Special Employment Centres, Time Factor and Sustainable Human Resources Management in Spanish Hotel Industry: Can Corporate Social Marketing Improve the Labour Situation of People with Disabilities?

Abstract

Background: Low-quality jobs, long working hours and difficult scheduling of hours have been usually reported in the hotel industry. The situation is more difficult for people with disabilities (PWD), even more in the COVID-19 crisis, especially in terms of labour inclusion (due to the labour discrimination usually suffered by this collective). Thus, Special Employment Centres (SEC) have been created in Spain to spread protected employment of PWD. Although they are improving the situation in the short term, the long-term impact developing sustainable employment is not clear. The objective of this paper is to analyze the Spanish situation, the possible differences between sheltered employment and the ordinary labour market, how SEC could be improving (or not) their labour situation in the hotel sector in the long term, and the potential of incorporating Corporate Social Marketing to overcome the problem. Methods: A content bibliographic analysis has been carried out according to the latest research about this topic, using a ProKnow-C methodology. Results: There seems to be two different groups of papers (supply and demand sides), being the supply side one (focused on HR practices about PWD inclusion and managers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities) more related to our research objective. Furthermore, few articles were found about SEC and Corporate Social Marketing in relation to this topic, highlighting the originality of this research approach. Conclusions: According to our bibliographic portfolio, the presence of labour discrimination in the regular market is more evident; and, in the long term, two opposite situations could be happening simultaneously: (a) SEC would be reinforcing the social stigma, hindering the labour situation of PWD; (b) SEC could be changing the social perspectives of clients and all society in a positive manner. Therefore, it would be necessary to go in-depth into the present subject, from an academic but also practical perspective, incorporating an innovative Corporate Social Marketing approach in order to shed new light on this issue and improving effective sustainable employment of PWD.

1. Introduction

Before the COVID-19 crisis, tourism had reached a global level of business similar to oil, food or automobile exports. Thus, the tourism sector generated 10.4% of global GDP, positioning as the second largest industry worldwide. In the last five years, this industry has emerged as one of the main drivers of socio-economic development, creating one in five new jobs [1,2]. In this context, Spain was one of the most established and popular tourist destinations internationally, with great importance of the hotel industry, although with low-quality employment in general terms [3].

Several studies have pointed out that the absence of employee control to regulate the duration and characteristics of their working hours (long workdays and difficult scheduling of hours) has a strong negative impact on their physical and psychological well-being (and, therefore, in their work performance, see, for example, [4] or [5], among others), especially in the hotel sector, generating interpersonal and work conflicts [6,7]. This way, long working hours are usual in this industry (see [8,9,10,11], among others), as well as difficult working schedules, with variable and unpredictable working conditions [12,13]. In this sense, hotel workers usually consider their working time as one of the most pressing job characteristics [14].

People with disabilities (PWD) have to face an even worse situation. The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting PWD more negatively [15,16]. This group starts from a situation weighed down by a series of stigmas, prejudices in the perception and discrimination of the rest of the population [17,18,19,20]. This situation exacerbates their precariousness [16]. To the low employment rates [21,22] and their decrease due to the current economic recession [23,24], must be added its lower activity rates [25,26]. In a sector such as tourism, that closed more than 70% of borders and registered restrictions in 100% of the world destinations [27]. In this scenario, economic losses are huge, as well as their effects on employment [28,29].

In order to improve the labour inclusion and working conditions of PWD, Special Employment Centres (SEC) have been created in Spain [30]. These protected employment centres are responsible for a high employment rate of PWD [31,32]. However, they can also reinforce the social stigma that must overcome in the long term, making the situation difficult to change in the ordinary market [32,33]. In the hotel sector, Ref. [30] developed a case study in a well-known Spanish tourist destination to study the possible impacts of SEC on PWD labour inclusion, as well as the improvement of their working conditions, taking into consideration psychological aspects (social stigma and stress theories) to explain the situation. Importantly, we might wonder: is the long-term impact of SEC in the labour situation of PWD clear? Furthermore, this research pointed to the need (p. 18) “…to delve into the causes of social stigma and more effective ways to change behaviours (reducing/eliminating social stigma, boosting positive behaviours and enhancing functional coping strategies to deal with this psychological stress and improve the labour inclusion of people with disabilities)”.

On the other hand, [34] mentioned that “Social marketing is the design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research” (p. 5). According to [35], it could be defined as: “[…] the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society” (p. 7). Wiebe [36], that could be considered a Social Marketing precursor, formulates “Why can’t you sell brotherhood and rational thinking like you sell soap?” (p. 679). In [37,38,39,40,41], more details about the theoretical background and definitions of Social Marketing can be found.

In this way, the aim of Social Marketing is to change the target behaviour to benefit the general population or those who have a disadvantaged situation. Without intending to be exhaustive, it would be necessary to distinguish between Social Marketing and Corporate Social Marketing (when these actions are carried out by private organizations). Ref. [42] defines Corporate Social Marketing as a type of Corporate Social Initiative (in relation to Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR), the application of Social Marketing by a company. However, many authors have a more critical point of view. Thus, according to [43,44], even when this contributes to the public good, Corporate Social Marketing would not be considered Social Marketing at all. In this case, philanthropic actions only constitute a way to reach the highest goal for companies: a good positioning to increase sales and profits [45]. Therefore, an incorrect application could also have devastating consequences (if the purpose of the campaign seems unrelated to business core strategies, clients tend to suspect, and this situation could have an adverse impact on the image, see [46]).

The application of Corporate Social Marketing in the hotel industry has usually focused on the consumption of environmental resources (the use of water, reuse towel programs, etc., see [47]), the relationship with Green Marketing [48], some charity experiences in luxury hotels [49], and other activities more related to Corporate Social Responsibility ([50], among others). However, it could be worth asking: could Corporate Social Marketing be used to effectively change behaviours about this issue, improving PWD labour inclusion and better working conditions? Although there are other ways to change behaviours (such as education, see [51], or legislation), Corporate Social Marketing seems to be a powerful tool to be implemented by companies in order to voluntary modify negative social behaviours (and to improve the positive ones), according to what has been previously exposed, and the potential showed by traditional Marketing in order to achieve its commercial goals (remember [36], and the soap again).

In spite of the fact that there is a growing academic interest in issues related to disability, sustainability, and employment ([52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60], among others), as Ref. [32] mentioned, there is still limited information about workers with disabilities in the scientific literature.

