The Role of Educational Technologies in CSR Perception of Tourism Education: The Comparative Analysis of E-Learning and M-Learning Tools as Moderators

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of educational technologies on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) perception of tourism students and their intention to work in the tourism business industry. By improving education programs with an investment in educational technologies, both universities and firms are believed to benefit from growing CSR initiatives, as well as potential young talents for their future business activities. Four-dimensional (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic dimensions) model of CSR perception is followed. M-learning and E-learning platforms are compared as moderators to ensure the most effective platform for CSR education among the students. The study is conducted with data which is gathered from a total of 397 students who continue their bachelor and associate degrees in different universities in the Gulf nations. It is found that there is a positive relationship between students’ intention to work in the industry and the sub-dimensions of CSR, namely ethical responsibilities, legal responsibilities, and economical responsibilities. Conversely, philanthropic responsibilities had no effect on working intention. In addition, gender difference had no significant impact on working intention of the students in tourism industry. Moreover, it is revealed that e-learning tools are more effective in CSR education.

1. Introduction

Tourism is among the major industries that positively affect the GDP growth of a country and creates huge employment opportunities for people. Although it creates employment opportunities, major challenges are that they are considered low-skilled and relatively low paying jobs, leading to less job satisfaction (Aynalem et al. 2016; Roney and Oztin 2007). Subsequently, the tourism industry is known for high staff turnover and an absence of trained personnel (Roney and Oztin 2007). The tourism industry is among the biggest employers in many countries and a major proportion of the local communities depended upon the tourism industry to give high quality working opportunities for students (Huang and Lo 2014). Job decision is a critical process that certainly affects an individual’s life, education, self-improvement, attitude to family, personal character and environment. According to a study of the tourism industry, decision on studying tourism is mainly influenced by individual, demographic, mental and social elements. The formation of the industry as well as the prospects for employees that are provided by tourism firms highly influence the decision. Education and development prospects and global opportunities offered by firms and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have an immense role during the decision-making of the profession of the new generation, as well as their working decisions. From the standpoint of firms, attracting the members of the new generation has excessive significance in line with CSR (Arguden 2007).

E-learning is defined as “the use of new multimedia technologies and Internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating the access to resources and services as well as remote exchange and collaboration”. On the other hand, mobile learning (m-learning) is defined as “learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices” (Crompton 2013, p. 4). Current technological advances have radically changed the tourism industry, while the Internet has a notable influence on the education process, which transforms educational curricula, information capacity and instructional practice (Cantoni et al. 2009). Furthermore, the direct and indirect effects of personality on data breach in education through the task-related compulsive technology use on an M-learning perspective has been discussed in recent studies (Thomas and Jeyhun 2020).

It is important to have highly educated, skillful and motivated tourism staff who can play a significant role in the adoption of new trends and experiences in national tourism industry. At the same time, it is necessary to provide qualified students with a positive attitude towards work in the tourism industry. Another idea behind the establishment of a successful tourism education mechanism is to gain the sustainable business practice to avoid unsustainable and unethical behavior, which is ultimately influenced by the education system (Fernandez-Fernandez and Sanjuan 2010). Seto-Pamies and Papaoikonomou (2016) also emphasized that academic institutions are highly effective in transforming societies and enterprises. It is argued that millennials in the modern world are civic-minded, while they can create positive changes through an awareness of meaningful and purpose-oriented career (Costanza and Finkelstein 2015), where it is worth adding that combining young generations’ technology skills with an improved awareness of CSR through systematic education could potentially lead to a sustainable tourism industry, with a particular emphasis on tourism education. Hence, very few studies have used the above-mentioned approach in their investigations, which leads the current study to investigate the effect of digital learning tools on the establishment of CSR perception among the students and its influence on the intentions of students working in tourism industry in the future. Educational institutions need to establish a better understanding of the concept and better support to educate students to have a positive assertiveness towards the hospitality industry (Huang and Lo 2014). Few studies were done to understand such perceptions on the Gulf states’ tourism industry by the students who will be potential employees of the industry in future (Nekhili et al. 2019; Stephenson and Al-Hamarneh 2017). There is a lack of studies that have been formerly conducted for identifying the impacts of the perceptions on students’ working intention in the tourism industry in Gulf, and the specific role of digital educational tools in shaping their tourism education.

