Social Networks and Societal Strategic Orientation in the Hotel Sector: Netnographic Study

and Bilgihan 2013; Neirotti et al. 2016; Sthapit 2018; Sthapit and Coudounaris 2018).

Barreda and Bilgihan (2013) analyzed travelers’ reviews content from the TripAdvisor

site and recommend to hoteliers to improve their services and to enhance their brand

image by gaining knowledge from online comments. In a similar way, Sthapit (2018)

used CGC to explore the components which contribute to a memorable hotel

experience.

Based on the previous discussion, we wonder about the following questions:

1. What are the societal dimensions stated in the online reviews of German guests?

2. What are the connotations generated from the guests’ reviews?

3. What lessons to be learned by managers for marketing decision-making?

Our research consists of a netnographic study based on the Guests’ online com-

ments of a Tunisian hotel that has invested heavily in societal dimensions. The main

objective is to explore and analyze the main facets of a societal strategic orientation in

their verbatim.

2 Sustainable Development (SD) and Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR): Application to the Tourism Sector

The most notorious definition was proposed in 1987 by the World Commission on

Environment and Development (WCED). This commission proposes for the first time a

global definition of the SD concept: “development that meets the needs of the present,

without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs” (Thomsen 2013).

The concept SD is a macro concept and can be applied to the company. Thus,

managers are called upon to campaign for a balance between economic, social and

ecological objectives that are, a priori, divergent. Improving the well-being of the

community through discretionary practices (Kotler and Lee 2005); volunteerism,

obligations towards stakeholders, corporate citizenship (Pasquero 2007); consideration

of the positive and negative impacts of the company’s activities on society (Wood

1991, Gond and Igalens 2008) are examples that define the company’s societal con-

cerns for improving human health and quality of life based on societal practices.

The angle of analysis that has the most weighting in the concepts mentioned above

(sustainability, human well-being, ecological well-being, etc.) is based on an antici-

patory management that really integrates all kinds of impacts.

90

H. Koubaa and R. Jallouli

2.1

Sustainable Tourism

Brial (2011) told that “the volume of business in the tourism sector exceeds that of the

oil, food or automotive industries”. This shows the dynamic of the tourism sector and

the socio-economic progress it can generate.

Tourism contributes significantly to the creation of jobs and wealth for several

countries. It also generates relations between different actors and stakeholders such as

tourists, employees, the environment (the biosphere), tourism federations, the gov-

ernment, tour operators, pressure groups (Sautter and Leisen 1999; Imran et al. 2011).

However, tourism is consumer of scarce resources (water) and therefore competes with

the local community. It also contributes significantly to pollution (excessive energy

consumption and waste management problems) and therefore represents a source of

degradation of the ecosystem and biodiversity that can lead to sometimes irreversible

damage (Imran et al. 2011).

Combining tourism activities with sustainability becomes unavoidable and extre-

mely urgent, and this is not confined to a form or activity of tourism. UNWTO and

UNEP (2005)3 stressed the need to make all forms of tourism sustainable, including

mass tourism and all destinations. All forms of business and leisure tourism are then

concerned. In line with this reflection, sustainable tourism is expressed simply as:

“Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and envi-

ronmental impacts, meeting the needs of visitors, professionals, the environment and

host communities” (UNEP 2005)4. In a similar way, Jamrozy (2007) suggested an

integration of tourism into a holistic, sustainable, quality of life marketing approach of

living communities.

Sustainability aspects in the hotel industry are environmental, social and economic. As

part of the first aspect, waste management (reduction, sorting, recycling, recovery, etc.),

water management (reduction of water consumption, reduction of the polluting load of

wastewater, etc.), energy management (regular monitoring of consumption, etc.), acoustic

management (acoustic comfort of buildings, etc.), air quality and landscape integration.

As for the social aspect, it covers internal social processes (non-discrimination, equity

between employees, gifts to employees, etc.) as well as external ones (the prosperity of the

local community, cultural richness, support of local organizations, etc.). Finally, the

economic aspect concerns the contribution to the wealth of stakeholders.

