Employee Involvement and Socialization as an Example of Sustainable Marketing Strategy and Organization’s Citizenship Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Beirut Hotel Sector

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank you very much for sending your paper to "Sustainability". I read it with great interest as it addresses an existing research gap and provides guidance to practitioners in the hotel sector. Your study has a lot of potentials and is certainly worth considering for publication. However, before this can happen, it needs some improvements.

Firstly, you need to improve the editing (e.g. spaces or lack of them, different fonts) and language (punctuation).

Secondly, the title is too long. As it is, it gives the impression that it connects two plots and thus lacks coherence. I suggest shortening it and remodelling it slightly. It could be, for example, "Employee involvement and socialization as an example of in sustainable marketing strategy and organization's citizenship behaviour: empirical evidence from Beirut Hotel Sector".

Thirdly, the "Introduction" is very elaborate, multithreaded and rich in content. However, it needs some structuring as the diversity of issues covered is not very readable. I propose to start with the role of sustainability in the world (it is worth defining this phenomenon). Then we can indicate the fields in which sustainability occurs - management, ecology (etc.) and marketing. Here it would be possible to explain the meaning of sustainable marketing strategy and how sustainability manifests itself in marketing (e.g. as an element of promotion, CSR, and involvement of employees). Then it could be pointed out that such a marketing approach to sustainability occurs in various industries, e.g. in tourism, one of the most critical sectors of the world economy. Only then would it be possible to point out the differences in the literature and show the text's objectives with an explanation of why the Beirut Hotel Sector was chosen.

Fourthly, the "Literature Review", together with the derivation of hypotheses, presents a reasonable level, but also here, it would be worthwhile to make improvements. At present, the narration of the chapter tends to be chaotic, and I suggest arranging it according to the key: a description of a given phenomenon and then a description of this phenomenon in the context of the tourism sector and hotels. The hotel element is missing the most here. It appears in "Sustainable marketing orientation" (but in several different places instead of one), but not in "Organizational Citizenship Behavior", "OCB and Sustainable Marketing Orientation", and "Mediating Role of Employee Involvement". This is worth highlighting if there is no such literature, as it proves the actual academic gaps.

Fifthly, the methodological part needs to be completed, especially in the area of the research process. It is still unclear how you selected the hotels for the study. How many hotels were chosen first, how many managers did you talk to, and how many hotels dropped out along the way so that the final ones remained? How did you speak to the managers? Was it a survey or maybe an interview? If so, here is an additional research method.

Further: who interviewed the managers? Was the survey questionnaire pretested, and when? What does a certain level of sustainable initiatives mean (how did you specifically define them to indicate their intensity then? How did you manage the data collected (data protection)? Did you have the approval of your university's ethics committee to carry out the research (or is it perhaps unnecessary at your university)?

Sixthly, in "Conclusions", it is worth indicating clearly whether and how the research objectives were achieved. Additionally, for the consistency of the text, it is necessary to refer to each of the hypotheses and more fully justify their verification. It would also be good to explain why the Libyan perspective is essential to the readers of an international journal.

I hope you decide to make the corrections because, in sum, your research is interesting and deserves to be made public.

 

Yours sincerely. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewers,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your helpful comments on our paper. During these days, all of your comments have been carefully considered and these comments are of great help to us in improving the paper. We sincerely hope the responses and modifications of the manuscript will change your decision regarding this paper. Of course, if any of our responses or changes do not meet your standard, please do not hesitate to point them out and we will continue our work to revise the manuscript. Thank you very much for your great help!

Sincerely yours,

 

Reviewer 1

Dear Authors,

Thank you very much for sending your paper to "Sustainability". I read it with great interest as it addresses an existing research gap and provides guidance to practitioners in the hotel sector. Your study has a lot of potential and is certainly worth considering for publication. However, before this can happen, it needs some improvements.

Firstly, you need to improve the editing (e.g. spaces or lack of them, different fonts) and language (punctuation).

• Thank you for your valuable comment. We have edited the manuscript accordingly.

Secondly, the title is too long. As it is, it gives the impression that it connects two plots and thus lacks coherence. I suggest shortening it and remodeling it slightly. It could be, for example, "Employee involvement and socialization as an example of sustainable marketing strategy and organization's citizenship behavior: empirical evidence from Beirut Hotel Sector".

• We have changed the title based on your suggestion.

Thirdly, the "Introduction" is very elaborate, multithreaded, and rich in content. However, it needs some structuring as the diversity of issues covered is not very readable. I propose to start with the role of sustainability in the world (it is worth defining this phenomenon). Then we can indicate the fields in which sustainability occurs - management, ecology (etc.), and marketing. Here it would be possible to explain the meaning of sustainable marketing strategy and how sustainability manifests itself in marketing (e.g. as an element of promotion, CSR, and involvement of employees). Then it could be pointed out that such a marketing approach to sustainability occurs in various industries, e.g. in tourism, one of the most critical sectors of the world economy. Only then would it be possible to point out the differences in the literature and show the text's objectives with an explanation of why the Beirut Hotel Sector was chosen.