Thus, the aim of this paper is to study in-depth the Spanish situation, how SEC could be improving the labour situation of PWD in the hotel sector (in the short and in the long term), the possible differences with the ordinary labour market, and the potential of incorporating Corporate Social Marketing to face the issue. To do so, a content analysis of the state of the art will be carried out with extensive bibliometric information, using a ProKnow-C methodology. Choosing which studies will go on to be part of the theoretical background is essential for the beginning of any analysis. In this way, for this reason, the application of the Knowledge Development Process-Constructivist (ProKnow-C) becomes necessary, in order to select bibliographic material to support the scientific research to become complete and extensive. The said methodology was developed in order to select studies that are highly aligned with the research topic, which entails not only the identification of the most relevant articles of a bibliographic portfolio, but also, to choose those that best suit the purpose of the authors.

So that, Section 2 of this paper describes the methodology developed (ProKnow-C methodology, content analysis, and bibliometric descriptive analysis). In Section 3, the main results of this research can be found. The next section describes the discussion and implications of the results, and the final section highlights the conclusions and recommendations for future research.

2. Materials and Methods

In this paper, a systematic bibliographic review is carried out in order to locate the most relevant studies based on a series of keywords, trying to synthesize the most outstanding scientific contributions regarding SEC or protected employment for PWD in the Spanish hotel industry (and the possible relationship with Corporate Social Marketing to improve their situation).

Systematic literature reviews are characterized by an explicit and clearly defined question; an exhaustive and systematic search for studies; explicit and reproducible strategy for the detection and inclusion of studies; explicit and reproducible data extraction (encoding); analysis and reporting of appropriate results; data-backed interpretations; and implications for future research and, if relevant, for policy or practice [61].

These steps are followed by the construction of knowledge that is proposed here, using ProKnow-C, which is a relatively recent methodology, since its implementation was designed in 2005 (Laboratory of Multicriteria Methodologies in Support of Decision, LabMCDA, of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC). The use of this methodology on impact journals rapidly spreads in a progressive and constant way, linking the mapping of a topic with a scientific process of knowing how to search, select, evaluate, and analyze information in order to be able to use it in the construction of knowledge ([62,63,64,65,66,67,68], among others).

This methodology has been proven to be more efficient than other methodologies for selecting and analyzing relevant articles, since methods such as the so-called Methodi Ordinatio [69], which uses an adaptation of ProKnow-C for the selection of publications and the InOrdinatio, to classify the selected works by relevance, generates greater biases [70].

Therefore, the choice of ProKnow-C as a working methodology that allows quantifying and analyzing the generated knowledge is justified. The ProKnow-C begins with the selection of a bibliographic portfolio on the topic to be analyzed and the bibliometrics of all written sources (authors, publication title, type of document, language, abstract, and keywords or descriptors), to continue with the systematic analysis and obtaining a response to the objectives of the research carried out.

Thus, according to [67,71], the ProKnow-C methodology is generally divided into two main phases, as can be seen in Figure 1. The first phase is focused on the selection of the raw articles bank. On the other hand, the second phase deals with the filtering process of the papers.

Thus, to obtain the bank of raw articles, in stage 1.1 the keywords defined to this research were: “Special Employment Centres” or “sheltered employment”, “time factor” or “working hours”, “human resources”, “sustainable employment” or “employment”, “hotel industry” or “hotel”, “people with disabilities” or “disability”, and “Corporate Social Marketing” or “Social Marketing”.

Subsequently, the databases to be used were determined. Taking into account that the results must contain the most relevant scientific articles on the subject, the Web of Science (WOS) database was chosen (following authors such as [67] or [72]), because it is the main international and multidisciplinary database that only indexes well-known and prestigious journals, the most cited ones in their respective areas.

Due to the multidisciplinary and the breadth of the scope of this research, a broad search was carried out for research articles that brought together all the previous basic keywords, jointly, in pairs, or grouped in three. The different keywords have been combined to expand the raw database, so that a total of 21 different searches were carried out, using the search fields: title, abstract, and keywords. Then, an adherence test was carried out to check if it would be necessary to include new keywords in our research so that the bibliographic portfolio would be well aligned.

After that, the filtering process of the raw article bank (the second phase) started. Thus, if the first phase involved identifying the keywords, defining the database, and selecting the scientific research to be analyzed (also defining the search commands, see [71]), in the second phase, the articles were read, which made it possible to verify their scientific recognition. It began with the search for the number of citations that each article had, also eliminating possible duplications or inconsistencies. Following [72], a refinement was carried out, taking into consideration the research area, type of document (only articles), and the language (English, as it is the priority language in scientific publications, although Spanish was also used, since it is the place of origin of the SEC hotels analyzed, but no significative results were obtained in this language). Subsequently, the titles and abstracts of the articles were read to select those aligned with the research topic in order to store them in the database to be analyzed. The final step was a complete comprehensive reading of the papers in stage 2.3 (according to Figure 1) to obtain the final portfolio of articles. The data collection and the selection process (as well as the risk of bias assessment) were carried out and agreed (by consensus) by the entire research team. To obtain or confirm relevant information from study investigators, a multi-source bibliographic search and critical content analysis were carried out by the authors.

It is necessary to remember that the objective of this paper is to study in-depth how SEC could be improving the labour situation of PWD in the Spanish hotel sector (in the short and long term), the possible differences with the ordinary labour market and the potential of incorporating Corporate Social Marketing to face the issue, analyzing a relevant portfolio of articles that shed some new light into that situation. In this regard, this is not a general literature review about a broad topic, since our analysis is more specific, with a clear objective (consequently, the selection process regarding the bibliometric analysis is focused on the papers somehow related to this objective).

It should be also added that, to carry out an in-depth bibliometric analysis of some aspects of the implemented methodology, the VOS Viewer application has been used, which, according to [72] “…provide a range of visualization, analysis, an innovative research” (p. 5), being very useful for our research objective.

3. Results

In this section, the results obtained with the methodology carried out in this research will be described in detail. Thus, after following the process described in Section 2, in stage 1.3, a total amount of 5943 papers were obtained, with the different searches carried out. However, the scarcity of articles found in relation to SEC, as well as Corporate Social Marketing with relationship to the subject under study was striking, which highlights the novelty and originality of this research approach (this absence is the first relevant result of this investigation).

