Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
INTRODUCTION 
Public concern for environmental issues in North America and Western Europe has increased since the 
1970s. Environmental issues have now become one of the most important public agendas in Western Europe and 
North America (Dunlap and Scarce, 1991). According to Dunlap’s (2002) analysis of opinion polls collected on a 
regular basis in the United States from the early 1970s to 2002, a majority of Americans have concerns regarding the 
environment and support environmental protection. Likewise, consumers in Greece have been increasingly 
supporting companies with superior environmental performance, that aim for the "triple bottom line"—that is, they 
seek to both please their customers and make profits, while also being good to the planet. Many studies concerning 
the relationship between firms’ environmental strategies and their performance support this notion, showing that 
ERP improves employee satisfaction and customer loyalty, reduces costs, and enhances competitiveness (King and 
Lenox, 2001; Klassen and McLaughlin 1999). However, very few studies concerning this issue have been reported 
in the service sector, compared with studying the manufacturing industry’s ERP. Thus, studying service firms’ ERP 
would be challenging due to the unique characteristics of services vis-à-vis goods (i.e., the intangibility, 
perishability, and simultaneous production and consumption of services, Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2000).
The hospitality industry has become the world’s largest industry, with 120 million employees and revenues 
exceeding $3.8 trillion worldwide; thus, studying ERP in this industry is worthwhile (Enz and Siguaw, 1999; 
Goodman, 2000). However, to date, there are only limited studies concerning this issue in the hospitality industry, 
such as Goodman’s (2000) study on the Scandic hotels; and Enz and Siguaw’s (1999) study on Hyatt Regency 
regarding environmental management systems (ISO 14001). Most of all, researchers have not established how the 
lodging industry makes environmental decisions by incorporating the individual values of stakeholders, especially 
consumers. In fact, for better ERP corporate strategies and competitive advantage, a firm ought to consider the 
various objectives of multiple stakeholders, which has been supported by stakeholder theory (Bramwell and 
Alletorp, 2001).
 
First, this study focuses on consumers who can have an impact on managerial decisions about ERP. Most 
previous studies collected data from interviewing managers rather than interviewing consumers. In contrast, this 
study uses data directly collected from the customers, measuring their awareness, attitude, involvement, and 

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