Contribution of corporate social responsibility studies to the intellectual structure of the hospitality and tourism literature

Abstract

This study aims to identify the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies in formulating the intellectual structure of the hospitality and tourism literature by conducting a bibliometric analysis. A total of 8049 articles published in the top six hospitality and tourism journals between 1973 and 2019 and 401,473 listed references are extracted from Scopus. BibExcel and VOSviewer are used to develop and visualize bibliometric mapping and indicate the level of contribution of the CSR studies. Findings show that environmental responsibility outweighs the other CSR-related topics. In addition, stakeholder theory is the most commonly applied theory in the CSR literature, and five research clusters are identified. Furthermore, CSR-related studies remain in the emerging stage in the hospitality and tourism literature, and studies examining the perspectives of local communities are scarce. Finally, a holistic approach is necessary in CSR-related studies to connect and consolidate current CSR knowledge.