Impacts of corporate social responsibility on the competitiveness of tourist enterprises: An empirical case of Ben Tre, Vietnam

This study aims at identifying the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the competitiveness of tourist enterprises in an emerging tourism region – Mekong Delta in Vietnam with an empirical case of Ben Tre Province. Combining qualitative and quantitative research methods, we conducted a survey of 250 respondents including directors, deputy directors, managing and running tourism businesses. Through statistical tests of scale reliability, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling, we found that there are five perspectives of CSR significantly affecting the enterprise competitiveness, including (1) human-oriented CSR, (2) social activity–oriented CSR, (3) partner-oriented CSR, (4) environment-oriented CSR and (5) product and service quality–oriented CSR. Especially, this study identified the important roles of three new elements discovered through our expert interviews and group discussions, including ‘connection between business culture development strategy and the local and native cultures’, ‘tourism products/services promoting local special features’ and ‘tourism products/services promoting green environment’. From these findings, we proposed some managerial implications for policymakers to have proper policies in promoting CSR among tourist enterprises and improving their competitiveness