Navigating institutional pressures in driving authentic environmental management practices in the hotel industry

Numerous studies identify external pressures encouraging hotels to adopt environmental management (EM) practices in response to growing demand for sustainability. While some hotels implement these practices substantively, others emphasise environmental claims in marketing, raising concerns about potential greenwashing. Authenticity has thus emerged as a critical factor. This paper analyses the impact of pressures on the adoption of authentic EM practices in the hotel industry through a systematic literature review following PRISMA guidelines and applying the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Our integrative synthesis shows that institutional pressures, coercive, normative, and mimetic, work as an interconnected system and are filtered through guest-perceived authenticity, reinforcing substantive practices or encouraging impression-oriented responses. By combining Institutional Theory with Impression Management Theory, we advance theoretical understanding and present a model explaining how hotels translate pressures into authentic EM or symbolic greenwashing, thereby clarifying the boundary between legitimacy and authenticity in sustainability implementation.