THE IMPACT OF GREEN HOTEL PRACTICES ON PERCEIVED BRAND LEADERSHIP: MILLENNIALS’ PERCEPTION IN A POST-COVID 19 WORLD

Abstract

In today’s oversaturated market environment, many hotel companies try to differentiate themselves by establishing their own competitive advantages. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, hotels were little by little committing to green practices and recognizing sustainability as a key differentiator factor. However, the current crisis might slow down the further adoption of green policies and the progress on climate change. This might go against what millennials expect from businesses. Hence, if anything, the pandemic has reinforced their desire to push for a world in which corporations put people and the environment ahead of profits. This is a moment for branded hotels to adapt to consumers’ changing patterns and behaviours, and strive for achieving a leadership position. Consequently, the objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between the implementation of green hotel practices and millennials’ perceived brand leadership, including perceived quality, value, innovativeness and popularity in a postCovid-19 world. The theoretical framework clearly identifies six constructs for quantitative measurement. The online self-completion questionnaire, which is developed from the literature review, is conducted by 196 French millennials. Measurement instruments employed include Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results indicate that the implementation of green practices, assessed through millennials’ attitude toward sustainability, has a significant association with perceived quality, value, innovativeness and popularity. However, only perceived value shows to have a significant association with perceived brand leadership when green hotel practices are implemented. Perceived quality, innovativeness and popularity have no significant association with perceived brand leadership when green hotel practices are implemented.