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The term “carbon footprint” emerged during the early 2000s, but many hotels remain unaware of what they should do to implement a comprehensive programme to reduce carbon footprint despite having some environmental measures. This study aims to investigate the barriers to reducing hotel carbon footprint and to explore why many hotel managers remain bystanders.

In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with hotel executives to understand what hinders hotels’ implementation of comprehensive programmes to reduce their carbon footprint. The NVivo 11 software package was used to organise data and code the transcribed interviews to identify patterns and themes.

The findings identified several main barriers. They were (1) a lack of understanding, (2) a lack of owner initiative, (3) difficulty with measurements, (4) a lack of stakeholder coordination and support, (5) a lack of a strong mediator, (6) balancing interests and (7) risky investment. The findings of this study suggest some specific strategies for overcoming these barriers.

The study sample was restricted to the Hong Kong hotel executives interviewed; therefore, the findings will not reflect the full picture of managerial perceptions. Drawing on the foundations laid by this study, researchers could collect quantitative data from hotels in other countries to conduct a cross-cultural study.

Very few studies have investigated barriers to carbon-footprint reduction programmes. Specifically, none have been published in the hotel environmental management literature. This study represents a preliminary step towards understanding the barriers that prevent hotels from implementing the programmes.

The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise 149 hospitality-related studies published in the past two decades pertaining to environmental management (EM). The review was divided into three main stages: 1993-1999, 2000-2009 and 2010-2014 and provided future research directions.

The study sample consisted of articles published between 1993 and 2014 in four leading hospitality journals. The four journals chosen were the International Journal of Hospitality Management, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. The title, abstract and the content, as needed, of all EM-related full-length articles from these four journals were content analysed. Editors’ notes, book reviews, industry news, conference papers and research notes were excluded from this paper.

EM research in the hospitality industry during the first two stages focused on the development of environmental policies and practices, green consumerism, managers’ environmental attitudes, indoor air quality and smoke-free environments, sustainable development, environmental performance, environmental cost control and environmental management systems (EMSs). During the third stage from 2010 to 2014, topics about environmental benchmarking and indicators have surfaced. Notwithstanding this, EM in the environmental reporting, and green marketing have been pursued less enthusiastically.

Compared with the mainstream management literature and considering the future development of EM, hospitality scholars are encouraged to extend their research to include green marketing, environmental technologies, environmental reporting, carbon footprint, employees’ green behaviour, the effects of EM on hospitality firms’ stakeholders and small- and medium-sized hospitality firms. In addition, more effort should be spent on developing hospitality-specific theories for EM.

Little has been done to determine the main research agendas in hospitality EM. A review of recent research on this topic provides an inventory of existing knowledge and points out areas requiring further knowledge exploration.

Hong Kong has experienced an average annual growth in final energy consumption of 4.7 per cent over the last ten years. An initiative being undertaken by a small number of government and commercial organisations is to limit their own consumption of electricity through performance contracting. Performance contracting is essentially a partnering process, where a client organisation partners with an energy management firm to identify and achieve energy savings for the client organisation. The research undertaken for this project has identified a number of factors that are considered to affect the success of performance contracting in Hong Kong. In a survey of practitioners, who have experience of performance contracting, some of the key benefits of this approach identified include the fact that there are substantial energy cost savings to be made. These savings are guaranteed by the partnering energy saving company and there are overall improved operational and plant efficiency gains. Key requirements for the success of such schemes include the setting‐up of an agreed energy baseline against which to measure results and human factors such as commitment to the enterprise at all levels of the organisation and trust between the co‐operating organisations. The paper expands the discussion on the benefits, obstacles and necessary ingredients for performance contracting that are likely to be applicable not just to Hong Kong but to the successful implementation of any such scheme.

Water heating is one of the major energy‐consuming operations in the lodging sector. The purpose of the current study is to estimate the energy consumed and emission associated with hot water usage, to predict the energy cost required under different hot water systems in hotels; and to create a model for the decision‐making criteria in selecting hot water systems.