• We have added your suggestion in the introduction section.

Fourthly, the "Literature Review", together with the derivation of hypotheses, presents a reasonable level, but also here, it would be worthwhile to make improvements. At present, the narration of the chapter tends to be chaotic, and I suggest arranging it according to the key: a description of a given phenomenon and then a description of this phenomenon in the context of the tourism sector and hotels. The hotel element is missing the most here. It appears in "Sustainable marketing orientation" (but in several different places instead of one), but not in "Organizational Citizenship Behavior", "OCB and Sustainable Marketing Orientation", and "Mediating Role of Employee Involvement". This is worth highlighting if there is no such literature, as it proves the actual academic gaps.

• We appreciate your constructive comments and have modified this section.

Fifthly, the methodological part needs to be completed, especially in the area of the research process. It is still unclear how you selected the hotels for the study. How many hotels were chosen first, how many managers did you talk to, and how many hotels dropped out along the way so that the final ones remained? How did you speak to the managers? Was it a survey or maybe an interview? If so, here is an additional research method.

Further: who interviewed the managers? Was the survey questionnaire pretested, and when? What does a certain level of sustainable initiatives mean (how did you specifically define them to indicate their intensity then? How did you manage the data collected (data protection)? Did you have the approval of your university's ethics committee to carry out the research (or is it perhaps unnecessary at your university)?

• We have reported the noted missing information in the text.

Sixthly, in "Conclusions", it is worth indicating clearly whether and how the research objectives were achieved. Additionally, for the consistency of the text, it is necessary to refer to each of the hypotheses and more fully justify their verification. It would also be good to explain why the Libyan perspective is essential to the readers of an international journal.

I hope you decide to make the corrections because, in sum, your research is exciting and deserves to be made public.

• We thank you for your valuable comments and have added the further explanation in the conclusion section.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

Thank you for the opportunity to review this paper. The paper deals with interesting topic and I congratulate colleague (s) for succeeding to conduct the research during the Covid-pandemic.

The topic addressed by the authors (Sustainable marketing strategy to promote organization city-zenship behavior The role of employee involvement and em-ployee socialization; empirical evidence from Beirut Hotel Sector) is relevant, given the increasingly pronounced and frequent risks, from global warming to pollution and epidemics, care for the preservation of the planet and thus the importance of the concept of sustainable development, rational use of resources and corporate social responsibility as a kind of response to the trend of growing environmental pollution.

I have some comments, intended as constructive, which I hope that will be helpful in further improving your research.

Conceptual and theoretical foundation:

1. The theoretical concepts of “Sustainable Marketing Orientation (SMO)”, “Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)”, “Employee involvement (EI)” and “Employee socialization (ES)” should be defined in more details in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the topic.

2. On the other hand, on page 2 in the following paragraph: “.... Within the context of current research, tourism and hospitality industry is under examination regarding its level of sustainability and how impactful it is on employee outcomes. This industry is of essential importance due to its vast impacts on the environment as the extent of transportation, consumption and other human activities is extremely high. It has been noted that the industry is responsible for an estimate of 8% of carbon emissions (Carbon Brief, 2018). In addition, marketing initiatives have been increasing in parallel to the growth of economic state for more countries. This is linked to tourism as an industry being a highly influential element in economic growth (Gabbatiss, 2018; Kim, et al., 2020) ... “it is necessary to cite references from the hotel sector bearing in mind that the sample in your research consists of employees in hotels.

3. You need to pay attention to the abbreviations of the constructs you use. In general, you first specify an abbreviation that you do not define, so only later can you conclude from the text which construct the abbreviation refers to. For example, on page 2 you state the following: “.... The tourism and hospitality sector requires more un-derstanding and emphasis on OCB ...” without first explaining that OCB means organizational citizenship behavior.

4. As in the previous comment, on the same page you state ... ... Thus, it can be concluded that different levels of ES, without explaining that the abbreviation ES Employees socialization. The same applies to the abbreviation SMO - sustainable marketing orientation.

5. All hypotheses are well set, especially the moderating role of ES and the mediating role of EI.

Methodological foundation7

6. In the section Methodology,  it is stated: “The current research is conducted within the tourism and hospitality industry of Beirut, particularly in the hotel sector…” How is the research conducted within tourism if the sample consists only of hotel employees?

7. On page 8. In the Measures section, the item for the WMO questionnaire is missing: “…

For measuring sustainable marketing orientation, the scale developed by Lucic (2020) was used as a recent measure in the relevant literature. There is nosample item

8. The Conclusions section summarizes the most significant research results. However, despite the interesting result for the moderator of the ES, a more detailed discussion of the obtained result should be added.

