Do quality and environmental management systems help hotels to achieve their financial goals ? : evidences from the Egyptian hotel industry

Abstract EN

The relationship bttween Quality Management (QM) and Environmental Management (EM) systems and corporate performance has traditionally been an important topic in the operations management literature.

However, only few studies have jointly analyzed these two management systems.

The main empirical contributions to this issue have focused first, above all, on the industrial sector and, subsequently, on some segments in the service sector (banks, retail, insurance), but have neglected the hotel and tourism sector, with a few exceptions.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify the degree of commitment of Egyptian 4 and 5-star hotels to QM and EM systems and to test whether those hotels most strongly committed to these two management systems are the ones which reach the highest financial performance levels.

A cluster analysis was performed to determine the levels of commitment to quality and the environment.

Then, ANOVA and regression analysis tested the QM and EM commitment level-perfonnance link.

Three levels of quality and environmental commitment have been identified.

These three levels have been classified as proactive, committed, and reactive.

The findings showed that the commitment to quality and environmental practices affects hotel financial performance.

Findings suggest that 5-star hotel companies can confidently and strategically increase QM and EM investment to enhance both short-teim and long-term performance.

For 4-star hotels, however, results showed that QM and EM systems' have no simultaneous or particular effect on financial performance