Toward the institutionalization of social sustainability

This study applies framework analysis to understand how hospitality and tourism organizations can institutionalize social sustainability as a recursive, capability-driven governance process. Drawing on an integrated framework of dynamic capabilities, institutional, and stakeholder theories, we analyze data from multiple workshops with hospitality and tourism managers to identify how firms embed social sustainability into organizational routines and systemic governance structures over time. The findings reveal a recursive process composed of four interdependent capability-building stages: Sensing (stakeholder knowledge acquisition and organizational learning), seizing (human capital development and inclusive workforce governance), transforming (community embeddedness and cultural co-production), and systemic collaboration (multi-actor governance integration and ESG accountability). The study contributes by integrating dynamic capabilities and stakeholder co-production, offering a model for institutionalizing social sustainability. • Models how hospitality firms institutionalize social sustainability • Links dynamic capabilities to institutional and stakeholder theories • Reveals a 4-stage recursive process for embedding social goals • Stakeholder co-production is a key microfoundation for capabilities.