Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Candice Hunter & Kevin Mearns
School/Work Place : University of South Africa
Contact : mearnkf@unisa.ac.za
Year : 2016
The world is changing into a place where broader spectra of responsibilities are now being embraced. A significant realisation has grown throughout the world that the Earth’s natural resources are scarce. Industrialisation and economic growth has provided worldwide prosperity. The increasing evidence of negative impacts caused by climate change has given rise to persistent environmental concerns, particularly caused by the global reliance on fossil fuels and limited energy and water supplies (Gummer & Goldsmith, 2007). There is vast evidence of devastating effects that humans have had on the environment (Schmidt-Traub& Sears, 2005). Economic development has also resulted in both positive (emergence of middle classes, better water and electricity supply, better transport systems and education) and negative social impacts around the world (high levels of poverty, youth unemployment, shortages of housing and other social resources). Protests against these negative social issues have encouraged institutional and corporate efforts to address environmental and social concerns, resulting in more organised interventions and incentives for people, companies and governments to change their behaviours and actions that are creating negative social and environmental effects. However, there is still a continuing need to address the environmental and social changes as humans are dependent upon the natural environment and its resources to achieve human development goals. All the environmental and social problems will have a direct effect on every human being around the world unless steps are taken to mitigate and reverse negative environment impacts. It is unsustainable to continue to ‘practice as normal’ focussing only on economic gains. It is crucial to look after the environment and society through changes in behaviours, practices and activities. “Sustainable development had a profound influence on the way people now perceive themselves as an integrated part of the environment: people are increasingly aware that their activities have a significant impact on the environment (Mearns, 2012: 7851).” A strong call for the implementation of sustainable development and triple bottom line reporting has been made. A new focus on companies’ environmental and social impacts have grown in the corporate world. Corporate impropriety resulted in calls for corporate transparency and accountability, which has led to the rising demand for corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting and sustainable development (Freemantle, 2005; Erlandsson & Olinder, 2009).  The triple bottom line, was enforced within the corporate world through several avenues. An influential aspect that has practically forced companies to implement the triple bottom line reporting in South Africa is the development of the King Code III on corporate governance. According to the code, all JSE listed companies are required to comply with the latest King code, incorporating sustainable development into their business practices (King Committee on Governance, 2009). With the pressure placed on companies to enforce the triple bottom line within their business practices, this has challenged companies to create a balance of economic, social and environmental priorities.  As a consequence to implementation of sustainability practices, sustainability reporting has become an important phenomenon amongst corporations. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a focus on corporate governance, especially with regard to sustainable development and sustainability reporting, also known as triple bottom line reporting (Aras & Crowther, 2008). This has had an influence on business activities and the way in which businesses report their activities.

List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
414 Think Tank XVI Volunteering and donations for biodiversity conservati... file 1111 Jul 01, 2016

In 2010, the newly elected government of New Zealand, of neo-liberal orientation, has adopted its Business Growth Agenda. This has been implemented through a series of legal, policy and organizational changes, affecting the governance of th...

Author: Valentina Dinica 

Year: 2016 

413 Think Tank XVI eTraining for Sustainable Tourism: Investing in Skills... file 1223 Jul 02, 2016

This proposed presentation examines the current state of “eTraining” opportunities (e.g. distance learning programs, online courses, live seminars) supporting professional skills development for tourism professionals, with a particular focu...

Author: Ayako Ezaki 

Year: 2016 

412 Think Tank XVI The moderating role of values in planned behaviour: th... file 1263 Jul 02, 2016

In the past five years, we (a group of researchers from the Leeds Becket University and the Open University of Catalonia) have been working on different studies about the CSR motivations, barriers and practices in tourism small and medium e...

Author: Lluís Garay, Xavier Font & August Francesc Corrons 

Year: 2016 

411 Think Tank XVII Finding and Fostering Our Future Tourism Leaders: Unde... file 1266 Aug 17, 2017

The hospitality and tourism industry is facing a serious skilled manpower shortage globally, and the best way to meet the manpower needs of the industry is through training and education. The shortage of skilled talent is a global issue in t...

Author: Grace K.S. Ho & Rob Law 

Year: 2017 

410 Think Tank XVII Lack of transparency - a barrier for the diffusion of ... file 1287 Aug 17, 2017

Throughout the last two decades, the tourism industry has changed due to the revolutionary development in the realm of information and communication technologies (ICT) (Amaro & Duate, 2013; Law et al., 2004; Minghetti & Buhalis, 2010...

