Analyzing CSR's Impact on Customer Retention: Hilton Hotels, Australia

This report examines the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices on customer retention within the Hilton Group of Hotels in Australia. The study begins with an introduction to CSR and its importance in modern business, particularly within the hospitality industry. A comprehensive literature review explores the theoretical aspects of CSR and customer retention, including factors influencing both variables. The research methodology outlines the approach used for data collection and analysis, which includes both descriptive and inferential statistics. Data analysis reveals a positive correlation between CSR initiatives and customer retention, leading to the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis. The report concludes with a summary of findings, recommendations for the Hilton Group of Hotels, and suggestions for further research in this area.

Running head: CSR AND CUSTOMER RETENTION
CSR AND CUSTOMER RETENTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Abstract
The Corporate Social responsibility can be understood to be an essential part of the organization
and with respect to this, it becomes considerably important for the different firms as present in
the industry to ensure that, they are successfully be able to use it as a tool to meet the needs of
the different customers as present in the business environment. The given report can be
understood to be a research based on the overall impact of the corporate social responsibility on
the Customer retention in the Hilton Group of hotels. The study has followed a systematic
approach with respect to which, the Introduction has presented an overall background of the
paper. In line of this, the second chapter presents the overall Review of Literature, whereby the
theoretical aspects related to the Independent Variable of Corporate social responsibility and its
impact on the Customer retention which was taken as the Dependent Variable. The third chapter
laid down the Research Methodology followed in the paper. The fourth chapter presented the
overall Data analysis which was conducted with respect to the paper and helps in accepting the
Alternate hypothesis which means that the corporate social responsibility does have an impact on
the Customer retention in the hotel. The findings have been summarized and presented
successfully.

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Acknowledgements
This research was supported/partially supported by [Name of Foundation, Grant maker, Donor].
We thank our colleagues from [Name of the supporting institution] who provided insight and
expertise that greatly assisted the research, although they may not agree with all of the
interpretations/conclusions of this paper.
We thank [Name Surname, title] for assistance with [particular technique, methodology], and
[Name Surname, position, institution name] for comments that greatly improved the manuscript.
We would also like to show our gratitude to the (Name Surname, title, institution) for sharing
their pearls of wisdom with us during the course of this research, and we thank 3 “anonymous”
reviewers for their so-called insights. We are also immensely grateful to (List names and
positions) for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, although any errors are our
own and should not tarnish the reputations of these esteemed persons.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................7
1.1 Overview................................................................................................................................7
1.2 About the Hilton Group of Hotels in Australia.....................................................................8
1.3 Statement of the Problem.......................................................................................................9
1.4 Research Objectives...............................................................................................................9
1.5 Scope of the Research..........................................................................................................10
1.6 Limitations of the Study......................................................................................................10
1.7 Significance of the study.....................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: Review of Literature....................................................................................................13
2.1 Overview..............................................................................................................................13
2.2 Individual Variable : Corporate social responsibility..........................................................13
2.2.1 Factors affecting corporate social responsibility Practices...............................................14
2.3 Dependent Variable: Customer retention............................................................................16
2.3.1 Factors affecting Customer retention................................................................................17
2.4 Conceptual framework.........................................................................................................20
2.5 Critical analysis on the Impact of Corporate Social responsibility Practices in the
Hospitality Industry...................................................................................................................20
2.6 Previous studies...................................................................................................................21
2.7 Summary..............................................................................................................................21

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Chapter 3: Research Framework...................................................................................................23
3.1 Theoretical Frameworks......................................................................................................23
3.2 Conceptual Framework........................................................................................................23
3.3 Research Hypothesis............................................................................................................24
3.4 Operationalization of the Variables.....................................................................................24
Chapter 4: Research Methodology................................................................................................27
4.1 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................27
4.2 Research Approach..............................................................................................................27
4.3 Research design...................................................................................................................28
4.4 Data collection and Analysis...............................................................................................28
4.5 Sampling and survey strategy..............................................................................................29
4.6 Reliability and Validity........................................................................................................29
4.7 Ethical consideration...........................................................................................................30
Chapter 5: Data Analysis and Results...........................................................................................32
5.1 Overview..............................................................................................................................32
5.2 Descriptive Statistics...........................................................................................................32
5.3 Inferential Statistics.............................................................................................................36
5.3.1 Correlation Analysis.........................................................................................................36
5.3.2 Regression Analysis..........................................................................................................41
Chapter 6: Conclusion, Recommendations and Findings..............................................................45

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6.1 Summary of findings...........................................................................................................45
6.2 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................46
6.3 Recommendations................................................................................................................46
6.4 Further Research..................................................................................................................47
References......................................................................................................................................48
Appendix........................................................................................................................................52

