Resilience and Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance in Spain’s Hotel Industry, 2020–2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26867/se.2026.15.2.328Keywords:
Corporate resilience, ESG, hotel industry, crisis management, corporate sustainabilityAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the Spanish hotel industry to a systemic shock that tested the sustainability of corporate commitment to sustainable development in a context of scarce resources. In this study, we analyze the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies of four major Spanish hotel chains (Meliá Hotels International, NH Hotel Group, Barceló Hotel Group, and RIU Hotels & Resorts) over the
period 2020-2023 using a comparative multiple case study design. We analyze information from audited
consolidated financial statements, Non-Financial Information Statements (NFIS), and corporate sustainability reports. We test three hypotheses: how pre-pandemic financial resilience affects ESG investments during the crisis, how ESG commitments act as a stabilizing factor in post-crisis recovery and are not purely financial, and how strategic heterogeneity exists among the chains. We find different responses among the companies and observe that the different types of corporate strategies are based on three strategic configurations. From a theoretical standpoint, the study contributes to the organizational resilience literature by introducing the concept of ESG resilience and challenging resource slack theory as an economic model in the face of an acute crisis. The practical implications concern strategic hotel management and corporate sustainability policies for sectors where stakeholder-friendly practices are significant.
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