1.1. CSR and Tourism Industry

CSR is explained to the extent that firms are not solely responsible for economic activities and providing goods and services, but act in a responsible way towards employees, stakeholders, and suppliers, while at the same time being attentive to society and the environment (Erkman and Sahinoglu 2012). The tourism sector encompasses variety of employees and stakeholders. It encourages many people to be part of a sector with wide variety of career opportunities (Leiper 1999). Conversely, the majority of people who graduated from or still undergoing tourism education are not enthusiastic about working in this sector. Former studies emphasized that students who join the sector and students with existing familiarity have distinctive opinions (Roney and Oztin 2007; Kusluvan and Kusluvan 2000).

Several studies have been done on attitudes of students to the tourism industry (Roney and Oztin 2007; Duman et al. 2006; Aksu and Koksal 2005; Kusluvan and Kusluvan 2000). In addition, there are studies related to students’ perceptions of CSR (Burcea and Marinescu 2011). According to Roney and Oztin (2007), human resources (HR) in companies usually focuses on the needs of tourism companies, while students’ perceptions are neglected. Hence, tourism companies are mostly interested in service delivery by staff, whereas highly qualified tourism students might be neglected, which would ultimately influence service quality and client satisfaction. Hence, the attitude is closely associated with extent to which the tourism students are underestimated in the industry (Kusluvan and Kusluvan 2000). In most cases, tourism service is based on the the performance of a human, face-to-face exchange of services, a physical and psychological connection between employee and customer, which determines the quality of service. Burcea and Marinescu (2011) concluded that students put higher importance on CSR during their academic levels, where they are involved in a series of activities related to CSR. What is necessary for the development of the tourism industry is that students in relation to CSR are mainly concerned with honesty, the environment and quality assurance in the context of services provided to others. Duman et al. (2006) stated that the basic idea of CSR is the necessity for the enterprise to act responsibly beyond legal responsibilities towards shareholders, employees, suppliers and customers. The enterprise should be expected to be fully responsible for the uneconomic consequences of its activities regarding society and the natural environment. However, the expectations of societies from businesses differ. Economic and social development level also has an important effect on this, which comes from successful educational system. Schools that provide business and engineering education in particular have an important role both by developing research on the concept and application of CSR and with their views on CSR in education and training programs. Academic organizations provide current and future managers and engineers with knowledge of the positive impact of corporate social responsibility strategy on the long-term performance of businesses and the tools and procedures that define a solid, integrated CSR approach.

Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies specifically dedicated to determining the impacts of the perceptions on students’ working intention on tourism industry in the Gulf region, and the specific role of digital educational tools in shaping their tourism education. Though students’ CSR perception and its influence on working intention is not well-established in the context of tourism industry, it is likely to have an immense effect for growing the potential workforce to be employed by tourism firms in the country.

1.2. Dimensions of CSR and Intention to Work in Tourism Industry

This concept has been widely studied by numerous scholars in recent years. In

Table 1. The definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Author	Definition of CSR
Bowen	“Managers’ act of considering the values and aims of society and making their policies correspondingly”
Aldag and Stearns	“Organizations’ way of taking actions not only for economic but also for social benefits”
Davis	“Phenomenon that emerges from the interaction of organizations and interest groups in terms of business”
Demir and Songur	“Strategic approach of a firm to economic and legal conditions, ethics of work and the internal and external stakeholders of a firm”
Bayrak	“Firm’s commitment to ethical values, and usage of the internal resources in the development of the community, while realizing its objectives Organizations’ ethical and responsible behavior against stakeholders”

, some of the scholars’ definitions of CSR have been provided. It is primarily mentioned in Bowen’s (1953) “The Social Responsibilities of the Businessman” book. According to Bowen (1953), CSR can be explained as managers’ act of considering the society’s aims and values and making the policies in accordance with them. In other definition Walton (1967) cited about CSR as the “problems that arise when corporate enterprise casts its shadow on the social scene, and the ethical principles that ought to govern the relationship between corporation and society.”

CSR is associated with firm’s strategic approach that is implemented based on economic and legal circumstances, ethics of work, as well as internal and external stakeholders of a firm. In the study of Waddock (2004), CSR is explained as the (ir)responsibility level of a firm and its impact of changing strategies on their stakeholders and environment.

To sum up, CSR is explained from a quite broad perspective, such as organizations’ economic activities and the social benefits drawn from those activities with consideration of legal and ethical standards, as well as with the use of resources efficiently and effectively. In addition, CSR greatly involves the organization’s consideration of who are its stakeholders, and what are their interests in the context of social and business directions where all the decisions and actions ultimately lead to the development of a society as a whole.

