Benchmarking corporate social responsibility against principles for responsible management education

Abstract

Universities are educating students to become future leaders, managers and entrepreneurs. The need to incorporate and develop corporate social responsibility within university programs is necessary for future decision makers. We benchmark corporate social responsibility curriculum against the Principles for Responsible Management Education in two different contexts: a Mexican University and a Canadian University. Through a comparative case study process, we find that both programs have similarities and differences with PRME on issues of perceiving corporate social responsibility as a strategic management tool that adds value to the organisation, the role of entrepreneurs and the responsibility they have towards the different stakeholders, as well as the globalisation phenomena and the foundations of social responsibility. The paper contributes insight into how higher education institutes play a role in developing and preparing students as stakeholders who can not only ensure standards of corporate social responsibility but also how social responsibility is maintained.