 

I hope the comments are helpful to improve your paper and I wish you good luck for your further research.

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewers,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your helpful comments on our paper. During these days, all of your comments have been carefully considered and these comments are of great help to us in improving the paper. We sincerely hope the responses and modifications of the manuscript will change your decision regarding this paper. Of course, if any of our responses or changes do not meet your standard, please do not hesitate to point them out and we will continue our work to revise the manuscript. Thank you very much for your great help!

Sincerely yours,

Reviewer 2

Thank you for the opportunity to review this paper. The paper deals with an interesting topic and I congratulate my colleague (s) for succeeding to conduct the research during the Covid-pandemic.

The topic addressed by the authors (Sustainable marketing strategy to promote organization cityzenship behavior The role of employee involvement and employee socialization; empirical evidence from Beirut Hotel Sector) is relevant, given the increasingly pronounced and frequent risks, from global warming to pollution and epidemics, care for the preservation of the planet and thus the importance of the concept of sustainable development, rational use of resources and corporate social responsibility as a kind of response to the trend of growing environmental pollution.

I have some comments, intended as constructive, which I hope will be helpful in further improving your research.

Conceptual and theoretical foundation:

1. The theoretical concepts of “Sustainable Marketing Orientation (SMO)”, “Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)”, “Employee involvement (EI)” and “Employee socialization (ES)” should be defined in more detail in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the topic.

- thank you for your valuable comments, we have provided more information in this regard.

2. On the other hand, on page 2 in the following paragraph: “.... Within the context of current research, tourism and hospitality industry is under examination regarding its level of sustainability and how impactful it is on employee outcomes. This industry is of essential importance due to its vast impacts on the environment as the extent of transportation, consumption and other human activities are extremely high. It has been noted that the industry is responsible for an estimated 8% of carbon emissions (Carbon Brief, 2018). In addition, marketing initiatives have been increasing in parallel with the growth of the economic state of more countries. This is linked to tourism as an industry is a highly influential element in economic growth (Gabbatiss, 2018; Kim, et al., 2020) ... “it is necessary to cite references from the hotel sector bearing in mind that the sample in your research consists of employees in hotels.

- we appreciate your detailed notes and have provided more references in various sections as well as this paragraph that are tourism/hotel-related.

3. You need to pay attention to the abbreviations of the constructs you use. In general, you first specify an abbreviation that you do not define, so only later can you conclude from the text which constructs the abbreviation refers to. For example, on page 2 you state the following: “.... The tourism and hospitality sector requires more understanding and emphasis on OCB ...” without first explaining that OCB means organizational citizenship behavior.

- thank you for pointing out this issue, we have revised the text accordingly.

4. As in the previous comment, on the same page, you state ... ... Thus, it can be concluded that different levels of ES, without explaining that the abbreviation ES Employees socialization. The same applies to the abbreviation SMO - sustainable marketing orientation.

- thank you for pointing out this issue, we have revised the text accordingly

5. All hypotheses are well set, especially the moderating role of ES and the mediating role of EI.

Methodological foundation7

6. In the section Methodology,  it is stated: “The current research is conducted within the tourism and hospitality industry of Beirut, particularly in the hotel sector…” How is the research conducted within tourism if the sample consists only of hotel employees?

- following the references and sources that we have selected for this study, the hotel sector is regarded as a branch of the tourism and hospitality section. However, based on your comment we have deduced that the context is more specific to hospitality than tourism and have edited the sentence accordingly.

7. On page 8. In the Measuressection, the item for the WMO questionnaire is missing: “…

- thank you for pointing out this missing part, we have added a sample question to the section.

For measuring sustainable marketing orientation, the scale developed by Lucic (2020) was used as a recent measure in the relevant literature. 

8. The Conclusions section summarizes the most significant research results. However, despite the interesting result for the moderator of the ES, a more detailed discussion of the obtained result should be added.

 - we have provided more information in the conclusion section.

I hope the comments are helpful to improve your paper and I wish you good luck with your further research.

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper approaches an interesting subject.

In order to improve it, here are some suggestions:

- in the abstract it should be specified upfront that you talk about an organization operating in the tourism industry.

- when presenting the theoretical concepts start by defining them at first (first paragraph) and only after discuss them and relate them with other concepts, etc (sustainability, employees socialization). Some de definitions exist in the text (ex: OBC), but they are not in the right place. They need to be included first time when you introduce the concept.

- the Sustainable Marketing Orientation in the tourism sector is to be discussed in more concrete terms (with examples of activities for its dimensions, pillars, orientations).

- the hypotheses H1-H3 are not clearly defined: what relationships are analyzed ? (1. between which variables? - the order needs to be revised; 2. in what direction? - positive or negative )

- under methodology you need to justify the size of the sample (Ex: with test G Power)

- under measures, there is an incomplete sentence.

