Extending structural capital through pro-environmental behaviour intention capital: an outlook on Spanish hotel industry
| Date | 10 November 2020 |
| Pages | 633-652 |
| Published date | 10 November 2020 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-03-2020-0075 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting |
| Author | Aurora Martínez-Martínez,Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro,Alexeis Garcia-Perez,Francesca Vicentini |
Extending structural capital
through pro-environmental
behaviour intention capital:
an outlook on Spanish
hotel industry
Aurora Mart
ınez-Mart
ınez and Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro
Universidad Polit
ecnica de Cartagena Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa,
Cartagena, Spain
Alexeis Garcia-Perez
Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University, Coventry, UK, and
Francesca Vicentini
Universit
a del Foro Italico, Rome, Italy
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to bring the attention of the intellectual capital (IC) research and
practice communities to the value of IC in hotels’efforts to resolve or mitigate environmental problems over
time. This research has been set to examine the relationships between key KM and IC concepts including
environmental knowledge structures and exploitation and exploration of environmental knowledge (EK) as
drivers of environmental organisational learning. The research has also examined the relevance of pro-
environmental behavioural intention capital (PEBIC) as a component of structural capital and therefore an
integral part of the intellectual capital of hotels.
Design/methodology/approach –The data analysis technique used to test the proposed conceptual model
is partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Sample receivedfrom 87 companies from the
Spanish hospitality sector in a longitudinal study (six years).
Findings –The results support that environmental knowledge structures (exploitation and exploration) has a
positive impact on PEBIC over time. In other words, environmental organisational learning has the capability
to create structural capital in hotel over time.
Originality/value –The research has addressed the challenges of exploration and exploitation of EK and
PEBIC from a perspective not previously covered in the extant literature,further improved by the longitudinal
nature of this study. Our focus on the hospitality sector makes this research relevant for management
structures at numerous of hotels, as well as to their supply chains around the world. In addition, this research
highlights the value to create structural capital through EK and organisational learning in the context of take
care of our natural resources.
Keywords Environmental knowledge, Knowledge exploration, Knowledge exploitation, Structural capital,
Intellectual capital, Pro-environmental behaviour intention capital, Organizational learning
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the current socio-economic context, the attention of a wide range of scholars and
practitioners has turned to the value of intangibles and intellectual capital in their efforts to
address the ongoing challenges in areas such as healthcare management, socio-economic
development and environmental sustainability (Dumay, 2013;Lin and Edvinsson, 2020). This
research has been conducted to contribute to those efforts by addressing in particular the
Knowledge,
environment
and intellectual
capital
633
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ministerio de Econom
ıa, Industria y Competitividad of the
Spanish Government for financing the research project ECO2017-88987-R (MINECO/FEDER;UE),
cofinanced from the European Union FEDER funds.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1469-1930.htm
Received 5 March 2020
Revised 25 June 2020
21 September 2020
1 October 2020
Accepted 15 October 2020
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 22 No. 3, 2021
pp. 633-652
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-03-2020-0075
environmental challenges we face, from the intellectual capital perspective. Intellectual
capital (IC) strategies and tools rely heavily on knowledge structures and their effective use
(Hartono and Sheng, 2016). Knowledge structures serve to define expected relationships,
behaviours and actions for organisational members (Lyles and Schwenk, 1992). The
evolution of the IC of the firm can in fact be perceived as an outcome of the successful use of its
knowledge structures, leading not only to the growth of their knowledge base but also to the
intention in their workforce to use such knowledge to resolve specific situations (Chan et al.,
2014). Thus, an important component of the IC of the organisation is its “pro-environmental
behavioural intention”. Pro-environmental behavioural intention is defined as the conditions
in which the workforce are willing to contribute to the success of organisational strategies,
particularly those that target environmental sustainability in its relationship with business
performance (Martinez-Martinez et al., 2019).
Pro-environmental behavioural intention capital (hereafter PEBIC) is probably viewed in
this context as a mixture of self-interest and of concern for other people, for the next
generation, other species or whole ecosystems (Carson et al., 2004;Bamberg and M€
oser, 2007),
all of which is key in companies, countries and society in general. PEBIC is intention to realise
environment-friendly behaviours. In this study, PEBIC suggests that economic activities’
companies must be exercised with a sensitive awareness of changing pro-environmental
behaviour capital and priorities.
Contrary to the understanding of individual pro-environmental behaviour, PEBIC belongs
as a concept to the entire company. According to Ajzen’s (1989) theory of planned behaviour,
PEBIC helps explain the actual behaviour of consumers, organisations and their capital
(Carson et al., 2004;Han and Yoon, 2015). Although a number of classifications exist (Guthrie
et al., 2004), there is consensus in the extant literature that as an integral component of the IC
base of the firm, shared intentions –that is, its structural capital –persist throughout time
even when individual employees leave the company (Roos et al., 1998;Petty and Guthrie,
2000;Ord
o~
nez de Pablos, 2004). Bearing these ideas in mind, this study reports that PEBIC
may be considered as an extension of structural capital and defines it as the result of using
and retrieving environmental knowledge (EK) from one moment of time to another later.
Structural capital is the supportive non-physical infrastructure that enables human capital to
function.
In the particular case of the hospitality industry, the literature shows that structural
capital becomes a key driver to a pro-environmental business strategy (Steg and Vlek, 2009;
Stegerean et al., 2014;Massaro et al., 2018) because companies are able to share and use
environmental knowledge (Martinez-Martinez et al., 2019) and according to Collis and
Montgomery (1995) structural capital contributes to the creation of a competitive
differentiation. The hospitality industry need create competitive differentiation growth
and take care of environment, especially in this time of COVID-19. Environmental factors and
their potential effects remain important and may become even more so in the case of health
emergencies and pandemic crises. For example, although these are still initial speculations,
there are concerns that pollution may facilitate the transmission of coronaviruses (Qu et al.,
2020). Environmental concerns are increasingly challenged by companies in their activities.
The air quality in hotels and common spaces seem to be challenges to solve in short-term.
EK is defined in this research how information and skills through hands on experience
living in close contact with their environment. In this sense, EK is essential to respond
successfully to stakeholders’social expectations, creation of intangible capital and to
environmental variations (Green and Ryan Julie, 2005;Imran et al., 2014).
Since firms currently are a major threat tothe environment due to the great quantity of
waste generated as their consumption of natural resources grows (Fraj et al., 2015), it can
be assumed that organisational knowledge structures are key players in fostering the
creation of EK (Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002;Delgado-Ceballos et al., 2012). These
JIC
22,3
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