Carroll (1991) has developed a four-dimensional CSR model as shown in Figure 1. Carroll’s “CSR pyramid” consists of Economical Responsibility (ECR), Legal Responsibility (LR), Ethical Responsibility (ER) and Philanthropic Responsibility (PR). ECR contains reducing operation costs to as little as possible, being profitable to shareholders, delivering effective employment and working conditions for employees, seeking new resources, while also supporting technology development (Caliskan and Unusan 2011). LR means that a firm must be acting in line with the laws and regulations of society, while fulfilling economical aims. ER means acting according to unwritten ethical values espoused by society. PR is described as charity activities implemented by the firm willingly, due to societal expectations.

As CSR provides firms with the advantage of retaining highly qualified employees, it can also affect the attraction of qualified employees (Aktan and Boru 2007). Conferring to the findings of studies related to social responsibility, firms’ efforts help in growing market share, strengthening brand reputation, creating better corporate image and impact, reducing costs and influencing working intention of employees (Kotler and Lee 2005). Students in tourism schools that strive to provide a highly skillful workforce for the tourism sector are prospective employees. Moreover, identifying CSR perceptions of tourism students and their influence on working intention in the tourism sector is imperative in recommending education and employment in tourism sector. Otherwise, a lack of a qualified workforce could lead to a decrease in customer satisfaction in the sector, and leading to tourism events in key touristic destinations could also face the threat of extinction (Solmaz and Erdogan 2013).

Drawing from the discussion above, the current research proposes the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

Ethical responsibilities strongly predict Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

Economic responsibilities strongly predict Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Legal responsibilities strongly predict Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Philanthropic responsibilities strongly predict Intention to work in tourism industry.

The moderating effects:

Hypothesis 5 (H5).

E-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Ethical responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 6 (H6).

E-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Economic responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 7 (H7).

E-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Legal responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 8 (H8).

E-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Philanthropic responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 9 (H9).

M-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Ethical responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 10 (H10).

M-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Economic responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism industry.

Hypothesis 11 (H11).

M-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Legal responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism sector.

Hypothesis 12 (H12).

M-learning strongly moderates the relationship between Philanthropic responsibilities and Intention to work in tourism industry.

Drawing from the hypothesized relationships stated above, the current study proposes the conceptual model in Figure 2 below. According to the model, Ethical, Economic, Legal and Philanthropic responsibilities predict Intention to work, while two learning platforms, namely M-learning and E-learning moderate the above relationships.

2. Materials and Methods

Both qualitative and quantitative methods are the most used approaches that help in identifying the new research trends. The quantitative method is established on positivism, which employs a deduction with statistical analysis (Arthur 2012). The methods used in the current study considerably contribute to the validation of the dimensions and items used in the structural model through reliability and validity testing, while only validated dimensions and items are proceeded to testing the hypothesized relationships between the constructs, which can help considering the research work that is statistically valid in the tourism context.

Overall, 18 items were developed in order to operationalize the four dimensions of the CSR pyramid and the intention of students to work in tourism industry. The four dimensions of the CSR pyramid, namely Economic responsibilities (ECR), Legal responsibilities (LR), Ethical responsibilities (ER) and Philanthropic responsibilities (PR) were measured with 3 items for each dimension, which were adopted from Carroll (1991). Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000) formed a questionnaire to examine the perception and attitude of tourism students toward working in the tourism industry.

The current study employed a quantitative method by initially using the survey to collect enough responses from the related people in tourism industry. To do that, purposive sampling technique was selected. The quantitative method also included the descriptive statistics to provide the demographic profile of respondents. In the third stage, the SEM analysis was performed with the inclusion of reliability and validity analysis for measurement model testing, while the structural model testing followed the measurement model.

The measurement model is comprised of reliability analysis with the use of Cronbach’s alpha test, while validity analysis is performed with the use of convergent and discriminant validity test. There are four cut-off points (Hinton et al. 2004) to determine the reliability level: Low reliability (<0.50); moderate reliability (0.50–0.70); high reliability (0.70–0.90); and excellent reliability (>0.90). Finally, structural model helps to test the pre-defined relationships between the study constructs.