So that, it was necessary to focus on the keywords “employment”, “hotel” and “disabilit*” (it could be disability or disabilities, for instance). In a first search carried out on the terms independently, the WOS data were: the term “employment” showed 299,409 documents, while “hotel” obtained a result of 53,703 works and “disabilit*” reached 475,437 investigations. Using “hotel” and “disability”, the number of articles is 172. The selection of the bibliographic portfolio searching the three keywords at the same time (“employment”, “hotel”, and “disabilit*”) contributed 29 papers presented in the Web of Science database, on 10 August 2021, of which 28 are articles and 1 international conference (stage 2.1 of the process).

Next, a descriptive bibliometric analysis was carried out on the bibliographic characteristics of this first data set. The documents that make up this group of publications obtained a total of 317 citations, without self-citations 295, an average of 10.93 citations per article, and with an h-index of nine. In Figure 2, a considerable increase is observed in 2018 (starting from 2015), a small decrease in 2020 and a continued increase to date, which highlights the interest shown in scientific research on this topic.

In Figure 3, it can be seen that the most prolific year in this type of publication was 2019, more than double the articles of the present 2021 (not yet finished), despite the fact that the number of citations was much higher.

The areas of knowledge are, by importance (Figure 4): Business Economics, Psychology, Social Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Sociology, Public Environmental Occupational Health, Behavioral Sciences, Health Care Sciences, Social Issues, and Geography.

In Figure 5 there can be found the source titles, highlighting Cornell Hospitality Quarterly with four articles, followed by the International Journal of Hospitality Management and Personnel Review with two.

As it has been explained in Section 2, a refinement was carried out according to [72], filtering by the research area (selecting Business Economics, Psychology, Social Sciences Other Topics, Sociology, Environmental Sciences Ecology, Social Work, and Public Environmental Occupational Health, in relation to title and abstract alignment), type of document (only articles), and the language (English). Thus, after reading the titles of the articles, abstracts were also analyzed, and the number of articles reduces to a total amount of 19 papers at the end of stage 2.2.

To obtain the final portfolio of articles, it was necessary to analyze the alignment with the full article. After this, 17 articles were selected to be part of the final bibliographic portfolio, with a total alignment with the proposed issue, taking into account the methodological considerations previously made, as can be seen in

Table 1. Portfolio of WOS publications on “employment”, “hotel”, and “disabilit*”.

Nº	Authors	Year	Title	Publication	Citations
1	Gröschl	2013	Presumed incapable: Exploring the validity of negative judgments about persons with disabilities and their employability in hotel operations [18].	Cornell Hospitality Quarterly	28
2	Cruz-Morato, Dueñas-Zambrana and García-Mestanza	2021	Disability, Human Resources and Behavioral Economics: The Labour Inclusion Case of Ilunion Hotels of the Costa del Sol (Spain) [30].	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	0
3	Al Fardan and Morris	2019	The employment of people with special needs within hotels in Dubai [73].	Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes	2
4	Kwan	2020	Socially responsible human resource practices to improve the employability of people with disabilities. [74]	Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management	1
5	McIntosh and Harris	2018	Representations of hospitality at the special needs hotel [19].	International Journal of Hospitality Management	5
6	Meacham et al.	2019	Ethical management in the hotel sector: Creating an authentic work experience for workers with intellectual disabilities [75].	Journal of Business Ethics	8
7	Paez and Arendt	2014	Managers’ attitudes towards people with disabilities in the hospitality industry [76].	International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration	14
8	de Sá et al.	2017	Human resources practices and inclusion of people with disabilities in the hotel industry of Belém, Brazil: a multiple case study [77].	REGE-Revista de Gestão	2
9	Köseoglu et al.	2021	Hiring People with Disabilities as a CSR strategy in the Tourism Industry [78].	Tourism Analysis	0
10	Williams et al.	2005	Disability management practices in education, hotel/motel, and health care workplaces [79].	American Journal of Industrial Medicine	15
11	Kalargyrou, Barber and Kuo	2018	The impact of disability on guests’ perceptions of service quality delivery in the hospitality industry [80].	International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management	7
12	Meacham et al.	2017	HRM practices that support the employment and social inclusion of workers with an intellectual disability [81].	Personnel Review	13
13	Luu	2019	The well-being among hospitability employees with disabilities: The role of disability inclusive benevolent leadership [82].	International Journal of Hospitality Management	10
14	Madera, Taylor and Barber	2020	Customer service evaluations of employees with disabilities: The roles of perceived competence and service failure [83].	Cornell Hospitality Quarterly	4
15	Meacham et al.	2017	Innovation programs at the workplace for workers with an intellectual disability: Two case studies in large Australian organisations [84].	Personnel Review	2
16	Kalargyrou, Trivellas, and Sigala	2020	Guests’ stereotyping and quality evaluations of service delivered by employees with disabilities: does service failure matter? [85]	Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research	2
17	Houtenville and Kalargyrou	2012	People with disabilities: Employers’ perspectives on recruitment practices, strategies, and challenges in leisure and hospitality [86].	Cornell Hospitality Quarterly	68

Source: Own elaboration with Web of Science information.

.

Following [67,72], a bibliometric analysis was implemented, being “…an important phase of the qualification process of the bibliographic portfolio” [67] (p. 1264). Thus, according to these authors, we analyzed the most influential authors, articles, journals, institutions and countries in the bibliographic portfolio. In order to do this analysis, as it was previously mentioned, the Web of Science filtered file was imported into VOS viewer.

Starting with the number of publications (

Table 2. Most contributing authors (number of documents and citations).

Author	Number of Documents	Number of Citations
Kalargyrou, Valentini	4	77
Bartram, Timothy	3	23
Cavanagh, Jillian	3	23
Meacham, Hannah	3	23
Shaw, Amie	2	15
Barber, Nelson A.	2	11

Source: Own elaboration with Web of Science information.

), the most prolific authors (with a higher number of publications in which they were authors or coauthors) and the influence of each of these authors (measured by the total amount of citations of the selected papers) could be found. Thus, Kalargyrou is the most contributing author in this bibliographic portfolio (with 4 documents and 77 citations), followed by Bartram, Cavanagh, and Meacham (all of them with 3 documents and 23 citations, because they are co-authors of these papers). The third position of this ranking is to Shaw (2 documents and 15 citations), followed by Barber (2 documents and 11 citations). The rest of the authors of this portfolio have only one document each, which is why they do not appear in this table (although an analysis of the relevance of all the articles, measured by the number of citations, was also developed).

