Hospitality that cares: A qualitative investigation into small foodservice businesses’ social responsibility

TOMASELLA, Barbara, ALI, Alisha and GILL, Devi (2023). Hospitality that cares: A qualitative investigation into small foodservice businesses’ social responsibility. Current Issues in Tourism.

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Abstract

This study adopted Spence’s (2016) theorization of small business social responsibility (SBSR) to investigate how small hospitality foodservice businesses express and implement their social responsibility through prioritization of their key stakeholders. Using an abductive research methodology, 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted with small foodservice businesses located in Sheffield, UK. The findings revealed that these businesses exhibited 3 distinct types of business orientation, growth, value, and social entrepreneurship, which led to different interpretations and expressions of their SBSR. Prioritization of employees was important to these small businesses as they are crucial pivots of the service experience and important in the implementation of their SBSR. This study has evolved the SBSR understanding for hospitality businesses, which enriches the corporate social responsibility (CSR) scholarship by encompassing a better understanding of how small businesses prioritize different domains of responsibility in their interpretation of SBSR, through explaining the influential role of business orientation. The findings can support new and existing small hospitality business owners in making purposeful organizational changes.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1503 Business and Management; 1505 Marketing; 1506 Tourism; Sport, Leisure & Tourism; 3506 Marketing; 3508 Tourism; 4406 Human geography
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2023.2214849.
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Elements
Depositing User:	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited:	23 May 2023 10:43
Last Modified:	31 May 2023 13:59
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/31914

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