The role of integrating hotel sustainability reporting practices into an Accounting Information System to enhance Hotel Financial Performance: Evidence from Iraq.

• Main Authors: Yasir Mohammed Ali Al-Wattar, Akeel Hamza Almagtome, Karrar Mohammed AL-Shafeay
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AfricaJournals 2019-09-01
• Series: African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure
• Subjects: Accounting information system; Hotel sustainability reporting; hotel financial performance; financial reporting; hotel industry
• Online Access: https://www.ajhtl.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/article_25_vol_8_5__2019_iraq.pdf

Recently, the integration of the Accounting Information System (AIS) with sustainability reporting methods has become a thought-provoking area of study. This study aimed to explore the role of integration between accounting information system and sustainability reporting in enhancing financial performance in the hotel industry. It also explored the prospective association in the Iraqi hotel sector between environmental, social and economic reporting and financial results. The study relied on the financial data extracted from the annual reports of a sample of Iraqi hotels including the panel data from 10 hotels listed in The Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) for the period between 2013-2018. The content analysis technique was adopted to measure sustainability reporting using the Disclosure Index, which consisted of 84 indicators covering the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability reports based on GRI reporting indicators (GR 3.1.). The findings showed that the interaction between the accounting information system and the hotel sustainability reporting leads to an improvement in general financial performance results. These findings indicate that the present accounting system outputs do not fully fulfill the sustainability reporting requirements in the hotel industry and the decline in the reported information revealed in the annual reports among social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. It also noted that reporting on environmental information has a significantly greater effect on the hotel financial performance than reporting on economic and social information. The findings suggest that the positive relationship between reporting on hotel sustainability and financial performance in the Iraqi hotel industry may motivate management to provide more information about sustainability concerns in order to improve the hotel's financial performance.