A total of 24 hotels, which use heat pumps as their main water heating systems, were investigated. A tailor‐made model for estimating the energy requirement of the water heating system was employed. Comparative studies on the energy consumption and energy costs of various types of water heating systems, including heat pumps, diesel boilers, gas boilers, and electric boilers, were conducted. Moreover, an analytic hierarchy process was used to analyze hoteliers' and lenders' selection criteria for water heating facilities.

The energy output for water heating by heat pumps was estimated at 15 GW in the lodging sector. The use of heat pumps can achieve substantial energy savings and reduction of air pollutants when compared with the energy requirements under conventional boilers. The latter accounts for 13 percent of the hoteliers' total decision weight on choosing water‐heating systems. Whereas the air pollutants generated by gas‐fired boilers are remarkably lower than those emitted in the power plants due to the use of heat pumps. Both bankers and hoteliers consider seriously the energy saving potential of hot water supply by trucks.

Due to the small number of decision‐makers in hotels participating in the analytic hierarchy process, the result can only provide an indication of the overall picture of the selection criteria adopted by hoteliers.

The analysis provides hotel owners and managers with an objective and scientific investigation of the emission prediction and energy cost estimation based on the use of different hot water systems. Hotel operators and owners can use the analytical results as reference for making green purchasing decisions.

The current study, which is based on the operational experiences of existing hotels, is a collaborative work between hospitality industry practitioners and educators. It is also the first of its kind to indicate the emission impact of various types of hotel water heating systems and the perspectives of hoteliers and bankers on these systems.

The green marketing concept emerged in the late 1980s, and many hotels have since implemented a variety of green marketing strategies, such as the use of the “green hotel” label to project a green image and attract potential customers. However, some companies that have launched environment-based promotions have been accused of “green washing” by their customers. This study aims to investigate the gap between hotel manager and customer perceptions of the relative importance of green marketing-related activities.

Two sets of 30-statement questionnaires designed for hotel managers and customers were used to gauge respondents' perceptions of a variety of hotel green marketing-related activities. Independent samples t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine the significant differences between the ways in which hotel managers and customers rate the importance of these activities.

The two statements that gained the highest level of agreement amongst both hotel managers and customers were: “The internet is an effective channel for marketing a hotel's green initiatives directly to customers”; and “Green hotels can elevate industry members' image and reputation to attract green tourists who demand green accommodation when travelling”. Both also perceived: “The environmental claims in advertisements are often met with criticism from competitors and consumer organisations”; “Hotel customers are willing to pay a higher price for eco-facilities”; and “Customers are willing to pay a higher green price if part of the amount paid is donated to green activities” to be the three least important statements. The results also indicated ten over-perceptions and three under-perceptions amongst hotel managers, thus implying that they may require a better understanding of customer expectations. Several demographic differences were also identified. Female hotel managers and customers were found to be more concerned with green hotel products and a green image; hotel managers aged over 59 were found to have reservations about certain green marketing strategies probably because of service quality issues, although green supporters are in general older than average; younger customers aged between 20-29 become more concerned about environmental issues; and customers with a Master degree level of education or above challenged whether hotels are truly innovative in their development of green products and services and had reservations about the use of eco-labels.

The results of this study may not reflect the full picture of managerial perceptions of green hotel marketing, as the sample was restricted to hotels on the Hong Kong Hotels Association list. Researchers may thus wish to undertake further studies with larger hotel samples over a longer time period in future. Drawing on the foundations laid by this study, future researchers may also wish to investigate smaller, lower-ranked hotels, which may experience greater challenges in implementing green marketing strategies than those considered here.

Few studies to date have investigated green hotel marketing. The findings of this study can be viewed as a preliminary step towards greater understanding of green hotel marketing-related activities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the directors’ socioeconomic backgrounds on the risk-taking behavior of the listed commercial banks in China.

The generalized least square method and Arellano and Bover’s (1995) generalized method of moment were used to study the relationship between the directors’ socioeconomic backgrounds and bank risk-taking behavior. The sample studied consists of 16 listed commercial banks in China from 2003 to 2011.

It was found that smaller board sizes and higher percentage of independent directors contribute to lower risk-taking. The results also indicate that banks are better off with boards that have gender diversity, government affiliation and higher average age because they enhance problem-solving and market insights facilitate adherence to government or regulatory policies and help reduce the banks’ risks.