Thus, focusing on the influence of the articles of this portfolio (their scientific recognition, measured by the number of citations, see [67]), according to the information in Table 1, the most influencing paper would be “People with disabilities: Employers’ perspectives on recruitment practices, strategies, and challenges in leisure and hospitality” [86], with 68 citations, followed by “Presumed incapable: Exploring the validity of negative judgments about persons with disabilities and their employability in hotel operations” [18], with 28 citations. However, it is striking that this last author, with only one paper in this selection, has more citations than others with two or three publications as we have seen in Table 2. In the third position, it could be found the research “Disability management practices in education, hotel/motel, and health care workplaces” [79], with 15 citations (again, note that this author, with only one document, equals or exceeds the number of citations of other authors on the list with two publications seen in Table 2). On the other hand, although papers “Hiring People with Disabilities as a CSR strategy in the Tourism Industry” [78] and “Disability, Human Resources and Behavioral Economics: The Labour Inclusion Case of Ilunion Hotels of the Costa del Sol (Spain)” [30] have no citations yet, their permanence in the portfolio has been decided due to their broad thematic affinity to the object of this research, and also because they are recent publications (year 2021, which could explain the current absence of citations).

In

Table 3. Number of articles and citations by journal.

Journal	Number of Documents	Number of Citations
Cornell Hospitality Quarterly	3	100
International Journal of Hospitality Management	2	15
Personnel Review	2	15
American journal of industrial medicine	1	15
International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration	1	14
Journal of Business Ethics	1	8
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management	1	7
Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research	1	2
REGE-Revista de Gestão	1	2
Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes	1	2
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management	1	1
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	1	0
Tourism analysis	1	0

Source: Own elaboration with Web of Science information.

, the most important journals (taking into account the number of documents and the number of citations) which had published the papers of this selected portfolio can be found. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly stands out, with 3 documents and 100 citations, followed by the International Journal of Hospitality Management and Personnel Review (both with two papers and 15 citations). The results are similar to Figure 5 (highlighting the wide interdisciplinary nature of this issue), although much more accurate to the topic after filtering.

Moreover, the institutions (and their countries) of the authors of the selected bibliographic portfolio are shown in

Table 4. Number of articles and citations by organizations.

Institution	Country	Number of Documents	Number of Citations
University of New Hampshire	USA	5	81
La Trobe University	Australia	3	23
Griffith University	Australia	2	15
ESSEC Business School	France	1	28
McMaster University	Canada	1	15
University of Texas	USA	1	15
University of Costa Rica	Costa Rica	1	14
Iowa State University	USA	1	14
Swinburne University of Technology	Australia	1	10
University of Denver	USA	1	7
Auckland University of Technology	New Zealand	1	5
University of Houston	USA	1	4
Monash University	Australia	1	2
Agricultural University of Athens	Greece	1	2
University of South Australia	Australia	1	2
The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management	Dubai	1	2
Faculdade Boa Viagem	Brazil	1	2
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco	Brazil	1	2
City University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	1	1
University of Málaga	Spain	1	0
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	Hong Kong	1	0
University of Central Florida	USA	1	0

Source: Own elaboration with Web of Science information.

, classified by the number of documents and citations. In the first position, we find the University of New Hampshire (USA), with 5 documents and 81 citations. Following this American institution, two Australian universities appear: La Trobe University (3 papers and 23 citations) and Griffith University (2 documents and 15 citations). The rest of the organizations contribute with only one document, with different scientific recognition (number of citations); however, the large number of institutions again from the USA and Australia should be remarked.

In Figure 6, the countries of the organizations with a contribution to the literature in this portfolio can be observed. This analysis is a little different than that in Table 4, focusing here on countries, not institutions. For instance, one country could contribute one paper of authors from two different institutions of the same country, but we do not count two contributions because there is only one paper from this country. On the other hand, the same paper could have been written by authors from two different countries’ institutions (in this case, we consider one contribution per country). Analyzing the participation percentage on the total of documents taking into account the previous considerations, the highest density of contributing institutions can be found in the USA (31.82% or 7 documents), followed by Australia (22.73% or 5 documents), and Hong Kong (9.09% or 2 documents). The rest of the countries have the same figures (4.55% or one paper). If we group the information by continent, the difference between America and Oceania becomes even higher (45.45–27.27%), and Europe and Asia would have the same contributing percentages (13.64%).

Furthermore, using VOS Viewer, to complete the bibliometric analysis (linking the most-used keywords in this portfolio to describe the conceptual framework of this topic, see [72]), a map density (network visualization) was developed based on the co-occurrence of keywords (Figure 7). Ref. [72] mentioned that “Keyword term co-occurrence analysis represents the number of times that two terms occur together in a set of posts” (p. 5). Following again this article, the full count method was developed (so each co-occurrence link had the same weight). The method of normalization was “association strength”, the weights used were “occurrences” (minimum two occurrences to be analyzed), merging also small clusters. In short, the default values were used to carry out this kind of analysis, although it is worth noting that the attraction factor was raised from 2 to 3 for a better graphic display (the repulsion factor remaining at 0, following the VOS viewer indications of a higher attraction factor). Thus, after applying a thesaurus (to group words in singular and plural, synonyms, clarify concepts, etc.) the results can be observed in Figure 7.

This way, three different clusters was determined (showed in red, green, and blue), specifying in VOS viewer a minimum cluster size of 1 and merging small clusters. The first cluster (the red one) groups the keywords “disability”, “employers attitudes”, “hr management”, “impact”, “job-performance”, “outcomes”, “society”, “well-being” and “workplace accommodations”. In the second one (in green in Figure 7), 8 items can be found: “attitudes”, “barriers”, “employers”, “employment”, “hotel industry”, “leisure”, “people with disabilities” and “perspectives”. The last cluster (in blue) encompasses the keywords “corporate social responsibility”, “discrimination”, “diversity”, “employees”, and “workforce diversity”.

As can be seen in

Table 5. The most frequently used keywords in the bibliographic portfolio.

