in general and businesses operating in the tourism industry in particular in a competitive environment, with the remaining characteristics of a developing economy.
5.3. Management implications
The test results show that the impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate reputation (H1) is the strongest, then the impact level gradually decreases in the following order: Green marketing strategy on business results (H3); Corporate reputation on business results (H5); Corporate social responsibility on green marketing strategy (H6); Green marketing strategy on corporate reputation (H2); Corporate social responsibility on business results (H4). Thus, businesses understand that implementing social responsibility and green marketing strategy is very important. Therefore, the thesis suggests some management implications for travel and tourism businesses.
5.3.1. Travel and tourism businesses need to fulfill their social responsibilities well.
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Visser (1991) mentioned in the pyramid of social responsibility that for businesses in developing countries, they understand that implementing social responsibility to increase their reputation, highlight their image, is more charitable than for the purpose of business results. However, this study explores the strong impact of responsibility on business reputation (hypothesis H1) and social responsibility on business results (hypothesis H4); that shows that tourism businesses in Vietnam all know and perceive the importance of social responsibility. This result suggests that tourism businesses need to pay more attention to social responsibility in designing and implementing tourism products.
Firstly, travel and tourism businesses organize responsible tourism activities through the following specific activities:
- Respect, protect and make optimal use of natural resources, natural heritages and biodiversity at the destination.
- Preserve and develop tangible and intangible cultural heritages and traditional values in the locality.
- Carry out charity projects and social activities for the community.
- Efficient use of resources at the destination.
These activities not only contribute to protecting the economic, cultural and social environment but also educate and raise awareness among stakeholders and create memorable travel experiences for visitors.
Second, tourism businesses need to raise awareness and responsibility towards stakeholders participating in the tourism product value chain.
The social responsibility of travel and tourism businesses is also demonstrated through ensuring the safety of tourists, the rights of employees and local people. This is also an essential task to promote travel and tourism businesses to achieve business efficiency. It is this concern that businesses have created trust for stakeholders, which will increase the reputation of the business.
Travel and tourism businesses need to be proactive in building their reputation through responsible behavior towards stakeholders including tourists, employees, local people and local authorities. To build their reputation, in addition to quality criteria, businesses need to focus on the diversity and richness of products for tourists, especially integrating social responsibility in the design and implementation of tourism programs. This is one of the solutions to increase the differentiation of tourism products compared to competitors, creating strengths for the business. In addition, travel and tourism businesses need to guide tourists on how to behave appropriately with the local community and culture, limiting cultural conflicts at the destination, so as not to affect the business's reputation.
Travel and tourism businesses need to pay attention to their staff, especially those who directly serve tourists because they are one of the important factors in satisfying customers and other stakeholders. Taking care of and satisfying tourists
The staff will create "brand ambassadors" for the business, contributing to building a good image in the public, attracting potential customers. Therefore, whether the business can build and maintain its reputation or not depends on this core team.
In short, implementing social responsibility and building and maintaining reputation are important business strategies that businesses in the tourism industry need to invest more in the coming time. These activities will help businesses create competitive advantages in the industry, ensure sustainable tourism business in terms of economy, culture, and society; create long-term benefits and have reasonable sharing with stakeholders.
5.3.2. Travel and tourism businesses need to aim for green marketing strategies.
The research results show that tourism businesses today have identified green marketing strategy as an important strategy that brings business reputation (hypothesis H2) as well as business results (hypothesis H3). Therefore, tourism businesses need to focus on developing the “green” aspect in their marketing strategy, paying special attention to products, distribution, promotion and people.
- Green products: Tourism is a smokeless industry but a comprehensive industry, so the impacts of tourism on the economy, culture, society and environment are not small. Tourists are also increasingly concerned about the environment. Therefore, to meet the requirements of development and the needs of tourists, businesses can focus on types of tourism that aim to protect the environment, overcome the consequences of climate change, especially using services that use renewable energy, save electricity and water at accommodation facilities. Tourism products need to promote natural and cultural heritages, and be environmentally friendly. Businesses guide tourists to protect the environment when participating in tours to build special tourism products about cleaning the environment.
