The impact of ESG on hotel corporate reputation: the moderating role of casino operation

Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Despite the ample empirical evidence on the ESG-firm outcome relationship, the implication of ESG on reputation, specifically in the hospitality industry, remains underexplored to date. Therefore, this study examined the ESG-corporate reputation relationship with moderating effect of casino operation. Drawing on Signaling and Legitimacy theories, this study addressed the current research by applying a linear regression with panel data drawn from the Thomson Reuters Refinitiv and Compustat database to analyze data on 24 public hotel firms in the United States between 2002 and 2023. Specifically, the result reveals that: environmental performance decreases corporate reputation, social performance has no significant effect on corporate reputation, while governance performance increases corporate reputation. In terms of the moderating effect, this study found that: casino operation positively moderates the environmental performance-corporate reputation relationship while negatively moderating both social performance-corporate reputation and governance performance-corporate reputation relationships. Theoretically, this study extends ESG -corporate reputation literature by providing a logical discussion about how each dimension of ESG is related to building a strong corporate reputation. In addition, this study advances the ESG studies in the field of hospitality management by introducing casino operations as a moderator factor, highlighting how industry-specific characteristics shape the ESG-corporate reputation relationship. Practically, this study provides insightful implications for industry practitioners in comprehending the individualized effect of ESG on corporate reputation.
Description
Keywords
Casino, Hotel, Reputation
Citation