Keyword	Occurrences	Total Link Strength
Disability	8	42
Society	8	42
Employment	7	37
Attitudes	6	33
Hotel industry	6	23
People with disabilities	5	24
Perspectives	5	29
Employers	4	25
Impact	4	19
Job-performance	4	20
Workplace accommodations	4	19
Corporate social responsibility	3	17
Diversity	3	20
Employees	3	18
Leisure	3	14
Well-being	3	18
Barriers	2	6
Discrimination	2	14
Employers attitudes	2	8
HR management	2	9
Outcomes	2	5
Workforce diversity	2	10

Source: Own elaboration with Web of Science information.

, the keywords that appear the most in this literature review are “disability”, “society”, “employment”, “attitudes”, “hotel industry”, “people with disabilities”, and “perspectives”. The location of these words on the map (Figure 7) also highlights their importance to our portfolio. It is worth noting that most of these terms belong to the same cluster (number two, the green one). This network visualization provides a complete visual description of the state of the art about this topic. On the other hand, according to our research objective, although SEC or Corporate Social Marketing are not explicitly cited, there are other important keywords related to our scientific framework, such as “workplace accommodations”, “corporate social responsibility”, “diversity”, “barriers”, “discrimination”, or “hr management”, among the most frequently used keywords.

To sum up, the different approaches and contributions of each paper of the selected portfolio are summarized in

Table 6. Contributions of articles in the bibliographic portfolio.

Nº	Country	Year	Contributions
1	Germany	2013	Interviews (with hotel managers, workers and guests) were carried out to develop a case study about some integrative hotels, which create employment for PWD who do not find a job in the regular labour market. Although previous research pointed that hotel managers usually consider PWD unable to meet this kind of work and too costly, this paper presents PWD as strong motivated, loyal, reliable, and which require moderate accommodations, being their costs low and offset by the German government grants. Many workers with disabilities did not have to change mobility or shift work characteristics. Furthermore, PWD workers did not affect negatively guest experiences. Moreover, it is essential to integrate PWD in the workplace through good human resources practices, developing an organizational climate of tolerance [18].
2	Spain	2021	A Spanish case study of an integrative hotel chain is presented, developing interviews with some hotel managers to study the actions carried out to improve the labour inclusion of PWD. This company has different kinds of hotels, some of them are established as SEC, and the differences with the non-SEC ones are highlighted. Thus, although SEC hotels are improving the labour integration of PWD in the short term and could be contributing to modify the negative social perspectives about this collective in the long term, it is pointed out that they could be also strengthening the social stigma that exists in the regular market, so it could be necessary to keep studying this issue in the future [30]. It is the only paper of this portfolio that explicitly analyzes SEC and, although it is not proposed Social Marketing (or Corporate Social Marketing) in a direct way, it could be thought of as a possible solution according to what is concluded.
3	Dubai	2019	The case of Dubai in the context of the Expo 2020 is studied through a qualitative methodology (interviews with HR managers in the hotel sector), in order to identify the benefits and challenges of hiring PWD in this industry. It is pointed out that it is necessary the labour inclusion of this collective also due to the high turnover costs and shortages of traditional labour force in this sector. Thus, it is proposed that this industry should increase its efforts to adapt PWD through the provision of accessible areas, change in perceptions and legislative modifications (also thinking in the arrival of PWD tourists due to the Expo) [73].
4	Hong Kong	2020	This paper analyzes a case study in Hong Kong (a job training program for people with intellectual disabilities or Down Syndrome), interviewing the hotel staff and social workers involved in the program, to develop an A-B-C-D conceptual framework proposed by the author. The objective is to study how socially responsible HR actions can help PWD employment, suggesting the importance of providing workplace accommodations, business-oriented settings, caring attitude, and job demands. Highlighting, thus, the potential of CSR practices in PWD employment [74]. This way, although Corporate Social Marketing is not mentioned, as it is one possible CSR action, according to our research objective we could think of extending this CSR potentiality to Corporate Social Marketing interventions about this issue.
5	New Zealand	2018	This original research analyzes hospitality training for young people with learning disabilities, using an inductive thematic analysis of the popular TV documentary series “The Special Needs Hotel” (the Foxes Hotel and Academy in Minehead, England). It is presented hospitality training as a means of achieving the personal independence of this young PWD. Nevertheless, this positive view faces the fears and struggles that they have in their everyday life. This paper provides a fresh review of what is expected of hospitality employment to improve the labour inclusion of PWD [19].
6	Australia	2019	In this paper, a qualitative case study of the hotel industry in Australia is carried out, interviewing managers and workers with intellectual disabilities, and also through different focus groups with staff (supervisors and other workers) at three hotels. The aim is to analyze HR practices that create an ethical context (in relation to a CSR framework) that promotes complete work experiences for this collective of PWD. Thus, these participative work practices help these workers to confront work-related anxieties, leading to a more authentic work experience and promoting social inclusion and well-being of these people [75]. Considering again CSR in a complete manner, which includes Corporate Social Marketing as a possible CSR action, Corporate Social Marketing could be proposed as another way of improving the situation of PWD, according to our research objective.
7	USA	2014	Managers’ attitudes about workers with disabilities in restaurants and hotels in the United States are studied, carrying out different interviews and questionnaires (a mailed questionnaire sent to companies’ managers). Thus, it is highlighted that managers’ ages and years worked for their current company had a real impact on the attitudes towards the importance of training PWD [76].
8	Brazil	2017	In this qualitative article, data collection was carried out using interviews (to HR managers) and non-participant observations, focusing on the HR practices (recruitment, selection, socialization, training, and development) of three hotels in Belém (Brazil), analyzing the information through a content analysis methodology. It is observed that in all the hotels studied, HR selection depends on the type and severity of the disability, so the workers with more severe disabilities were excluded. Thus, it seems that the most important thing, in this case, is to choose the lighter disability, not to search for the specific skills needed for a job, showing a clear situation of labour discrimination, far from real labour inclusion of PWD [77].
9	Hong Kong	2021	This paper is focused on the barriers to employment for people with physical disabilities, from a CSR framework, in the Hong Kong tourism sector. Thus, several interviews were carried out (with managers, directors, and members of the Hong Kong Hotel Association). Results: the main barriers to hiring this group of PWD are the firms’ lack of intention to employ PWD, the lack of an inclusive HR model regarding PWD, the physical layout of organizations, and the need for better communication between this sector and NGOs [78]. Same comments as to other papers about CSR and Corporate Social Marketing in relation to our research objective.
10	Canada	2005	This research applies a mailed Organizational Policies and Practices (OPP) questionnaire to study workplace disability management practices between different sectors (education, hotel/motel, and healthcare) in Canada, finding significant differences among them in ergonomic practices, disability case management, return to work and people-oriented culture [79].
11	USA	2018	The impact of different types of disabilities of workers with disabilities on guests’ perceptions of service quality was analyzed, also studying possible differences due to consumer characteristics. A controlled experiment and a survey are developed to do so (focusing on the hotel front office staff member). Although no significant differences were observed, an exception stands out: employees with a visual impairment. The results provide important practical implications to HR management, placing PWD into front-line jobs, because it is proven that consumers consider the quality service high and reliable (so guests are becoming more and more inclusive, and this could help HR managers to hire PWD as a valuable workforce) [80].
12	Australia	2017	This paper analyzes how HR practices contribute (or not) to the employment, participation, and well-being of PWD (with intellectual disabilities) of three Australian hotels, carrying out a case study methodology, with interviews (to the HR managers, other department managers, and workers with intellectual disabilities) and focus groups (with supervisors and work colleagues). Thus, it is concluded that, under a social exchange theoretical framework, the participation in the labour market (and well-being of this group) depends on a social climate that highlights social cohesion, so both formal and informal HR inclusive practices (in recruitment, selection, mentoring, training, and development), and everyday support (by managers and colleagues) are extremely important [81].
13	Vietnam	2019	This research demonstrates that disability-inclusive benevolent leadership (rooted in Confucian philosophy, with more balance of ethical, transformational, and social concerns than other universal leadership styles) has a positive effect on job satisfaction and affective team commitment of workers with disabilities and negative effect on their need for recovery (these impacts were mediated by job resources and personal resources). Moreover, disability-inclusive HR practices help to increase the previous effects. Several hotel workers (with physical disabilities and without disabilities) in Vietnam were recruited to do this quantitative study [82].
14	USA	2020	It is studied if worker disability status (the presence of some visible disabilities) affects customer service evaluation in the American hospitality industry. Carrying out experimental methods, it is concluded that customers evaluate PWD lower than workers without disabilities (because they are perceived as less competent), especially in the presence of a service failure, showing clear labour discrimination of PWD [83].
15	Australia	2017	In this article, inclusive HR innovation programs in the early stages of employment of people with intellectual disability are analyzed, using a qualitative case study (also conducting interviews with managers and workers, one focus group, and observations) of two important companies in Australia (one of them is a five-star hotel with a buddy system innovation program used in the induction and training process of this group of people). Thus, it is observed that these innovative programs create opportunities for social inclusion, showing the participants more confidence and independence (highlighting the importance of developing early vocational socialization programs) [84].
16	USA	2020	This research studies the impact of various disability types and stereotyping on the service quality perceived by guests, comparing two different service contexts (failure and non-failure). To do so, a controlled experiment was carried out, showing that no differences were found in a service failure context (although the case of PWD with visual impairments was different and also customer characteristics such as ethnicity, religiosity, and relationships to PWD affected how quality service was stereotyped) [85].
17	USA	2012	The main concerns and challenges regarding the employment of PWD in the hospitality sector in the United States are studied. Thus, a quantitative survey of employers was carried out, showing that, although some differences can be found depending on the size of the company (being larger companies more inclusive), all firms had several concerns in common (most of them are the result of lack of employer education): the belief that PWD could not do the work, the potential cost of unspecified accommodations (even though the record shows not exceptional costs due to accommodations), the possibility that PWD would not have the required skills to be productive, and supervisors would be uncomfortable evaluating PWD and would not know how to manage them. Managers cited tax credits and incentives, flexible work schedules, and disability awareness training as the most important policies to boost the employment of PWD. The study also concluded that greater knowledge about PWD would improve their hiring prospects (because this loyal and stable workforce has a long record of good job performance) [86]. According to our research objectives, flexible work schedules for PWD should be highlighted.