Overall, 428 students were surveyed, while 31 of them were delisted due to the incompleteness of their responses. Based on the survey results, it can be concluded that overall, 397 responses of students were included in the analysis, those from the Gulf states, which leads one to say that a well-educated and committed staff is fundamental for the tourism industry to guarantee the competitive advantage and success as well as durability of the industry. The universities selected for the data collection include those situated in six Middle East countries including Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. The questionnaire designed comprised two sections. The first part was related to the demographic profile of respondents such as their gender, age, and education level. The second part consisted of items regarding the four dimensions of CSR pyramid and intention to work and measured by a 5-point Likert scale for evaluation of the statements, ranging from 1 being “Strongly disagree”, 2 being “Disagree”, 3 being “Neutral”, 4 being “Agree”, and 5 being “Strongly agree”.

A pilot test was done to evaluate the validity and reliability of the measures among 15 students and associates. They were asked to examine the clarity of questions, and appropriateness of items measuring the variables. The values of the coefficients changed in the range of 0.74–0.86, which was accepted to be reliable. The alpha values for Ethical responsibilities were 0.74, Economic responsibilities were 0.76, Legal responsibilities were 0.79, Philanthropic responsibilities were 0.81, and for working intention were 0.86.

Table 2. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for dependent and independent variables.

Reverse Logistics and Its Drivers	Cronbach’s Alpha	Evaluation Based on Nunnally
Ethical responsibilities	0.74	Acceptable
Economic responsibilities	0.76	Acceptable
Legal responsibilities	0.79	Acceptable
Philanthropic responsibilities	0.81	Acceptable
Intention to work	0.86	Acceptable

shows the Cronbach’s alpha values for the study variables.

The measurement model was primarily assessed with AMOS, followed by the structural model test (Hair et al. 1998). The analysis section contained construct validity including convergent and discriminant validity, while model testing included model fit indices and testing of hypotheses.

According to the demographic statistics of the students shown in

Table 3. Demographic information of students.

Demographics (N = 397)	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Gender
Male	303	76.3%
Female	94	23.7%
Age
<21	112	28.2%
22–24	104	26.2%
25–27	98	24.7%
>27	83	20.9%
Grade
Bachelor	169	42.6%
Master	143	36.0%
Ph. D	85	21.4%
Field of study
Tourism and Hotel management	94	23.6%
Marketing	85	21.4%
Management	79	20.0%
Transportation service	73	18.4%
Others	66	16.6%
Usage frequency of computer device (weekly)
1–5 h	31	7.8%
6–10 h	69	17.4%
11–15 h	102	25.7%
>16 h	195	49.1%
Usage frequency of mobile devices (weekly)
1–5 h	29	7.3%
6–10 h	54	13.6%
11–15 h	96	24.2%
>16 h	218	54.9%

, the majority of them (76.3%) are male. The majority of the students are below 21 years old (28.2%). According to their grades, 42.6% of them are bachelor degree students, while 36.0% are master students and the rest of them were PhD students. The greatest number of students major in Tourism and Hotel management (23.6%), while 21.4% study in the field of Marketing, 20.0% in Management, 18.4% in Transportation service and the rest of the students major in other disciplines. Finally, it was revealed that most students prefer to use mobile devices on a weekly basis.

Reliability and Validity Analysis

Cronbach’s alpha values of four dimensions of CSR and working intention ranged from 0.74 to 0.86, alpha values being 0.74 for legal responsibilities, 0.77 for economic responsibilities, 0.80 for working intention, 0.82 for philanthropic responsibilities, and 0.86 for ethical responsibilities. All variables demonstrated an acceptable reliability level.

Factor analysis was performed for assessing the validity of the items. Some of the items were discarded from the analysis because they were loaded on more than one factor or had higher cross-loading than the adequate level. As the Kaiser-Meyer Olkin (KMO) measurement of sampling adequacy is showing an adequate level, the variables are considered to be valid for the factor analysis.

Table 4. Factor analysis of the CSR dimensions.

Items	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3	Factor 4
Ethical responsibilities 1	−0.113	0.717	0.200	0.091
Ethical responsibilities 2 *	0.230	0.431	0.018	0.261
Ethical responsibilities 3	0.322	0.745	0.070	0.158
Legal responsibilities 1	−0.137	0.805	0.038	−0.158
Legal responsibilities 2	−0.175	0.731	0.184	0.225
Legal responsibilities 3	0.087	0.727	0.146	0.147
Phil responsibilities 1	−0.134	0.302	0.742	0.261
Phil responsibilities 2	−0.342	−0.275	0.879	0.218
Phil responsibilities 3	−0.201	−0.034	0.708	−0.097
Economic responsibilities 1	−0.035	−0.060	0.302	0.761
Economic responsibilities 2	0.146	−0.246	0.079	0.713
Economic responsibilities 3	−0.011	0.334	0.108	0.727

* Extraction method: Principal Component Analysis, Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

shows the detailed description of factor analysis and discarded items.