Future studies may consider including non-public-listed banks, pre-2003 data and analyses of the agencies to which the government-affiliated directors are or were attached.

The paper suggests that corporate governance reform initiatives with closely monitored implementation and phased liberalization contributed toward the banking industry’s resilience. Implications for management include that boards of directors with better quality, sufficient independence, gender diversity, government affiliation and maturity will help reduce risks.

This study may facilitate the decision-making for the bank management and policymakers on the selection of best directors in the Chinese banking sector. The Chinese banking system serves as a plausible role model for consideration, given that four of its banks have now leapfrogged to be among the top ten largest banking institutions after the global financial crisis.

The study covers a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds of the board of directors which are crucial in influencing the behavior of the board in banking operations.

The purpose of this paper is to bring consideration to the care receivers’ point of view when setting policies for the delivery of health services.

This paper briefly reviews the delivery of health services designed by the governing body in Hong Kong and China. It also looks into how the care receivers behave in the respective delivery system.

With different objectives and fundamentals, Hong Kong and China strive to improve the delivery of health services. However, there are issues which make the implementation of these improvements challenging. This paper looks into the care receiver’s concerns that impact the delivery of health services.

Provide areas for consideration when setting up health policy.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the scope, methodology and main findings of a doctoral thesis about the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in a major construction contracting organization in Hong Kong. This research is taken from a leadership and power and project management (PM) perspective.

The project adopted a case study approach in which the candidate was an employee/observer, who was embedded as a member of the business transformation team taking an action learning approach to study the ERP adoption. The research used the soft system methodology to identify gaps in the observed maturity level which exists in the organization. Data was gathered using public and private documentation, semi‐structured interviews, observation and was validated through review of evidence with participants.

The results identified the importance of leadership and cultural issues in implementation of the business strategy. This research includes a contribution in two spheres: PM and construction procurement. The first implication for PM theory was to illustrate how knowledge has been efficiently managed within a construction organization by using information communication technology (ICT). It can be represented by the ladder of ICT>ERP>KM>PM. The second implication was to pave the way for the use of partnering strategies in PM practice. It can be represented by the ladder of National Culture>Organizational Culture>Leadership>Partnering Strategy>PM.

This model could be adapted to other large and complex organisational contexts. The research project also has implications as opening up a PM perspective on business transformation.

The contribution of this research is proving the success of adopting KM in a construction company by using an ERP system. The importance of culture in the traditionally collectivistic construction industry, and the issues senior management should take into account when formulating business strategies.

Competitive advantage can be gained in several ways including gaining a knowledge advantage (K‐Adv). This paper sets out to report on the first stage of broad study to assess the effectiveness of implementing an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) from a knowledge management (KM) perspective.

The study used a survey of a small but representative group to gain feedback in their experience of using the ERP system. Results are evaluated using a KM framework, the knowledge advantage (K‐Adv) capability maturity model (CMM) tool that was initially developed for use by construction organisations to assess the impact of leadership and its supporting ICT infrastructure on the ability of people (by effectively creating, sharing, disseminating and using knowledge) operating in a highly dynamic business environment.

The K‐Adv framework analysis for the study indicates that the ERP system was seen as a useful tool for cost management and that its deployment effectiveness is mainly dependent on human‐to‐human knowledge transfer about how to make the ERP system work. Also, how leaders in organisations facilitate and support people is a critical enabler of the ERP system deployment. The K‐Adv CMM tool was useful in making sense of the degree of organisational maturity from a KM perspective.

The findings first highlight the usefulness of focusing on people‐support in using the ERP adoption in this organisation's context and, second, they illustrate how a CMM tool like the K‐Adv can be used to evaluate KM practices.

The likely effectiveness of use of an ERP is well‐known. However, the originality of the paper is twofold. First, it explains effective ERP application drivers and inhibitors from a KM perspective. Second, it tests and adapts a tool that helps evaluate KM effectiveness and assists better understanding of how these practices are enacted from a cost management business unit perspective.