Source: Own elaboration.

, following the same methodology as [67].

4. Discussion

In this section, the results will be discussed and interpreted, according to our theoretical framework, in order to develop the research objective of this investigation. It is necessary to remember that the aim of this article is to analyze the labour situation of PWD in the Spanish hotel sector (labour inclusion and working conditions), regarding if SEC could be improving their situation (not only in the short term but also in the long term), the possible differences with the ordinary labour market, and the potential of taking into account Corporate Social Marketing as a new possible way to push this social matter. Using a ProKnow-C methodology (with content analysis and extensive bibliometric analysis), a bibliographic portfolio with the most important theoretical background on this topic was obtained in order to develop our research objective.

As it has been previously detailed, the keywords defined in this literature review were: “Special Employment Centres” or “sheltered employment”, “time factor” or “working hours”, “human resources”, “sustainable employment” or “employment”, “hotel industry” or “hotel”, “people with disabilities” or “disability”, and “Corporate Social Marketing” or “Social Marketing”. Using the Web of Science database (as [67] or [72] did), a total of 21 different searches were carried out. In addition, the first result to be analyzed is, precisely, the lack of alignment with the topic and consistent results founded in relation to SEC, as well as Corporate Social Marketing. This could also be positive news, highlighting the novelty and originality of this research approach, being the first relevant result of this paper, as it has been mentioned. So, it could be pointing to the need to continue delving into the present subject, from an academic but also practical approach, as an important implication of this study. It should be remembered that as [32] noted, there is yet limited information about the PWD labour market in the literature, despite the growing interest in this issue.

To carry on with the analysis and interpretation of the results, focusing on the keywords “employment”, “hotel”, and “disabilit*”, the first data set obtained showed an average of 10.93 citations per article and an h-index of nine. Citations analysis per year also highlighted the interest shown in scientific research on this topic in the last years, with 2019 being the most prolific year in this type of publication (with lower figures in 2020). The previous information can lead us to think about how the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemics could have affected this interest, focusing on more “urgent” research issues in 2020 (although it is only a hypothesis that should be carefully verified, not being the objective of our study). In this first data set, different areas of knowledge are involved (making visible the interdisciplinary nature of this topic), the most important ones were Business Economics, Psychology, and Social Sciences.