Correlations among CSR dimensions are statistically significant, beside the correlation between philanthropic and economic responsibilities (r = 0.143, p < 0.05), and ethical and economic responsibilities (r = 0.060, p > 0.05), ranging from r = 0.268 (p < 0.01) to r = 0.455 (p < 0.01). Furthermore, correlations between CSR dimensions and working intention are found to be significant, ranging from r = 0.241 (p < 0.01) to r = 0.442 (p < 0.01). The highest correlation was observed between ethical and philanthropic responsibilities (r = 0.455, p < 0.01), which was followed by the correlation between legal responsibilities and working intention (r = 0.442, p < 0.01). From the correlation analysis in

Table 5. Correlation analysis including Mean and Standard deviations.

Variables	Mean	St. D	ER	PR	LR	ECR	WI
ER	4.92	1.01	1
PR	4.86	0.79	0.46 **	1
LR	5.03	0.89	0.32 **	0.27 **	1
ECR	4.71	1.04	0.06	0.14 *	0.36 **	1
WI	4.47	1.06	0.24 **	0.28 **	0.44 **	0.29 **	1

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed). Note: ER denotes Ethical Responsibilities, PR denotes Philanthropic responsibilities, LR denotes Legal responsibilities, ER denotes Economic responsibilities and WI denotes Working intention. Before the structural model testing, several model fit indices were tested, as suggested by Hair et al. (2006). Within the measurement model testing, χ² /d.f (degree of freedom), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and Root Mean Square Error for Approximation (RMSEA) were used. The results are given in Table 6 below.

as well as mean and standard deviation values, it can be said that students’ perceptions of the ethical and legal responsibilities of organizations in the tourism industry could significantly lead to their intention to work for the industry after graduation from university.

The structural model testing results show that in the m-learning platform, Legal Responsibilities (LR) (β = 0.296 ***, p < 0.001) and Economic Responsibilities (ECR) (β = 0.264 **, p < 0.01) are strongly related to the Working Intention (WI) of students through established CSR perception in educational process, while Ethical Responsibilities (ER) slightly impact the WI of students (β = 0.122 *, p < 0.05). Conversely, Philanthropic Responsibilities (PR) was not found to be related to WI (β = 0.042, p = 0.297).

In the context of the e-learning platform, LR (β = 0.321 ***, p < 0.001) and ECR (β = 0.363 ***, p < 0.001) and ER (β = 0.278 ***, p < 0.001) strongly predict the future WI of students in tourism industry through learning processes online and the establishment of CSR perception towards this industry. Only PL was slightly significantly related to WI (β = 0.227 **, p < 0.01). E-learning tools strongly moderates the relationship between CSR perceptions and WI (β = 0.302 ***, p < 0.001), while m-learning tools slightly moderates the relationship (β = 0.167 *, p < 0.05) (See Figure 3).

3. Discussion

The coverage of CSR is not limited to economic activities anymore, which moved beyond long-term perspectives of environmental protection, and social welfare. Hence, CSR defines the success of corporations drawing from their business practices (Rigby et al. 2011).

The study revealed that tourism students’ understanding of firms’ engagement with CSR activities such as ethical, legal and economic responsibilities significantly affects their working intention in the industry both in e-learning and m-learning context, while these three effects are more significant in e-learning platform, leading us to say that e-learning platforms in tourism and CSR education must be extensively promoted at universities. However, philanthropic initiatives of the tourism organizations have no effect on the students’ decision making in an m-learning context. These findings are compatible with that of Yilmazdogan et al. (2015) related to Turkish students’ intention to work in the tourism industry. However, the advantage of the current study is that the previous studies did not differentiate the dimensions of CSR as separate variables in order to examine the impact of each dimension on working intention of Turkish tourism students. This study included the dimensions as separate variables. It can be considered as one of the contributions to the theory. Another contribution of our study is that no former studies investigated the impact of tourism students’ perception on CSR and their working intention in the Middle East context.

In a working context, one of the former studies had found that employees’ legal, ethical, socio-economic responsibilities, and willingness to volunteer, positively affects their satisfaction with their work (Caliskan and Unusan 2011), which in its turn leads to intention to work in the tourism sector. Considering that the students are also potential employees of the industry in the future, the findings could help to understand the factors determining students’ future working intention.