2.2

Societal Dimensions

Under the prism of sustainability, hotel managers need to focus on CSR concept and

the integration of societal practices within their activities. Given the absence of

unanimous definition of CSR construct (Combes 2005; Whitehouse 2006; Matten and

Moon 2008), its contextual character (Maignan and Ralston 2002; Visser 2006) and the

difficulties about the implementation of societal concerns or sustainability aspects, our

research adopt a substitutable construct to CSR, which is considered more appropriate

to the hospitality industry.

3 http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/dtix0592xpa-tourismpolicyen.pdf (May 2016).

4 Ibid.

Social Networks and Societal Strategic Orientation in the Hotel Sector

91

In the tourism industry, Dodds and Joppe (2005) stated that “It is difficult to make

generalizations about CSR without first examining the context in which sustainable

tourism operates, its demand and also assessing the numerous certification schemes,

codes of conduct and best practices within the industry”. In the same line, Prud’homme

and Raymond (2016) showed why and how hotel managers proceeded to develop and

to implement a sustainable orientation, taking into account the contextual factors.

Drawing on a qualitative study of a Tunisian hotel5 in the MLchannel (Koubaa

2017; Koubaa and Triki 2017) and based on literature review, in particular Kang and

James (2007) research, the societal strategic orientation (SSO) construct has emerged.

SSO is a more adapted concept to the hotel industry. SSO was founded on the adoption

of an integrated management system (labels, quality certificates, etc.), a global

reflection of all

the hotel on the themes of “Quality-Safety-

Environment”.

the activities of

The SSO concept highlights the implementation of societal and sustainable prac-

tices by the hotel and thus measures the degree of orientation of the hotel in terms of

deployment and implementation of these practices.

SSO is consistent with the interests of all stakeholders, but in this paper, we focus

essentially on guest as an important stakeholder for the hotel. Defined as a multidi-

mensional concept, SSO integrates within it five dimensions (Kang and James 2007;

Koubaa 2017; Koubaa and Triki 2017), namely:

1- Physical well-being (PW), defined as the degree by which the hotel offers a product

and/or a service that improves the physical well-being of guests, while reducing

physical hazards and risks (health care, safety, food security, etc.);

2- Psychological well-being (PSW), defined as the degree by which the hotel offers a

product and/or a service that generates psychological well-being to guests: hos-

pitality, entertainment, relaxation, offers magical moments of joy and pleasure,

nostalgic moments, etc.), while reducing the negative one (support and assistance

in case of problems);

3- Social Relationships and Initiatives (SR), defined as the degree by which the hotel

provides a product and/or a service that facilitates the development and improve-

ment of internal social relationships and external social relationships (community

and other stakeholders), while reducing negative impacts;

4- Environmental Orientation (EO), defined as the degree by which the hotel provides

a product and/or a service that is beneficial to the environment while limiting its

negative impacts (Environmental awareness, pollution prevention, waste manage-

ment, effective energy management, etc.);

5- Economic Contribution (EC), defined as the degree to which the hotel provides a

product and/or a service that is beneficial to guests and other stakeholders (em-

ployees, community, country, etc.), while reducing the losses.

Using a Netnographic approach, our exploratory study attempts to reveal these

societal dimensions in the guests’ online reviews.

5 The hotel is an Imperial Beach 5 stars having invested in an integrated management system (ISO

9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 22000), a system that certify the implementation of a SD approach.

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H. Koubaa and R. Jallouli

3 Digital Tourism Transformation

According to Bretonès (2011), many profound societal transformations have appeared.

The classic B2C or B2B models are transformed into C2B (Customers to Businesses).

We are seeing more dynamic and participative organizations, and will no longer be

client-oriented, they will be designed for the client with the client. Internet models,

such as “Facebook” or “LinkedIn”, facilitate individual connections and contribute to

the transformation of social relations.

Tourism industry has been deeply affected by ICT and the digital revolution,

especially in the era of Big Data (Sigala et al. 2012; Gretzel et al. 2015; Del Chiappa

and Baggio 2015; Koo et al. 2015; Del Vecchio et al. 2018a; Centobelli and Ndou

2019). Del Chiappa and Baggio (2015) stressed the crucial role of ICT, Internet of

Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing in providing instruments and platforms that can

facilitate the dissemination of information and knowledge among stakeholders. Smart

tourism is “a new buzzword applied to describe the increasing reliance of tourism

destinations, their industries and their tourists on emerging forms of ICT that allow for

massive amounts of data to be transformed into value propositions” Gretzel et al.

(2015). Similarly, Del Vecchio et al. (2018a) pointed out the role of huge social big

data generated from tourists (CGC) in developing opportunities for a smart tourism

destination. The aggregation of Big Data, as well as their, inter-connectivity, analysis,

integration, real-time synchronization and intelligent use of data (Fuchs et al. 2015;

Gretzel et al. 2015), are the main drivers of value creation. Value propositions are

created for tourism stakeholders such as hoteliers and tourists. According to Buhalis

and Amaranggana (2015), the objective of smart tourism destinations is to improve

potentially tourism experience through personalizing offers, maximizing tourists’ sat-

isfaction and contributing to destination competitiveness.

Despite the role played by Web 2.0 technologies in the production, consumption

and dissemination of information and knowledge (Sigala et al. 2012), Tavakoli and

Mura (2018) have shown that Web 2.0 allows limited netnographic studies, based

mainly on the analysis of texts published by tourists. New avenues with the evolution

of web platforms (Web 3.0, Web 4.0 and Web 5.0) could be more innovative, more

dynamic and dialogical, in particular in the field of tourism. Web 5.0 provides complex

and immersive interactions between machines and humans (Tavakoli and Mura 2018).

4 Symbiotic Relationship Between ICT and Sustainability

in Tourism Sector

The implementation of sustainability in an innovative way is becoming imperative for

tourism stakeholders. The General Secretary of UNWTO (June 2018)6underlined the

prominence of technology for a more universal approach to sustainable tourism

“Technology helps us to better manage our social, cultural and environmental impacts.

6 https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/06/29/use-technology-for-more-sustainable-tourism-

management/ (Dec 2018).

Social Networks and Societal Strategic Orientation in the Hotel Sector

93

And if well managed, tourism can act as an agent of positive change for more sus-

tainable lifestyles, destinations, and consumption and production patterns”.

Nowadays, the relationship between ICT and sustainability in tourism sector is

gaining increasing attention in the scientific community (Ali and Frew 2013; Ali and

Frew 2014; Del Chiappa and Baggio 2015; Gretzel et al. 2015; Lopez de Avila 2015;

Gössling 2017). Ali and Frew (2013) provided insights on how ICT can play an

important role in the management of sustainable tourism development. ICT is the

technology that use innovative tools (integrated system of software and networked

equipment) which facilitates data processing, information sharing, communication, etc.

Technology is used to reduce the negative impacts of tourism from demand and supply

side perspectives.

Other researchers describe the synergy between smart tourism and the development

of sustainable tourism. “Smart tourism has gained momentum in research fostered by

the revolution of the latest generation of information and communication technologies

and has rapidly become a leading stream of literature” (Femenia-Serra and Neuhofer

2018). Lopez de Avila (2015) put the link between the use of technologies and the

development of destination sustainability. He defined the smart tourism destination as:

“an innovative tourist destination, built on an infrastructure of state-of-the-art tech-

nology guaranteeing the sustainable development of tourist areas, accessible to

everyone, which facilitates the visitor’s interaction with and integration into his or her

surroundings, increases the quality of the experience at the destination, and improves

residents’ quality of life”.

Furthermore, Del Vecchio et al. (2018b) demonstrated how big data generated by

tourists on social media can be a source of open innovation supporting sustainable

tourism experiences in a destination. Kim and Kim (2017) specified the status and the

role of mobile technology in achieving sustainable and smart tourism.

5 Methodology

This section is structured as following: The first paragraph gives an overview on the

choice of the sector. The second paragraph presents the netnographic study. Then, we

will review the design of exploratory qualitative research and the content analysis of

the online comments of the guests.

5.1 Choice of the Hotel Sector

The choice of the sector is not arbitrary. It is pertinent to deal with two topical trends in

tourism and the hotel industry, namely: sustainability and digital transformation.

