and hotel performance, but the existing literature yields no conclusive results. Scholars represented by ＇the Porter Hypothesis＇ insist that the costs incurred by the environmental improvements may be offset by higher savings in others. Moreover, environmental management may also permit product differentiation. For example, a hotel which does a better job in reducing pollution and environment protection may probably increase the demand from environmentally sensitive consumers. Therefore, environmental practices can become a new competitive power. However, other scholars hold a negative view. They believe environmental practices will incur significant costs, thus reducing its profit and the capacity to compete. Although cost savings can easily be gained from environmental practices, the cost may exceed the savings to be derived from these practices. To test and verify these two points in the real world setting, this paper aims to examine the link between environmental practices and hotel performance in luxury hotels in Guangzhou. A factor analysis, a correlate and a regression analysis were run via SPSS. The analysis outcome showed that the measurement scale of hotel environment practices can be divided into two different aspects which are basic environment management behaviors with 13 measureable variables and advanced environment management behaviors with 8 measureable variables. Meanwhile, hotel performance can be measured through 8 soft indicators. In addition, according to factor analysis and reliability analysis, hotel environment practices consist of 3 extracted common factors （energy such as water and electricity control, environmental protection strategy and energy saving and resources recycling） representing 13 indicators while hotel performance contains 2 extracted common factors （direct hotel performance indicators and indirect hotel performance indicators） with expressions of 9 indicators. At last, the findings of correlate and regression analysis revealed that environmental practices have significant and positive influences on hotel performance in Guangzhou luxury hotel settings. In other words, the more hotels are devoted to environmental practices, the stronger positive impacts they will have on hotel performance. Relative regression equations were also provided. In detail, Y1 （direct hotel performance indicators） = 0.457＂H2 （energy such as water and electricity control） ＋ 0.265＂H3 （environmental protection strategy） ＋ 0.221＂H1 （energy saving and resources recycling）; Y2 （indirect hotel performance indicators） = 0.326＂H1 （energy saving and resources recycling） ＋0.240＂H （environmental protection strategy） ＋ 0.105＂H2 （energy such as water and electricity control）. Consequently, energy such as water and electricity control acts a key role in hotel direct performance, whereas it has a much less influences on hotel indirect performance. In reality, effective energy controlling is the most fundamental, immediate and workable means to execute cost saving which might also negatively affect guests＇ in-h0use experience and bring inconveniences. After discussing the findings, recommendations to hotel management are provided to help take advantage of environmental practices to achieve better hotel performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are further outlined. Limitations and future research suggestions are also discussed in this paper.