Abstract
The need to incorporate and develop Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within university programs is necessary for future leaders, managers and entrepreneurs. Within the framework of CSR and stakeholder theory the paper contributes a comparative case study that utilizes curriculum and in-depth interview analysis to illustrate not only the similarities and differences in the CSR programs, but how social responsibility is taught in a Mexican and Canadian University context. The main findings are: the CSR program in Mexico is perceived as a strategic management tool that adds value to the organization and does not pay any special attention to the globalization phenomena. Whereas in Canada, social responsibility is founded on ethics, attention to the different stakeholders in a globalized environment is emphasized and the strategic importance of CSR is widely accepted. The paper provides academics and researcher insight into exploring how universities can further facilitate students as stakeholders in considering social responsibility as important and necessary to ensure CSR sustainability in practice.
Highlights
Bowen (1953) provided the first definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as “obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action that are desirable in terms of the objectives, and values of our society”
From the objectives of the CSR course at UMEX, the purpose of teaching students the ‘theoretical and practical components’ of CSR is more than a philosophy something that ‘can be managed’ for the instrumental view of translating it into ‘a competitive advantage for organizations and companies that adopt it for practical implementation’
The aim of this paper was to compare the content of the curricula and the way Corporate Social Responsibility is taught at two different public universities located in two different contexts in North America: Canada and Mexico
Summary
Bowen (1953) provided the first definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as “obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those lines of action that are desirable in terms of the objectives, and values of our society”. In today’s globalized world as corporation’s gain power and economic relations grow the need for increased commitments and responsibilities arises. This gives way to the need to carry out more research on CSR from a stakeholder perspective and develop programs that create understanding and awareness for all parties, and incorporate CSR curriculum into higher education institution programs. It is becoming increasingly necessary to give greater importance to ethical values and CSR policies in higher education institutions (Gaa and Thorne, 2004; Bampton and Maclagan, 2005; Block and Cwik, 2007) as business schools and faculties of economics and business administration have a stake and responsibility to produce graduates who act in an ethical and responsible way and instigate socially and ethically acceptable operations when they join a company (Pfeffer and Fong, 2004; Cornelius, Wallace and Tassabehji, (2007); Waples et al, 2008). Kvasničková Stanislavská, et al (2014) have noted that current and potential university students have different expectations, as stakeholders, in their involvement in active and passive forms of CSR activities as part of their higher education
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