Environmental Sustainability Practices in Family-Owned Accommodation SMEs: Assessing Performance Through Competitive Advantage

Family-owned accommodation enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), play a critical role in tourism economies, yet their contribution to environmental sustainability transitions remains underexamined. Drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV), this study examines the relationship between environmental sustainability practices and perceived business performance in family-owned accommodation SMEs in Greece, considering cost advantage and differentiation advantage as parallel mediators. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire completed by representatives of 136 family-owned accommodation SMEs between March and April 2026. Environmental sustainability practices were measured as the breadth of adoption of 22 operational practices related to energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies, water conservation and management, and waste reduction and circular resource management. Business performance was assessed through a broad perceptual composite, whereas cost advantage and differentiation advantage were assessed using reflective multi-item scales. The results show that environmental sustainability practices were positively related to perceived business performance, cost advantage, and differentiation advantage. In the main mediation model, the indirect association through cost advantage was statistically significant, whereas the indirect association through differentiation advantage was not statistically significant. These findings suggest that, in family-owned accommodation SMEs, operational environmental practices may be more readily connected with business outcomes through resource efficiency, cost control, and operational consistency than through a differentiation pathway. The study refines the application of the Resource-Based View by showing how established competitive mechanisms operate when sustainability is represented by the breadth of specific operational practices in the resource-constrained context of family-owned accommodation SMEs.