In the same vein, we will give an overview on some strategic axes of Tunisian

tourism. One of the noteworthy initiatives in this area is the one known as the

“Strategic Vision 3 + 1”7. A set of promising projects launched in 2014, spanning a

7 http://www.tourisme.gov.tn/realisations-et-perspectives/vision-strategique-3-1/qualite-formation.

html (May 2016).

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H. Koubaa and R. Jallouli

period of 7–10 years, by the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with other

institutions of the sector. This vision is pragmatic and focuses on multiple areas

including quality, sustainability and digital tourism.

The themes that refer to sustainability projects are quality of the reception, quality

of the transport, environmental quality, the training, the cultural diversification of the

offer of tourist products according to the Tunisian regions and according to their

specificities. Also, the implementation of a global digital strategy exploiting the web

channels, mobile and social networks and involving the different parts of the Tunisian

tourist ecosystem, aims both to promote and reach new customer targets. Similarly, the

creation of a portal of the NOTT8 (National Office of Tunisian Tourism) aims to

improve the online visibility of the Tunisia destination and to offer rich content, up to

date, accessible by the Web, mobile or tablet and in line with current technologies: geo-

localization, integration of video content, photo, audio, social networks.

This sector contributes significantly to the economic development of Tunisia and

deserves the attention of various institutions and tourism stakeholders. While the

economic press puts a 7% (UNCTAD 2017)9, contribution to tourism in the country’s

GDP, UNCTAD stated that this rate is reductive and published in its 2017 report an

estimate of around 15.1% (UNCTAD 2017)10. This same report underlined that Tunisia

has been ranked 4th in the African continent, having recorded between 2011 and 2014

the best rate of international tourist entries.

5.2 Netnographic Study

Netnography is gaining increasing attention in the scientific community, particularly in

the social sciences, management and marketing (Kozinets 1998, 2012). This method of

natural investigation (Lincoln and Guba 1985) is very promising and frequently used in

the field of tourism (Kozinets 2015; Bartl et al. 2016; Sthapit 2018; Tavakoli and Mura

2018; Tavakoli and Wijesinghe 2019).

Netnography is also called “online ethnography”, “Webnography”, “cyberethnog-

raphy” and “virtual ethnography” (Mkono and Markwell 2014). Kozinets (2002)

defined “Netnography”, or “Ethnography on the Internet” as “a new qualitative

research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques to the study of

cultures and communities emerging through computer-mediated communications. As a

marketing research technique, “netnography” uses the information publicly available

online to identify and understand the needs and decisions of the online consumer

groups”.

Kozinets (2002) noted that netnography is increasingly used by consumers and

marketing researchers. By using the Internet, many forms of consumer interaction, idea

sharing, and storytelling are providing more objective sources of information for

product selection and branding and purchasing decision making. Online discussion

8 Ibid.

9 https://www.destinationtunisie.info/tourisme-represente-151-pib-de-tunisie-selon-cnuced/

(Dec

2018).

10 https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/aldcafrica2017_en.pdf (Dec 2018).

Social Networks and Societal Strategic Orientation in the Hotel Sector

95

forums, the social media web, virtual communities created by consumers are also a

source of information for marketing studies. It is important for marketing researchers to

have rigorous and ethical methodological procedures for collecting and interpreting

these data from a growing segment.

Compared to traditional methods, this method of investigation has many merits.

Indeed, netnography offers geographically dispersed customers the possibility of online

interaction. It also saves time and money. The investigations are processed in a natural

and original context with flexibility and discretion.

Kozinets (1998, 2002, 2006) pointed out the use of netnographic studies “for

participant observation in the online environment, which includes: (1) investigating

possible online field sites, initiating, and making cultural entree; (2) collecting and

analyzing data;

(4) conducting ethical

(3) ensuring trustworthy interpretations;

research; and (5) providing opportunities for the feedback of culture members”.

However, after an update to this approach, Kozinets (2006) described this quali-

tative method as flexible and “which can be used as a purely observational method or as

one that incorporates a high degree of participation”. In 2015, Kozinets stated that

“netnography is positioned somewhere between the vast searchlights of big data

analysis and the close readings of discourse analysis… Actual netnographic data itself

can be rich or very thin, pro-tected or given freely… It can be generated through

interactions between a real person and a researcher, or be sitting in digital archives”.

