**Hypothesis 1 (H1).** *ICT adoption improves SMEs performance in the hospitality industry.*

ICT adoption is also seen as an essential tool for the development of socially responsible practices in business [13], as it provides new tools that enable organisations to implement socially responsible projects that improve their relationship with the environment and their stakeholders [14]. It should be emphasized that the hotel industry is continually criticized for its lack of environmental consideration in the development of its activities [15]. Thus, the implementation of practices that promote CSR in hotels is a constant concern in the current empirical literature [23]. Thus, hotel establishments as a whole are incorporating environmental and social standards as essential instruments of business strategy [24]. In this context, ICT adoption are of great importance, as they

facilitate the implementation of CSR-related strategies and enable these initiatives to be carried out effectively [13,25].

Using ICT, hotel SMEs can access the necessary resources to implement and disseminate their CSR practices. Thus, through the Internet, they will be able to know the demands of their stakeholders much better and communicate to society the CSR actions they carry out, thus improving their reputation. Also, considering that energy consumption generates significant environmental challenges [26], through the use of ICTs, hotel SMEs will be able to calculate their carbon footprint and implement actions to reduce it. Moreover, hotel SMEs can monitor and control energy services such as lighting, heating, ventilation, or air conditioning through Building Management Systems. This technology guarantees their operation at efficiency and savings levels. Therefore, by applying this technology, hotel SMEs can improve their environmental contribution by reducing their impact on the environment.

Based on the above, we propose the following research hypothesis:
