Environmental Perception of Global Business Travel by Swiss Companies in the Zurich Airport Area, 2019-2020

Echeverria-Arrondo, Ignacio and Wolfs, Bert (2021). Environmental Perception of Global Business Travel by Swiss Companies in the Zurich Airport Area, 2019-2020. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-854930

This article presents findings from research conducted pre-COVID-19 on companies located in the Zurich airport region of Switzerland, regarding the need for global business travel and its impacts. Five hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics on survey data, three of which yielded significant relationships. Supporting Ha(1), a significant positive relationship was found between “travel frequency” and “business growth”, F(1, 100) = 11.31, p = 0.0011. Supporting Ha(4), corporate culture had a significant positive relationship with business travel frequency (F(1, 100) = 15.50, p = 0.0002) and average trip length (F(1, 100) = 6.39, p = 0.01). And thirdly Supporting Ha(5), corporate social responsibility had a significant relationship with global business travel (91 percent). Ho(2) and Ho(3) were accepted.
Deeper context was explored through an interview-based case-study. The research found that smart corporate travel policies and regulations should be instantiated to enhance our environment, which would also benefit employee wellbeing. Travel can be reduced significantly despite being demonstrated that physical co-presence is important for building trust. The case study suggests tools to support the monitoring and management of global business travel by organizations.
COVID-19 has impacted travel for business significantly, and future research will be necessary to assess its impact. The article explores the ongoing research in this area, and several relevant implications are proposed for future leaders.

Data description (abstract)

Research conducted pre-COVID-19 on companies located in the Zurich airport region of Switzerland, regarding the need for global business travel and its impacts. The collection consists of survey data in pdf and CSV, Chapter 4 - Research and findings from the dissertation and Chapter 5 - Case study from the dissertation.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Echeverria-Arrondo Ignacio	SBS Swiss Business School	http://www.orcid.org/0000-0002-7906-5709
Wolfs Bert	SBS Swiss Business School	http://www.orcid.org/0000-0001-8606-7182

Sponsors:

N/A

Topic classification:

Natural environment
Transport and travel
Society and culture

Keywords:

BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION STUDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS, GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY, CORPORATIONS, INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Project title:

Environmental Perception of Global Business Travel by Swiss Companies in the Zurich Airport Region.

Grant holders:

Ignacio Echeverria-Arrondo, Bert Wolfs

Project dates:

From	To
2 April 2018	4 September 2020

Date published:

22 Jun 2021 14:47

Last modified:

31 Aug 2021 18:43

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 November 2019	3 February 2020

Geographical area:

Zurich Airport Area

Country:

Switzerland

Spatial unit:

Postal > Postcode (Area)

Data collection method:

The survey targeted 400 respondents of which 104 completed questionnaires were received. This was a response rate of 26%. Low response rates, even under 10%, are not uncommon with web surveys, but future researchers may want to take account of the advice in van Mol (2015) and provide reminders for their potential participants. This would facilitate a larger sample size, as would increasing the number of invitations sent out. The basic demographic information of the respondents was included in the study as area of
working, level of employment. Gender and age questions were not included in the study however, the age range of the respondents is between 25 and 60 years old and the gender is 30-40 percent female and 60-70 percent male. In the case study, the gender is four out of
15 females, meaning 26 percent female and 74 percent male. The survey has four blocks. The first one is related to travelling for business and its purpose or goal achievement and business growth, as well as the characteristics in terms of length of time and frequency. There are also two questions related to the usage of ICT or
“remote meeting”. The second block has a series of questions related to the environment, sustainability and micro-mobility; which concerns the relationships between environmental awareness and the consequences of global business travel. This is viewed as individual and as a corporation. The third is related to the corporate culture and corporate social responsibilities; this concerns the relationship between corporate culture and further thoughts on policies related to global business travel and environmental sustainability. The fourth block includes a range of open question which gives deeper knowledge on micro-mobility, contractual travel expectation, incorporation of the environmental dimension on the
corporation, corporate and individual advantages and disadvantages of global business travel, and any other thoughts that may be related to global business travel.

Observation unit:

Individual

Kind of data:

Numeric, Text

Type of data:

Other surveys

Resource language:

English, German

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

Data collected and coded in this way can be analyzed in multiple methods, two of which will be used in this chapter. One is by assigning a numeric value to each of the options in the Likert seven scale, and then using those numeric values to do calculations and analysis. Here, the researcher has assigned to the central option “neither agree nor disagree” the numeric value of zero. Negative values were assigned to the three “disagree” options and positive values were assigned to the three “agree” options. The intensity with which one agreed or disagreed was coded by absolute value. So, “very strongly agree” was coded as “3”, “strongly agree” as “2”, and “agree” as “1”. Similarly, “very strongly disagree” was coded as “-3”, “strongly disagree” as “-2” and “disagree” as “-1”.The second method that will be used for analyzing Likert seven scale data is by categorizing each response based on whether the statement was agreed. Values ranging from +1 to +3 (“agree” to “very strongly agree”) were coded as an “agreement” of the statement. Values ranging from -3 to -1 (“very strongly disagree” to “disagree”) were coded as a “non�agreement”. The neutral response “0” ("neither agree nor disagree”) was also coded as a “non-agreement”, as agreement is taken to be an active choice. So, values of -3, -2, -1, and 0 were categorized as “non-agreement” and values of +1, +2, and +3 were categorized as “agreement”

Rights owners: