The Role of Corporate Digital Responsibility in Hospitality: Driving Enhanced Firm Performance and Perceptions of Justice

The hospitality industry faces growing consumer concerns about the ethical implications and fairness of digital technologies and data usage, as well as risks to data privacy. In light of these concerns, the concept of corporate digital responsibility (CDR) emerged as part of organizations’ responsibility to address digital-related issues. Overall, CDR seeks the ethical, fair, and protective management of digital technologies and data. While the concept has gained popularity among scholars, governments, and industry practitioners, there is still a lack of consensus on the conceptualization of CDR and its dimensions. Furthermore, there is a lack of empirical evidence of the potential effects of CDR on organizational outcomes such as firm performance and employees’ attitudes and behaviors. To address these critical gaps, the current study aims to conceptualize and propose a framework of CDR in the context of the hospitality industry. Additionally, two empirical studies are conducted to examine the role of CDR practices on firm performance, employee attitudes, and employee work-related outcomes. The purpose of Study 1 is to conceptualize CDR in the hospitality industry and test the effect of CDR practices on firm performance. First, based on a thorough review of existing CDR-related literature, this research conceptualizes CDR and proposes three main dimensions: digital ethics, data privacy and protection, and digital service fairness. These three dimensions and the literature review were used to develop a CDR dictionary. Then, dictionary-based text analytics and panel data analysis were conducted. The study analyzed CEO letters to shareholders and annual performance data from 24 hospitality companies from 1996 to 2023. While CDR practices related to data privacy and protection show a positive effect on firm performance, practices related to digital ethics and fairness do not have a significant effect on firm performance. The findings of the study suggest that firms' investments in CDR initiatives represent a tradeoff between potential costs and benefits. Study 2 examines the effects of CDR customer-oriented practices on employees' perceptions of organizational justice and subsequent work-related outcomes. In particular, this study uses a time-lagged design with a two-wave survey. Responses from hospitality employees in the US are collected and analyzed through PLS-SEM using SmartPLS4.0. The results show that employees' perceptions of organizational justice are positively influenced by CDR customer-oriented practices related to digital ethics and data privacy and protection. Conversely, CDR practices related to digital service fairness do not have a significant impact on organizational justice. In addition, employees’ assessments of organizational justice show a positive effect on job satisfaction, perceived job performance, and organizational trust. This study highlights the increasing importance of CDR practices in enhancing organizations’ relationships with employees and positively influencing their attitudes and behaviors at work.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Hospitality Administration

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Hernandez Calderon, Araceli

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lee, Minwoo

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Madera, Juan M.
• DeFranco, Agnes L.
• Park, Soyoung

• Hospitality industry--Management

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/19612

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/19612