In the research of Caliskan and Unusan (2011) it was indicated that there is a substantial association between CSR perception of employees and satisfaction of work. It had been found that hotels’ CSR activities highly relate to employees’ positive intention to continue their career. To be more specific, employees’ increasing perception of legal and ethical responsibilities of hotels affects their career intention significantly. In this regard, our findings correspond to the study of Caliskan and Unusan (2011). Only the perception of philanthropic responsibilities has no significant impact on career intention in our study. From this context, tourism students’ positive CSR perceptions may influence their working intention in the industry. The significance of CSR implementations arises, while the job insecurity and low salaries are treated as vital factors affecting tourism student’s working intention in sector (Roney and Oztin 2007; Kusluvan and Kusluvan 2000).

Erkman and Sahinoglu (2012) found a positive linkage between CSR perceptions of employees and organizational commitment of them. Businesses executing CSR activities may reduce their concerns with ethical, legal, voluntary, as well as economic dimensions. Successful execution of this phenomena could have a positive impact on employees’ work satisfaction, organizational interactions, customer relationships, working intention and motivation (Caliskan and Unusan 2011). It could also influence a potential workforce’s curiosity in the firm while retaining the current ones. In terms of the role of gender difference, we found that it has no impact on the working intention of tourism students. Huang and Lo (2014) had found that the career perceptions between male and female students did not have a significant difference in Taiwan. Therefore, our findings correspond to those of Huang and Lo (2014).

In another study, Burcea and Marinescu (2011) emphasized that university students attach great meaning to CSR at an academic level, through their degree of involvement in the specific activities associated with the concept. In their study, students attach an importance to CSR while they are mainly involved with the activities, such as quality assurance, environmental engagement, and honesty for the beneficiaries (e.g., community). Broadly speaking, the activities cover planting trees, cleaning parks, recycling waste, helping disabled children and aged people, while honesty-related activities are students’ engagement in training workshops, mediation services for workers, and university fairs. These activities seem to represent mainly philanthropic and ethical responsibilities. Hence, the insignificant relationship between PR and working intention of students can be explained to the extent of country context, as well as the coverage of philanthropy.

Considering that it is very difficult for businesses to fully fulfill their duties without knowing their responsibilities in any field, the importance of individuals with high social responsibility perception in the business world is obvious. The high perception of social responsibility of business managers and therefore all employees especially will cause them to act on the basis of CSR in all their activities. Henceforth, highly educated youth powered with modern technologies’ use throughout tourism education will be able to increase their understanding as to what extent CSR and tourism can be incorporated, which will ultimately add a value to the corporate sector and society.

4. Conclusions

CSR concept is a new trend in many countries and also in the tourism industry, and the majority of the industry still lacks the implementation of CSR. A lack of conceptual studies and information in the field lowers both public perception and commitments towards it. In comparison with European understanding of CSR in terms of private and non-profit sectors, the majority of Arabic companies consider CSR as philanthropy, except banks, telecommunications and oil sectors (CESD and KAS 2013). However, increasing awareness of the society of the international CSR practices leads to an increasing concern of the local society about the engagement of companies and organizations with CSR initiatives. In this regard, as the tourism industry is growing rapidly, businesses need to take CSR responsibilities more seriously and attract a more experienced work force. The result of the current study shows that current students are mainly concerned about the legal, ethical and economic responsibilities of companies that operate in the tourism industry. Additionally, these students will be tourism experts and a potential workforce in the future. The more experienced workforce as well as the more CSR friendly businesses will highly contribute to the country’s economy in terms of the tourism industry. Philanthropic Responsibilities that drive their intention to work in this industry in the future are not attractive for tourism studies in the Arabic tourism context. In addition, the e-learning platform is believed to be a reliable tool for Arabic students in their tourism education, particularly in gaining CSR perceptions, learning about what are legal and economic issues in tourism industry.

Another factor is the culture that differentiates companies in the context of their approach to CSR and business activities. Both national and organizational culture could make significant differences in how students approach the CSR concept and practices, while organizational culture signifies employees’ engagement with CSR. Moreover, it is suggested that future studies could take culture into consideration in re-modelling students’ CSR perception in education.

One of the limitations of the current research is that it has been conducted in one Gulf country, which can further be extended to the other countries in the form of a comparative study to see how the countries and their education in tourism are different from each other. It will also help to increase the sample size, which will ultimately lead to the generalizability of the findings to the broader geographical area. From another perspective, future research can study the socio-economic and demographic profiles and their relationship with students’ attitudes towards working in the industry.