5.3 Exploratory Qualitative Research

Our research proposes to study the online comments of the guests having stayed in a

Tunisian hotel of the international channel ML. The objective is to explore the main

facets of a societal strategic orientation in their verbatim.

The studied context is still emerging and needs to be explored. Mitchell et al.

(2010) and Avci et al. (2011) emphasized the contribution of qualitative studies in

tourism, leisure and hospitality activities. Netnographic studies are very promising and

frequently used in the field of tourism (Kozinets 2015; Bartl et al. 2016; Sthapit 2018;

Tavakoli and Mura 2018; Tavakoli and Wijesinghe 2019).

In our research, we used a netnographic study. For that, we followed some

instructions recommended by Kozinets (2002), according to which a researcher must

respect two preliminary stages for the realization of the netnography. First, asking

himself the specific questions of his research, then identifying online forums adapted to

these questions. Second, learning as much as possible about the forums, groups and

individual participants he seeks to understand.

Based on these instructions, we visited at first a professional website named

ReviewPro11, which allowed us to better understand the guest’s community online

comments. ReviewPro provides feedbacks from customer experiences on multiple

Travel and booking websites: Tripadvisor, HolidayCheck, Tophotels, Hotel.com,

Facebook, Expedia, etc., each of which uses its own evaluation grid. From filters, we

11 “ReviewPro is the leading provider of guest intelligence solutions to independent hotel brands

worldwide” Available at: https://www.hospitalitynet.org/organization/17014180/reviewpro.html.

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H. Koubaa and R. Jallouli

selected the hotel to study and the sample. We have downloaded a rather rich corpus

about the guests’ reviews (“Reviews/Tracking”). This corpus contains fields such as:

Reviewer; Reviewer Country; Review rating; Review Title and Review Text; Rating

score; Classification (positive, neutral or negative). So, guests provided both quanti-

tative and qualitative feedback on hotel or travel experiences shared with the rest of

travel and booking websites.

In line with other researches (Langer and Beckman 2005; Mkono 2012; Sthapit

2018; Tavakoli and Mura 2018), our study adopted a netnographic approach based on

online reviews, in the form of non-participant observation. As we extracted archival

data online (past year), there is no need to communicate the study objectives to online

guests. Then we didn’t obtain consent from guests, because their reviews are public and

we used the corpus for a scientific purpose. Mkono (2012) indicated that “most authors

agree that where data are collected from pseudonymous/anonymous public-type for-

ums, with the researcher acting as nonparticipant observer,

the requirement for

informed consent of individual participants falls away”. In the same direction, Hei-

nonen and Medberg (2018) stated that: “Marketing researchers have used netnography

in various ways”. Indeed, they emphasize on the diversity of applying netnography in

terms of the role of the researcher (active or passive), use purpose, domain of data

collection, content included, analysis and combination with other methods. Further-

more, Tavakoli and Mura (2018) declared that “Since the majority of the netnographic

studies were conducted on Web 1.0 or 2.0 platforms, the methods were mainly con-

cerned on analyzing textual or video formats”.

Our research is exploratory; the sample size has no statistical significance. The most

important thing is to respect the principle of information saturation. According to De

Ruyter and Scholl (1998), the usefulness of qualitative research does not lie in the

number of respondents, but in what has been said and in the way of saying it because

what matters is not the power of numbers, but the power of words and images.

In total, we analyzed 92 opinions during the year 2018. The sample was composed

of German speakers mostly Germans (78%) and Austrians (20%). These guests are the

main target of the hotel in question. Germans have often been the focus of research in

the field of sustainable tourism (Schmücker et al. 2016; Ponnapureddy et al. 2017;

Sindhuri et al. 2017). Also, the results of studies undertaken by leaders in the tourism

sector such as the Accor Hotels group (2016)12 or the tour operator TUI (2016)13

showed that the Germans are tourists concerned about the sustainable aspects.

