Eco-innovation in Mexican tourist accommodation companies

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Abstract

Eco-innovation is shown as one of the great challenges of the tourism industry given the growing connection between environmental quality and its good performance. Although the tourism literature has considered the topic of business sustainability in broader terms, the notion of eco-innovations represents a new field of research with studies that still investigate in depth the adoption of eco-innovations among tourism companies. This work addresses the conceptual evolution of eco-innovation to subsequently develop an analytical framework that tentatively explores this concept and its implementation in Mexican tourist accommodation companies through two basic internal characteristics of these organizations: their business performances and their respective sizes, measured in number of rooms. The methodology used has been the case method, making a set of case studies related to six hotel groups of purely Mexican capital through documentary evidence and structured interviews. The conclusions derived from the findings suggest, firstly, that eco-innovation is directly linked to the evolution of business results and the size of organizations and, secondly, that eco-innovation is perceived as a strategic bet generating comparative advantages for Mexican companies studied, independently of the signals issued by an ecologically aware demand and beyond the governmental regulatory actions.

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Section
Monographic section
Author Biographies

Marta Magadan Díaz

Doctor cum laude in Economics and Business Administration, Postgraduate in Business Administration and Applied Economics (University of Oviedo) and Degree in Economics (Oviedo University). Professor at the Department of Business Administration (International University of La Rioja) and Director of the university press SEPTEM EDICIONES, first university publishing group of Asturias (Spain).

Visiting and guest professor at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (Mexico) and at the Autonomous University of Colima (Mexico) among other universities. Marta Magadán has published over one hundred of academic works related with Industrial Economics, Public Finances, Experimental Economics, Applied Economics, Environmental Economics and Tourism.

Jesús Israel Rivas García

Doctor cum laude in Economics and Professor at the Department of Business Administration (International University of La Rioja), Postgraduate in Applied Economics (University of Oviedo), Degree in Economics (University of Oviedo) and Diploma in Law (UNED). He is also Director of Marketing and Strategy at Septem Ediciones, first university press group of Asturias (Spain). Visiting and guest professor at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (Mexico) and at the Autonomous University of Colima (Mexico) among other universities.Professor Rivas has published over one hundred of academic works related with Public Finances, Experimental Economics, Applied Economics, Environmental Economics and Tourism.