- however, the suggestion is to include the full questionnaire with the bibliographical references for the different items, in the appendix.

- under analysis: the number of male and female do not add up to the total number of people in your sample

- under analysis the sub-headings are not appropriate. Under measurement model assessment more information is to be included (Tables 1 and 2).

- there is a need for reorganization of the text, so that to include clearly (state as such):

     - what are the tests that you have conducted to evaluate a) measurement  model and b) structural model

    - to point out what are the acceptable thresholds for each test (including reference)

    - to state what is the situation in case of your research and comment on it.

At the moment information is all over the place and tests are mixed up and discussion about each of them is incomplete. A better structuring and reorganization is needed.

- it is indicated to run bootstrapping with 5000 samples, not 500

- moderating effects statistics are not included in the results section (neither in the text, nor in the table). Total direct and indirect effects are to be included in the table and discussed.

- in the implication sections: what kind of sustainable strategies can be adopted by managers? (as you have generally suggested)

- MAKE CLEAR WHAT COUNTRY DO YOU TALK ABOUT: is it LEBANON or IRAQ? Both countries appear in the text!

- editing suggestions: the size of the font needs to be the same; acronyms need to have explanations the first time they appear in the text (ES, CRS)

Author Response

Dear Reviewers,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your helpful comments on our paper. During these days, all of your comments have been carefully considered and these comments are of great help to us in improving the paper. We sincerely hope the responses and modifications of the manuscript will change your decision regarding this paper. Of course, if any of our responses or changes do not meet your standard, please do not hesitate to point them out and we will continue our work to revise the manuscript. Thank you very much for your great help!

Sincerely yours,

Reviewer 3

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper approaches an interesting subject.

To improve it, here are some suggestions:

- in the abstract, it should be specified upfront that you talk about an organization operating in the tourism industry.

- We appreciate your valuable comments and concerns, we have mentioned this matter in the abstract.

- when presenting the theoretical concepts start by defining them at first (first paragraph) and only after discussing them and relating them with other concepts, etc (sustainability, employees socialization). Some de definitions exist in the text (ex: OBC), but they are not in the right place. They need to be included the first time when you introduce the concept.

- thank you for this constructive comment, according to your comments and other respective reviewers, we have revised these sections.

- the Sustainable Marketing Orientation in the tourism sector is to be discussed in more concrete terms (with examples of activities for its dimensions, pillars, and orientations).

- this section has been revised

- the hypotheses H1-H3 are not clearly defined: what relationships are analyzed? (1. between which variables? - the order needs to be revised; 2. in what direction? - positive or negative )

- we have added the recommended terms to these hypotheses.

- under methodology, you need to justify the size of the sample (Ex: with test G Power)

- thank you for pointing out this missing information, we have added this info to the sampling section.

- under measures, there is an incomplete sentence.

- the issue is resolved.

- however, the suggestion is to include the full questionnaire with the bibliographical references for the different items, in the appendix.

- as some of the questions or scales are not fully available to the public and are to be purchased, we avoided writing a full questionnaire to comply with copyright issues.

- under analysis: the number of males and female do not add up to the total number of people in your sample

- this mistake was from the total data collected, we have corrected this issue.

- under analysis, the sub-headings are not appropriate. Under measurement model assessment more information is to be included (Tables 1 and 2).

- we have changed the placement of this section and tables.

- there is a need for reorganization of the text so that to include clearly (state as such):

     - what are the tests that you have conducted to evaluate a) measurement  model and b) structural model

    - to point out what are the acceptable thresholds for each test (including reference)

    - to state what is the situation in case of your research and comment on it.

• These issues have been addressed in the text.

At the moment information is all over the place and tests are mixed up and discussion about each of them is incomplete. Better structuring and reorganization are needed.

- it is indicated to run bootstrapping with 5000 samples, not 500

- a zero was left behind in the writing. We have corrected this issue

- moderating effects statistics are not included in the results section (neither in the text nor in the table). Total direct and indirect effects are to be included in the table and discussed.

- in the implication sections: what kind of sustainable strategies can be adopted by managers? (as you have generally suggested)

- MAKE CLEAR WHAT COUNTRY DO YOU TALK ABOUT: is it LEBANON or IRAQ? Both countries appear in the text!

- editing suggestions: the size of the font needs to be the same; acronyms need to have explanations the first time they appear in the text (ES, CRS)

• Thank you for the valuable, constructive, and detailed comments; we have edited the manuscript accordingly.

 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors, 

Thank you very much for the detailed revision of your paper and the in-depth answer to my doubts. I can see no further flaws in your study. I would like to recommend it for publication. 

Sincerely. 

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript has been improved and it can be accepted for publication.

Reviewer 3 Report

Authors have incorporated most of the reviewer's suggestions.