To further refine the qualitative analysis, we consulted HolidayCheck, a travel

website dedicated to German speakers recognized for its rigor in the tourism industry.

The travelers were asked to describe their experiences at the hotel in an independent

review and to justify the ratings designated according to the holidayCheck rating

system (from 1: poor to 6 - excellent). Using the same feedback from these guests, we

were able to access other data such as their socio-demographic profile (especially the

age group), the type of trip (Family, Couple, with friends, single), the duration of travel

(one, two or three weeks), the reason for the trip (beach), etc. HolidayCheck also offers

12 http://www.id-tourisme.fr/etude-accorhotels-engagement-developpementdurable/ (Dec 2018).

13 https://corporate.tui.be/fr/presse/nouvelles/20170321-tourisme-durable (Dec 2018).

Social Networks and Societal Strategic Orientation in the Hotel Sector

97

a wealth and variety of information (travel history and guest reviews, photos, videos,

images, etc.).

The data collection corpus was the subject of a thematic content analysis (Mkono

and Markwell 2014; Heinonen and Medberg 2018) from which inferences and inter-

pretations were made.

5.4 Content Analysis

According to Bardin (2009), content analysis is “a set of increasingly refined and

constantly improving methodological tools that apply to extremely diversified “dis-

courses” (contents and containers). The common factor of these multiple techniques -

from the computation of frequencies providing figures to the extraction of structure

resulting in models - is a controlled hermeneutics, based on deduction: inference. As an

interpretive effort, content analysis is switched between the two poles of the rigor of

objectivity and the fruitfulness of subjectivity. It absolves and endorses in the

researcher this attraction towards the hidden, the latent, the non-apparent, the potential

of unpublished (unspoken), held by any message…”.

Qualitative content analysis is a method of systematically describing the meaning

of qualitative data. This analysis proceeds by assigning the successive parts of the

material into categories from a coding frame (Schreier 2014).

Content to analyze can take many forms such as a speech, a document, an inter-

view, a visual support (photo, video, film), or online comments. An analyst, particu-

larly in the social sciences, tries to understand the cognitive activities of the speaker

such as his beliefs (ideology) and his attitudes. In the marketing literature, Barreda and

Bilgihan (2013) used content analysis with a twofold purpose: “to determine how

travelers communicate in the cyberspace in relation to their positive and negative

experiences they had when staying in a particular hotel” and “to include identifying the

main themes that motivate consumers to evaluate hotel experiences in online envi-

ronments and categorize the most frequently mentioned areas in the online hotel

reviews”.

The content analysis protocol proposed by Bardin (2009), will guide us during

research. Three main stages are pursued: 1-the pre-analysis; 2-the exploitation of the

material and finally 3-the treatment of the results obtained, the inference and the

interpretation. Our main objective is to explore the main aspects of a societal strategic

orientation based on the comments of the guests who have stayed at a ML hotel on the

travel website Holiday Check.

In the first pre-analysis stage, the transcription did not take place since the content

of the corpus is already online. We downloaded it in its native language. A translation

was done in two languages: English and French for better assimilation. Support was

provided by a multilingual person, the hotel’s Assistant General Director (German-

English-French-Arabic-etc. -speaking). After performing a floating reading and re-

readings with identifying index and indicator, the division of the corpus (2nd stage) was

carried out according to each thematic idea (key word, expression, index) referring to

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one of the five societal dimensions (PW, PSW, SR, EO and EC). The corpus

exploitation was done manually without using a software. In order to carry out a

thematic analysis and establish a thematic content analysis grid, we performed the

coding in order to organize the data and the counting. According to Robert and

Bouillaguet (1997), the purpose of this step is to apply, to the corpus of data, treatments

allowing access to a different meaning answering the problematic but not denaturing

the initial content.

In order to elaborate the analysis grid of the qualitative content, we counted the

guests while opting for a classification according to the criterion of “age group”. We

identified 12 groups from online raw data collected. Then, we opted for an organization

in five relevant classes as indicated in the Table 1. This grid allows us to find out the

societal dimensions that are revealed in the online evaluations of the guests and what

are the connotations of these feedbacks. A priori, this grid reveals that all the facets of

the strategi...