After analyzing the alignment with the full article (following the methodological stages determined by [67,71] to carry on the ProKnow-C methodology), there were 17 articles in the final bibliographic portfolio with the total alignment of the topic. A bibliometric analysis to study the most influential authors, articles, journals, institutions, and countries showed that the most contributing author was Kalargyrou, followed by Bartram, Cavanagh and Meacham, Shaw, and Barber. On the other hand, the most cited article was [86], followed by [18,79], although it is striking that these two articles had more citations than other authors with more publications. As we have pointed out, papers such as [30,78], with no citations to date, remained in the bibliographic portfolio due to their large thematic affinity to the topic, as well as because they have been published recently (in 2021, which could be the reason why they do not have citations yet). Regarding journals, the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly and the International Journal of Hospitality Management and Personnel Review stand out (similar results than in the raw database analysis, although much more accurate to the topic after filtering, reinforcing the conclusion about the wide interdisciplinarity of this matter).

Regarding institutions and countries, the USA (31.82%) and Australia (22.73%) stand out (with the University of New Hampshire, La Trobe University, and Griffith University as the most contributing organizations), followed by Hong Kong (9.09%). Grouping the information based on continents, America (45.45%) increases its distance from Oceania in contribution percentages (27.27%), and Europe equals Asia (13.64%), which highlights the fragmentation of European countries studying this issue and the global importance of the topic, especially in developed countries.

Co-occurrence of keywords analysis using VOS Viewer showed that three different clusters exist. This network visualization provides a complete visual description of the theoretical content of this bibliographic portfolio. The most repeated keywords are “disability”, “society”, “employment”, “attitudes”, “hotel industry”, “people with disabilities”, and “perspectives”. As has been commented, although SEC or Corporate Social Marketing are not explicitly cited, there are other important keywords related to our theoretical approach, such as “workplace accommodations”, “corporate social responsibility”, “diversity”, “barriers”, “discrimination”, or “hr management”. This may be of great importance in relation to the analysis of SEC and Corporate Social Marketing regarding this topic, reinforcing our conclusions.

Looking further into the content analysis of the portfolio articles, several issues can be highlighted (

Table 7. Summarized content analysis of the bibliographic portfolio.

Group/Papers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
1. Thematic:
1.1. Workers with disabilities inclusion and human resources practices	x	x		x	x	x		x		x		x	x		x
1.2. Influence of discrimination and psychological aspects		x			x	x		x	x					x			x
1.3. Customers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities											x			x		x
1.4. Managers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities			x				x		x								x
2. Methodology
2.1. Case study	x	x				x		x				x			x
2.2. Interviews
2.2.a. Managers		x	x				x
2.2.b. Human Resource Managers								x
2.2.c. Managers and workers						x						x			x
2.2.d. Different people in the organization and outside the company	x			x					x
2.3. Focus group						x						x			x
2.4. Non-participant observations								x							x
2.5. Quantitative surveys							x			x	x		x				x
2.6. Experiments											x			x		x
2.7. Inductive thematic analysis					x
3. Relationship with our specific topic
3.1. Somehow related with SEC or protected employment	x	x
3.2. Corporate Social Marketing and/or Corporate Social Responsibility		x		x		x			x
3.3. Time factor																	x

Source: Own elaboration.

). Firstly, regarding their specific thematic, some of the papers seem to be focused on workers with disabilities inclusion and human resources practices in the hotel industry (such as [18,19,30,74,75,77,79,81,82] or [84]), taking into account the influence of discrimination and psychological aspects ([19,30,75,77,78,83] or [86]), others are focused on the customers’ perceptions of these workers [80,83,85] or in the managers’ perceptions of them [73,76,78,86].

Regarding the developed methodology, most of the papers carried out a case study methodology ([18,30,75,77,81] or [84]), usually with interviews (to: (a) managers such as [30,73,76]; (b) HR managers: [77]; (c) managers and workers: [75,81,84]; or (d) different people in the organization and outside the company: [18,74,78]). Other articles developed focus groups [75,81,84], non-participant observations [77,84], quantitative surveys (such as [76,79,80,82] or [86]), experiments [80,83,85] or inductive thematic analysis [19].

On the other hand, focusing on the relationship of these articles with our specific topic in a complete manner, some of them are somehow related to SEC or protected employment [18,30], Corporate Social Marketing and/or Corporate Social Responsibility [30,74,75,78], and time factor ([86], in which flexible work schedules for PWD are highlighted). Thus, although Corporate Social Marketing is not explicitly mentioned, as it is one possible CSR action, according to the objective of this research, the possibility to extend this CSR potentiality to Corporate Social Marketing interventions about this issue has been considered.

Simultaneously analyzing the thematic and the methodology of the papers, it is observed in Table 7 that articles which are focused on “workers with disabilities inclusion and human resources practices” usually develop case study methodologies (with different kinds of interviews and participants, sometimes also using other methods such as focus groups). Besides, articles centered on “customers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities” usually carry out experimental methodologies. Quantitative surveys are used for different purposes.

Furthermore, papers that deals with the “influence of discrimination and psychological aspects”, are “somehow related with SEC or protected employment” and are related with “Corporate Social Marketing and/or Corporate Social Responsibility” are usually related to the ones which are focused on “workers with disabilities inclusion and human resources practices”, as it can be seen in Table 7. This subgroup of papers (the one focused on “workers with disabilities inclusion and human resources practices”), as well as the articles centered on “managers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities” (the supply side), seem to be more related to our research objective than papers which analyze “customers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities” or the demand side (nevertheless, they are also relevant in this bibliographic portfolio). This conceptual model collected in the bibliographic portfolio, according to our research objective, is summarized in Figure 8, where the main topics and groups of papers that represent the portfolio and their relationships can be found. This is relevant not only to describe and visualize the bibliographic portfolio obtained but also guide future research.

It is important to highlight again that the only paper of this portfolio which analyzes Spanish SEC explicitly is [30]. Thus, it is said that, although the SEC help to improve the labour situation of PWD in the short term, “Special Employment Centres can be reinforcing the social stigma which they are trying to overcome. This protected market would be the “safest” alternative for people with disabilities to cope with the social stigma. Therefore, it could be preferred by people with disabilities (in case they do not prefer to cope with this social stigma in a dysfunctional manner, not participating in labour activities). However, this fact distances them from the ordinary market and deepens the social perception of the difference between people with and without disabilities” (p. 17). Differences between sheltered employment and ordinary employment are significative, being more evident in the presence of labour discrimination in the regular market.