Author: Sven-Olaf Gerdt, Elisa Wagner & Gerhard Schewe 

Year: 2017 

409 Think Tank XVI Certification for Sustainable Tourism in Germany – Ove... file 1306 Jul 02, 2016

Certification schemes for sustainable tourism can be seen as a key voluntary instrument to measure, verify and communicate the CSR management and performance of tourism businesses. Today a large number of such schemes can be found around th...

Author: Wolfgang Strasdas 

Year: 2016 

408 Think Tank XVI Can Tourism Businesses Foster Better Inclusion for Peo... file 1315 Jul 02, 2016

It is difficult to deny that despite its increased popularity, the concept of social entrepreneurship has not received a clearer understanding in a theoretical context. Zahra, Gedajlovic, Neubaum, and Shulman (2009) list 20 definitions of s...

Author: Kristof Tomej 

Year: 2016 

407 Think Tank XVI Examining Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism: ... file 1377 Jul 01, 2016

One of the biggest challenges facing the tourism industry and policy makers is the emerging and fast growing ‘sharing economy’. Keeping abreast of this, disruptive but potentially transformative phenomenon has been challenging for industry,...

Author: Stephen Wearing & Kevin Lyons 

Year: 2016 

406 Think Tank XVI United we stand, divided we fall: Strategies for engag... file 1409 Jul 01, 2016

Many tourism corporate responsibility programs require the support and/or compliance of guests or customers, yet little attention has been paid to the design of strategies to encourage this compliance. Research in the areas of tourist inter...

Author: Karen Hughes & Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2016 

OPA: 2016 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

405 Think Tank XVI Influencing sustainability through engagement in polic... file 1556 Jul 01, 2016

The ability of businesses to influence the sustainability of tourism development is generally examined from two standpoints: the regulatory frameworks requiring particular actions with respect to how business is carried out, or to clients; ...

Author: Valentina Dinica 

Year: 2016 

404 Think Tank XVI Reaching the hard to reach: CSR and employee engagemen... file 1578 Jul 02, 2016

As the duties and behaviour of organizations within the tourism industry evolve to accommodate expectations of pro-sustainable business change, so too does the role and responsibility of employees within these organisations. As key actors i...

Author: Kelsy Hejjas, Caroline Scarles & Graham Miller 

Year: 2016 

403 Think Tank XVI Empowering communities and enabling conservation: Revi... file 1597 Jul 01, 2016

The Africa Foundation a non-profit organization was founded in 1992 when Conservation Corporation Africa (since renamed and rebranded to &Beyond) was founded in South Africa. A central principle of the Conservation Corporation, safari l...

Author: Kevin Mearns 

Year: 2016 

402 Think Tank XVI Rural communities’ participation in the planning and m... file 1603 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Limpho Lekaota 

Year: 2016 

401 Think Tank XVI Spirituality and corporate social responsibility in to... file 1682 Jul 01, 2016

This ongoing study investigates the role of spirituality for corporate social responsibility (CSR) by tourism businesses in lesser developed countries and the implications this has at the destination level. While much of the world’s tourism...

Author: Alexandra Law, Putu Indah Rahmawati & Terry De Lacy 

Year: 2016 

400 Think Tank XVI New approach on creating shared value in corporate soc... file 1726 Jul 01, 2016

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) to manage environmental, social and economic impacts has been widely researched in tourism. However, there is criticism of the lack of non-western, local perspectives in tourism planning and management,...

Author: Gabrielle McGinnis & Tamara Young & Mark Harvey 

Year: 2016 

399 Think Tank XVII Making hotel guests voluntarily waive daily room cleaning file 1730 Aug 17, 2017

Tourism is the fourth largest economic contributor globally and outperforms the growth of the world economy (United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), 2013). But tourism growth comes at a cost. Not surprisingly, therefore, tourism i...

Author: Sara Dolnicar & Ljubica Knezevic Cvelbar & Bettina Grun 

Year: 2017 

398 Think Tank XVI The Influences of Hotel Contexts on Tourist Behaviour.... file 1753 Jul 01, 2016

Sustainability deals with the relation between people and their environment. The configuration of this connection and the communication between the two are decisive when talking about a socially acceptable, ecologically compatible and econo...

Author: Stefan Raich 

Year: 2016 

397 Think Tank XVI A study of innovation in the making CARMACAL and the D... file 1777 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Harald Buijtendijk, Jorine Vermeer & Juultje Blom 

Year: 2016 

396 Think Tank XVI Polar bears, Climate Change, CSR and Sustainable Tourism 1779 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Jeremy Pearce 

Year: 2016 

395 Think Tank XVI Responsible High Performance Sport Travel – Opportunit... file 1794 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Kerstin Heuwinkel 

Year: 2016 

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