Environmental competencies as a source of organizational performance, case of tourist accommodation structures in rural areas

Abstract

The contribution of the integration of sustainable development on the organizationel performance has been a major topic of debate for several years. This is the context of our research, which aims to study the effect of environmental skills on organizational performance. To do so, we have mobilized the theory of resources and competencies (RBV). We thus adopted a positivist epistemological position and a hypothetico-deductive reasoning. Within the framework of this research work, we focused on tourist accommodation establishments that are already committed to sustainable development and respect for the environment. For this reason, we selected tourist accommodation establishments that have been awarded the Quality & Environment label by the Rural Tourism Development Network (RDTR). We administered a questionnaire to all the establishments that had received the label. The data collected was analyzed by means of structural equations using PLS software. The results of this work show that environmental competencies have a positive effect on employee satisfaction, retention and motivation and on the efficiency of internal processes. However, the integration of these competencies has an indirect effect on financial performance and on customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, although the results of this research are consistent with research in other contexts, the limited sample hinders their generalization.

Keywords: Sustainable development, environmental competencies, performance, Resource BasedView, tourist accommodation, rural, quality and environment label.

JEL Classification : Q01 ; L25

Type of paper : Empirical research