Furthermore, although the previously commented research does not propose Social Marketing (or Corporate Social Marketing), it could be thought of as possible solutions according to its conclusions. Because it is also said that SEC could change the long-term social perspectives of clients and all of society in a positive manner, making it more visible that PWD would have no difference in developing their work. So, the long-term impact of SEC in the labour situation of PWD is not at all clear (there are opposite possible forces behind the situation and further research is necessary). Furthermore, Ref. [30] also points to the need of exploring more effective manners to change behaviours (reducing social stigma and enhancing functional coping strategies in PWD). So, the door is open for Corporate Social Marketing to do its job.

It is well worth remembering that Corporate Social Marketing is the application of Social Marketing by a company (in this case, the SEC and non-SEC hotels), and it is considered a kind of Corporate Social Responsibility activity, as has been mentioned earlier. Moreover, Social Marketing consists of using traditional marketing actions to voluntarily change behaviours, in order to achieve a social objective. However, it should also be considered that, as [46] said, Corporate Social Marketing could also be dangerous to the company, and if its application is not correct (for instance, if the purpose of the campaign seems unrelated to business core strategies), clients could suspect these actions, and this could affect the corporate image in a negative way. Furthermore, Ref. [87] argued that Social Marketing campaigns for stigmatized people are normally oriented to the general public, but this collective should also be taken into consideration as targeted audience (their special circumstances must be considered, to avoid perpetuating the stigma with these campaigns).

5. Conclusions

In general terms, employment in the hotel sector remains low quality [3], hotel workers usually consider their working time as one of the most pressing job characteristics [14], and PWD suffer an even worse situation (especially in terms of labour inclusion, due to the discrimination and social stigmatization that they usually have to face).

Is the long-term impact of SEC in the labour situation of PWD in Spain clear? Could Corporate Social Marketing be used to effectively change behaviours on this issue, improve PWD labour inclusion, and better working conditions in the hotel industry? These are the two main research questions that we are trying to answer in this article, developing a complete literature review on this topic using a ProKnow-C methodology, as well as content and bibliometric analysis. According to the results that have been discussed in previous sections, the main conclusions are the following:

• Few results are found regarding SEC and Corporate Social Marketing in relation to this topic, highlighting the originality of this research approach. Therefore, it would be necessary to explore in-depth into the present subject, from an academic but also practical approach.
• A bibliometric analysis of the final portfolio shows wide interdisciplinarity of this topic, with high relevance of USA and Australia as the most contributing countries (the majority of them developed countries), among other relevant results explained in the article (about citations, authors, journals, or institutions).
• Although SEC or Corporate Social Marketing are not explicitly obtained in the search, a co-occurrence analysis points to other important keywords which are related to our theoretical approach (“attitudes”, “perspectives”, “workplace accommodations”, “corporate social responsibility”, “diversity”, “barriers”, “discrimination”, or “human resources management”). This would be relevant according to the analysis of SEC and Corporate Social Marketing that we have carried out, to reinforce the conclusions.
• Delving into the content analysis of the portfolio articles, there seem to be two different groups of papers (supply and demand sides). The first one is focused on “workers with disabilities inclusion and human resources practices”, as well as “managers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities” (the supply side). This group seems to be more related to our research objective than papers of the second group (the demand side), which analyze “customers’ perceptions of workers with disabilities” (however, they are also relevant in this bibliographic portfolio and that is why they remain on it).
• There is only one paper in this portfolio that analyzes SEC hotels in Spain explicitly: [30]. This way, it is said that differences between sheltered employment and ordinary employment exist, being more evident in the presence of labour discrimination in the regular market. Furthermore, although SEC help to improve the labour situation of PWD in the short term, in the long term, two situations could be happening at the same time: (a) SEC would be reinforcing the social stigma, hindering the labour situation of PWD; (b) SEC could be changing the social perspectives of clients and all society in a positive manner, making more visible that PWD are as capable as the rest and they have no differences to develop their work.
• Moreover, the previously cited article also points to the need of exploring more effective manners to change behaviours (in order to reduce social stigma and enhancing functional coping strategies in PWD). So, although in this previous research Social Marketing (or Corporate Social Marketing) are not proposed, it could be considered as a possible solution according to the conclusions of this paper.
• Corporate Social Marketing could also be harmful to the company, and if it is not properly applied (for instance, if the objective of the campaign seems unrelated to business core strategies), customers could suspect these actions, and this could affect the corporate image in a negative way. On the other hand, Ref. [87] showed that Social Marketing campaigns for stigmatized people are normally oriented to the general public, but stigmatized people should also be considered as targeted audience in order to avoid perpetuating this stigma.

Nevertheless, it is important to highlight the relevance of developing this line of research and expanding the existing knowledge about this topic in future research, in order to achieve an improvement in the working and living conditions of PWD (not only in a theoretical manner but also with practical examples and recommendations). In this sense, from a theoretical perspective, two different concepts could be explored, for instance, in future research: (a) Sociomateriality (social and material aspects of technology and organization, a novel manner to study technology at the workplace [88]), related to job position adaptations and workplace accommodations (in the line of the SEC actions); and (b) Performativity (language as a way of social action [89]), regarding social stigma, stress coping responses, and ways to voluntarily change behaviours such as Corporate Social Marketing. On the other hand, more databases could also be used (such as Scopus), although the results will be presumably similar to those obtained here (but it could help to complete the bibliographic portfolio with some possible new insights).

Furthermore, from a practical point of view, using the insights obtained in this paper with the bibliographic portfolio, it would be convenient to delve into the case studied by [30], the Ilunion Hotels chain, one of the most important Spanish hotel companies focused on labour integration of PWD. Thus, further progress could be made in the study of their innovative SEC/non-SEC hotel model with a higher sample of hotels, analyzing the workers’ perceptions, and/or detailing the possible Corporate Social Marketing and CSR initiatives that they could be carrying out to improve the labour situation of PWD. Despite, as it has been argued, the importance of the hotel industry in countries such as Spain, there are still many things that can be developed to further advance the sustainable employment of PWD in this sector in a general way. In this sense, we humbly hope that this paper can contribute to developing a complete theoretical framework (with new insights, proposing Corporate Social Marketing as an intervention instrument) that can positively impact the labour situation and working conditions of PWD.