- Green distribution: Building a green distribution channel is necessary for travel and tourism businesses because it not only minimizes environmental damage but also contributes to informing and promoting environmental protection awareness to tourists. In addition to building a convenient and easy-to-access branch and agency system for tourists; travel and tourism businesses need to strongly apply information technology in sales activities. Tourists do not necessarily have to go to the store, they can sit at home or in the office, use electronic devices connected to the internet or smartphones to book services for a travel itinerary. Therefore, travel and tourism businesses need to upgrade and regularly update tour information, promotional programs, and business activities on the website.
- Green marketing: With the rapid development of the internet and the spread of the 4.0 industrial revolution, travel and tourism businesses also need to adapt to new ways of communication and advertising. Travel and tourism businesses need to invest in designing and producing communication and promotional content in the form of images and video clips about destinations, hotels, main activities of the journey... to help tourists visualize the most specific way about the services provided. In particular, using Visual Content Marketing allows tourists to experience destinations using Virtual Reality technology. Travel and tourism businesses cannot ignore the importance of advertising on popular social networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Youtube..., posting clips promoting Vietnamese tourism on this channel, although it is an unofficial communication channel, it is effective and global.
- Green people: Arseculeratne and Yazdanifard (2014) argue that to establish a positive image with green consumers, travel and tourism businesses need to conduct market research to identify specific customer needs and guide tourists to use environmentally friendly products. To do this in the current context, travel and tourism businesses need to access digital technology and big data sources because digital platforms help businesses to hold all customer resources and know which stage they are in.
which segment and have the appropriate approach. Identified travelers will be stored and “reused” for the next time. An important thing to attract travelers in the technology age is to listen to their feedback and spread third-party reviews on large travel communities on social networks, as well as spread information on reputable domestic and international travel sites.
5.3.3. Travel and tourism businesses with different types of business and different scales will focus on different factors.
The ultimate goal of businesses is business results. The results of the model after being tested according to the multi-group structure have obtained important meanings for tourism and travel businesses to refer to. Specifically:
- Enterprises with a business type specializing in domestic tours believe that business results will increase when the enterprise has a green marketing strategy; business reputation and social responsibility. Enterprises with the main business type being inbound tours will focus on green marketing strategies to increase business results. Enterprises with the main business type being outbound tours will focus on green marketing strategies and business reputation to increase business results.
- Micro-sized enterprises believe that enterprises with green marketing strategies will increase business results. Therefore, micro-sized enterprises need to invest in building green marketing strategies, especially applying 4.0 technology as a way to help micro-sized enterprises reduce costs compared to traditional marketing to increase higher spread.
- For small businesses, green marketing strategies and corporate reputation will help increase business results. As for medium-sized businesses, in addition to the two factors as small businesses, they also show that implementing social responsibility also affects business results. Thus, for businesses that have begun to assert themselves in the tourism industry, in addition to green marketing strategies to attract tourists,
Customers, businesses need to focus on implementing social responsibility and building reputation. When businesses implement social responsibility, it will increase business reputation.
5.4. Limitations of the thesis and future research directions
The thesis has solved the research objectives set out in chapter 1, however, there are still some limitations that can suggest future research directions as follows:
- The proposed research model is based on the research gap after the theoretical overview and related studies. However, this thesis has only been tested in the context of the tourism sector, so this model is not universal. Further studies can apply the model and test it on data from many other service industries to complete the theoretical model of social responsibility and green marketing strategy in the service sector.
- The construction of a scale for the concepts of corporate social responsibility, green marketing strategy, corporate reputation, and business results based on stakeholders is rare and necessary. Therefore, further studies can continue to improve this scale.
LIST OF AUTHOR'S PUBLISHED RESEARCH WORKS RELATED TO THE THESIS
1. Thi Thanh Van Nguyen & Thien Duy Nguyen, 2020. The Relationship between Green Marketing Strategy, Corporate Reputation and Business Performance: An Empirical Investigation in Tourist Companies in Vietnam. International Research Journal of Advanced Engineering and Science, 5(2):20-24.
2. Nguyen Thien Duy, 2019. Evaluation of social responsibility, reputation and business performance of travel and tourism enterprises. Journal of Finance , 5(1): 152-154.
3. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van & Nguyen Thien Duy, 2018. Put Forth a Conceptual Model about Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism in Ho Chi Minh City. 4 th International Conference on Green Technology and Sustainable Development. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam November 23-24, 2018. (ISBN 978-1-5386-5125-4).
DOI: 10.1109/GTSD.2018.8595584
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