Linking hotel environmental management initiatives and sustainable hotel performance through employees’ eco-friendly behaviour and environmental strategies: a moderated-mediated model

Purpose The purpose and current research objective is to determine sustainable hotel performance through hotel environmental management initiatives (HEMI) with the mediating influence of employee’s’ eco-friendly behaviour (EEB), and to determine the moderating role of environmental strategies (ES) in the relationship between HEMI and EEB. Design/methodology/approach A total of 95 five-star hotels were contacted, with data collected from only 30 of them. The study used only 433 questionnaires for the final analysis with SPSS 25.0 and SmartPLS 3.2.8. Findings The results revealed that HEMI is positively associated with sustainable hotel performance and with EEB. EEB is positively associated with sustainable hotel performance. ES significantly influence EEB, and significantly strengthen the relationship between HMEI and EEB. EEB significantly mediates the relationship between HEMI and sustainable hotel performance. Practical implications The current research highlights a significant issue: how the management of the hotel industry uses HEMI, ES and EEB to improve sustainable performance. The study fills the gap in the literature and enables hotel management to concentrate on studying exogenous variables to increase sustainable performance. Originality/value The current research contributes to the body of knowledge by concentrating on factors that influence sustainable hotel performance. It examines HEMI influence on sustainable performance with moderating (ES) and mediating (EEB) effects, from the leans of natural resource-based view (RBV) theory.