Professorship RIU Hotels & Resorts:ESCP as Academic Partner for CSR

After several years of mutual collaboration, ESCP Business School (Madrid Campus) and RIU Hotels & Resorts have established a professorship agreement. The aim is the design and development of joint projects and activities of applied research, knowledge transfer, dissemination, teaching and innovation in the field of CSR.

This Professorship, launched in 2022, is led by Lola Herrero, Associate Professor at ESCP Business School (Madrid Campus) and Jean-Baptiste Say Institute Scientific-Academic Director (Madrid Campus).

Catalina Alemany, CSR manager, RIU Hotels & Resorts
A few words from Catalina Alemany CSR manager
RIU Hotels & Resorts

The journey of Corporate Social Responsibility that we decided to undertake a few years ago has led us to a crossroads, to a range of possible destinations. And, after having traveled many kilometers of the journey together with ESCP Business School (Madrid Campus), we want to formalize and give rigor to this shared adventure in order to define, from the systematic basis provided by applied academic research, new directions and challenges.

Catalina Alemany, CSR manager at RIU Hotels & Resorts

Scientific Director Prof. Prof. Lola Herrero
A few words from the Scientific Director Prof. Lola Herrero

One of the guiding principles of ESCP Business School is based on the belief that there is no research without dissemination and diffusion. That is why it is a pleasure to have signed this agreement with RIU HOTELS & RESORTS to continue jointly developing academic applied projects that contribute to sustainability and social investment in the hotel industry, and thus transfer the results of our collaboration to society.

Prof. Lola Herrero, Associate Professor at ESCP Business School (Madrid Campus)

Objectives

More than 5 years of mutual collaboration have resulted in the establishment of the professorship RIU HOTELS & RESORTS: ESCP Business School (Madrid Campus) AS ACADEMIC PARTNER FOR CSR, whose main objective is the design and development of joint projects and activities of applied research, knowledge transfer, dissemination, teaching and innovation in the field of CSR.

This general objective will be achieved throughout two lines of work.

Lines of work

1) Exploring and designing LEARNING COMMUNITIES: "Start spreading the news...!”:

Design of a knowledge collection and dissemination unit to execute studies for the promotion and dissemination of applied science and knowledge transfer in the field of Hotel CSR. In particular, this work line will focus on the CSR social investment return and impact on society/nearby communities.

2) AD-HOC Academic CRS consulting Missions: “Sustainability In ACT-I-ON”

Complementing, improving, consolidating and standardizing the CSR initiatives implemented in academic technical assistances executed in previous years:

  • "RIU Method of diagnosis-target" (Costa Rica, 2018)
  • "SSIP: Results-oriented monitoring system" (Mexico, 2019).
  • "External field evaluation: qualitative contrast and proposals for improving the results of implemented projects" (Artola Clinic Costa Rica, 2021).

Academic consulting missions will be yearly determined and designed, which will contribute to the line of work no. 1.

RIU Method

Out of this collaboration, RIU developed RIU Method with ESCP Business School in 2019, which is a unique work that serves as a key tool for the CSR team to decide what actions or projects to carry out in each country, always taking into account two priority lines: people (childhood and local community) and biodiversity.

The RIU Method is a social innovation model with which the company works to identify and manage the impact that its activity has on the destinations where its hotels operate. As part of their long-term strategy, aimed at achieving a hotel model that is more responsible for people and the environment in the 20 countries where its 100 hotels are located, RIU created a new CSR website under the slogan “Be RIUsponsible”

The Team

Catalina Alemany, CSR manager, RIU Hotels & Resorts

Catalina Alemany
CSR manager
RIU Hotels & Resorts

Scientific Director Prof. Prof. Lola Herrero

Lola Herrero
Associate Professor (ESCP)
and Jean-Baptiste Say Institute Scientific-Academic Director

PhD Adriana Hurtado, part-time research assistant

Adriana Hurtado
Part-time research assistant
ESCP Business School

Focus On…

2023 in Professorship RIU X ESCP – A never ending love story

News

2023 in Professorship RIU X ESCP – A never ending love story

17 January 2024
It seems yesterday that ESCP Business School signed a Professorship agreement with RIU Hotels & Resorts to work on hospitality CSR and social investment. However, we have just successfully concluded the second year of working together, and it has been a truly reflective and productive process of co-working, which will lay solid foundations for further work in the coming years. 2023? has been marked by two lines of action that, even if they have been different, have generated synergies between them.

News & Events

News

Events

Research & Publications

Publication
Public–private partnership as an innovative approach for sustainable tourism in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

ESCP Business School
8 April 2019

This paper aims to discuss the importance of promoting public–private partnerships (PPPs) as innovative forms of governance to increase the sustainability of this tourism model.

Written by María Dolores Herrero Amo and M. Cristina De Stefano

 

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