Page 120 - Sustaining Accommodation SMES

6Analysis

ingness, but the perceived inability to accommodate certification within
existing resource constraints and operational routines. Stern’s framework
therefore points to a clear intervention logic. Where contextual barriers
dominate, effective strategies must reduce the behavioural cost of adop-
tion by simplifying procedures, reducing administrative load, and low-
ering financial burdens, while capability interventions should strengthen
knowledge and navigational support. Attitudinal barriers require a dif-
ferent response, namely clarifying the business case and market relevance
of certification, particularly for firms that do not yet see sustainability as
central to their competitive positioning.
In summary, the Table 6.34 indicates that the adoption of iso 21401 is
constrained predominantly by feasibility-related conditions rather than
by a lack of sustainability-oriented values or intentions. The findings fur-
ther demonstrate that perceived barriers are heterogeneous and operate
through distinct behavioural pathways. This pattern aligns closely with
the theoretical framework proposed Stern (2000, 2005), which distin-
guishes between motivational factors, individual capabilities, and con-
textual constraints as separate determinants of environmentally signifi-
cant behaviour. From this perspective, low uptake of sustainability stan-
dards does not primarily reflect deficits in pro-environmental motiva-
tion, but rather limitations in organisational capacity and enabling con-
ditions, thereby indicating that policy interventions and support mea-
sures should focus on reducing contextual and capability-related barriers
rather than on attitudinal change.

iso 21401 adoption needs and enabling conditions
While the previous subsection focused on barriers that constrain the
adoption of iso 21401, this subsection shifts attention to the conditions
that respondents identify as necessary to enable adoption. Rather than
asking why adoption does not occur, the analysis examines what would
make adoption feasible under existing organisational and contextual con-
straints. Within Stern’s (2000) framework, such needs can be interpreted
as mechanisms that reduce the behavioural cost of environmentally sig-
nificant organisational behaviour. Where barriers increase effort, risk,
or uncertainty, enabling actions reduce these frictions by strengthening
organisational capacity, clarifying procedures, or modifying contextual
conditions. Analysing needs therefore provides a complementary per-
spective to the barrier analysis and helps identify leverage points for inter-
vention. Respondents assessed the importance of a set of enabling actions

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