The perception of corporate social responsibility of the city of Porto

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the perception of the city of Porto as a destination engaged with social responsibility practices. The authors intend to analyse if the national and international tourists know the social responsibility practices of the city and if they associate them to the domains of community, environment and customer presented by Öberseder et al. (2014) and the type of CSR image that is presented (Dean, 2002; Lichtenstein et al., 2004; Menon and Kahn, 2003). Design/methodology/approach – The authors used a survey to assess the perception of the tourist regarding the social responsibility practices of the city of Porto. The authors applied a factorial analysis and a logistic regression. Findings – The tourists showed an adequate knowledge regarding the social responsibility practices carried out by the city. The respondents separated the dimensions of perceptions of CSR and revealed that they influence the (re)visit and further recommendation of the city. More specifically, the authors also verified that the CSR image and community, environment and customer domains play an important role in the knowledge of the social responsibility practices engaged by the city of Porto. Originality/value – It is the first time that the scales of Öberseder et al. (2014) and Dean (2002), Lichtenstein et al. (2004) and Menon and Kahn (2003) were applied in the tourism context. Furthermore, considering that the city of Porto presents a high level of growth in tourism related activities, it is important to study the impact of CSR in the development of a sustainable tourism and its impact on the (re)visit and recommendation.