The Impact of Top Management’s Environmental Attitudes on Hotel Companies’ Environmental Management

This study integrates the environmental attitude–behavior theory and the upper echelons theory to examine hotel companies’ environmental behavior. This study hypothesizes that top managers’ environmental attitudes have a positive effect on perceived advantages of the environmental program, which in turn leads to hotel companies’ involvement in environmental management. An online survey brought responses from 206 top managers (e.g., general managers, owners, CEOs, presidents, etc.) in U.S. hotels. The contact information of the participating hotels was taken from the websites of 11 state lodging associations in the United States. The results of structural equation modeling indicate that top managers’ perceived advantages, derived from environmental management, mediate the proposed relationship. In other words, top managers’ environmental attitudes influence hotels’ environmental management activities through perceived benefits of the environmental program. Managerial implications are discussed based on the study results.