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Chapter 1

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Overview
Belal (2016) states that there is a general perception around the business environment
which states that the different businesses have a crucial role to play in the society and hence, the
main goal of the business lies to go beyond the profit making objective and also focus on the
benefit of the society as a whole. The concept of the Corporate Social responsibility has changed
considerably and earlier where it was looked upon as a wishful contribution which was required
to be made by the business to the society as present, it has now become compulsory for all the
businesses to undertake a considerable participation in the scope of their operations and thereby
contributor to the society (Crowther & Seifi, 2018). The corporate social responsibility as
undertaken by the business will go a long way in ensuring that the business will be successful in
the long run and that, the firm will be successfully able to create a better image of itself in the
eyes of the different customers, suppliers, employee , government and the other stakeholders as
present. In line of this, the importance of the environmental aspect is heightened and the triple
bottom line approach is generally focused on (Al-Tit, 2015). There exists various hotels around
the globe which have been able to undertake considerable initiatives in order to undertake
considerable corporate social responsibility activities, however, out of these, the Marriott
International can be understood to be a hotel which has been able to undertake considerable
activities which thereby contribute to the overall society as a whole. There are other hotels as
present like the Kempton Hotels, Hilton Worldwide and the Wyndham Worldwide (Chernev &
Blair, 2015).
This is the reason why the different organizations are often inclined towards publishing
the corporate social responsibility reports which will ensure that the firm is able to maintain

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considerable transparency and in line of this, they will also be able to align the overall
competencies of the firm well with the different strategies of the organization (Chernev & Blair,
2015). Additionally, when the firm publishes a report on the Corporate social responsibility then
in such a case, they will be able to provide a complete exposure to the different stakeholders of
the organization and in line of this, they will also be able to ensure that, the different investors
who have funded the firm will be able to work for the welfare of the organization and in the
same manner, they will bring about considerable goodwill for the firm in the long run. Hence, it
can be mentioned that it is because of the reason that as hospitality industries are customer
centric and highly competitive in nature, it is crucial for them to retain and earn the goodwill
adequately which will help them to serve the customers in the right manner both at the good as
well as poor times (Belal, 2016).
Therefore, it is because of this that the research will lay down the different ways in which
the corporate social responsibility disclosure has had a considerable impact on the overall
operations of the firm and in a manner similar to this, the research shall be carried out.
1.2 About the Hilton Group of Hotels in Australia
The Hilton group of hotels can be understood to be a large group of hotel chains as found
around the globe and can also be considered to be an American multinational hospitality
company which is generally managed as a broad portfolio of resorts as well as related hotels.
The firm has its headquarters in Virginia in Australia and has above 5000 properties in 1100
countries around the globe (Hilton.com ,2019). The workplace has been ranked as one of the
happiest companies to work for as present around the globe and hence, in line of this, the
company has been appreciated for various characteristics like the culture of the company, the
work life balance and the relationship of the firm with the employees.

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1.3 Statement of the Problem
The reason why the given topic has been chosen as a topic of concern and why the
understanding of the impact of the Corporate Social responsibility on the business and customer
retention of the different hotels can be understood to be as crucial is because, it has an overall
impact on the profitability of the firm and hence, there can be understood to be a lack of research
in this domain. It is for this reason that, the research proposal will largely focus on the impact of
the corporate social responsibility on the operations of the firm and will have a special reference
to the Hilton Group of Hotels as present in Australia (Al-Tit, 2015). The different factors as
impacting the overall operations of the firm in line to the corporate social responsibility will be
analyzed and the manner in which the performance of the firm is greatly impacted by this
disclosure will also be discussed.
1.4 Research Objectives
The research objectives of the dissertation can be stated to be as follows:
 To understand the extent to which the Corporate Social Responsibility practices have an
impact on the customer retention in the hospitality industry with respect to the Hilton
Group of Hotels in Australia.
 To evaluate the extent to which the Corporate Social responsibility practices tend to
effect the customer retention in the hospitality industry with respect to the Hilton Group
of Hotels in Australia.
 To find the relationship between the corporate social responsibility practices which are
undertaken by the Hilton Group of Hotels in Australia and the customer retention

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 To provide certain recommendations to the Hilton Group of Hotels in Australia with
respect to improvement in the Customer retention practices which shall help them to
engage in long term success.
1.5 Scope of the Research
By undertaking the research, the paper aims to find the overall impact of the different
corporate social responsibility practices which are generally undertaken by the firm on the
overall operations of the Hilton Group of Hotels so as to determine the overall retention rate of
the guests as well as the customers who are visiting the hotel. The topic aims to find the impact
of the corporate social responsibility practices on the Customer retention of the hotels as present
and to find how the hospitality industry has been coming up with an example of the Hilton
Group of Hotels as present in Australia.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
The limitations of the study can be understood as follows:
 The example of all the hotels cannot be undertaken and the number of respondents can be
stated to be considerably limited in nature. In line of this, it is very crucial to understand
that, the sample size of 100 will not be enough to present a considerable number.
 Moreover, a limited number of journals as well business reviews will be analyzed which
will then lead to a limited approach with respect to the overall goals of the paper.
1.7 Significance of the study
As the hospitality industry is one of the most popular and profitable industries as present
around the globe, the economical footprint which the industry tends to create on the different
members of the society can be considered to be very strong and hence, they are essentially bound

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to engage themselves in corporate activities which shall bring about and concern the overall
welfare of the society. Moreover, the different initiatives as taken by the hotel will also instigate
the different customers to pay a premium price for the same and will assist the hotel to survive
the different seasonal demands as well as poor economic cycles. The new age customers are
considerably inclined towards the overall sustainability of the environment and these customers
have become quite environmental conscious which then enables them to pay more in order to
engage the hotels to engage in the sustainable activities.