Sustainability Competencies Research Articles

Quantitative validation of a proposed technical sustainability competency model: A PLS-SEM approach

The demand to enact sustainability into higher education so as to optimistically shape the wider society and biosphere has been stressed by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). One of the approaches is through rethinking and revising education at all levels to capture obvious forms of present and imminent societies on the development of sustainability knowledge, skills, perspectives and values. Several Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) have started to implement a number of facets to that effect, such as signing a climate commitment, working towards plan to make their campuses climate-neutral, and making sustainability their guiding principles and top priorities. However, analogous modifications to the curriculum are lagging behind. As a consequence, this study is set to quantitatively validate the technical sustainability competency model suitable for incorporation into Higher National Diploma electrical/electronic engineering curriculum in Nigeria. The authors used findings of their earlier work to develop a questionnaire for collecting data from 168 respondents in the study area, and consequently subject the data to descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of PLS-SEM approach. The study discovered competencies suitable for incorporation into the curriculum. This includes cognitive skills in Eco-design and Life-Cycle Assessment; Research; Modeling, Simulation and Optimization; and Recycling/Renewable Resources. The study also found suitable psychomotor skills in Sustainable production, Use of modern engineering software tools, Operation/troubleshooting of electrical machines and devices, Communication/Information and Communication Technology, and waste-to-energy technology. Appropriate attitudes/values in Engineering ethics, Occupational safety and health, and Inter-generational equity are also discovered. This research is purely quantitative in nature carried out through administering questionnaires to respondents in one geo-political zone of the country. Thus, conclusions derived from these sources rely on the genuineness of the information provided by the participants. The findings offer accreditation body as well as curriculum developers in Nigerian polytechnics with a validated model of technical sustainability competences. This could be useful in the events of curriculum upgrade or renewal to integrate sustainability.

Student Agency for Sustainability in a Systemic PBL Environment

To respond to the challenges posed by sustainability, students increasingly need new competencies, including systems thinking, critical thinking, anticipatory thinking, integrated problem-solving competence, collaboration, and self-awareness. While the literature predominantly focuses on students’ knowledge and awareness of sustainability, attention to students’ enactment of agency to develop such competencies for sustainability remains insufficient. The present study explores university students’ perceptions of their enactment of agency for sustainability while studying in a systemic problem- and project-based learning (PBL) environment. Driven by a proposed conceptual framework embracing three interrelated dimensions of student agency—personal values, agentic behaviors, and contexts of action—the study included an analysis of 87 responses to an online qualitative survey and follow-up interviews with six participants. While the study identified multiple sources of student agency regarding personal values such as motivation and efficacy beliefs, a gap emerged between students’ awareness and their actual engagement in sustainability practices. Several contextual factors were shown to constrain their engagement. The study offers practical implications for supporting students’ actions towards sustainability.

The Global Case Study Challenge: A Virtual Exchange Developing Global Work Competencies

The Global Case Study Challenge (GCSC) is a virtual exchange program designed for Bachelor and Master level students from interdisciplinary programs. The program focuses on the development of key Global Work (GloW) competencies, defined as: intercultural, digital communication and sustainability competencies. This paper discusses how the GCSC, as a new virtual model of teaching and learning, in a real-world context, supports the development of future-oriented work competencies. These competencies are crucial for effective global virtual teamwork and New Work scenarios in remote contexts. To date, 1450 students and 50 educators from 30 universities across 20 different countries have worked together in some 380 Global Virtual Teams on real-life business cases. 
 The learning design of this virtual exchange project is rooted in the knowledge that future-oriented global work competencies such as intercultural competence, digital communication competence and sustainability competence can only be developed through transformative learner-centred experiential learning. In the 2021 iteration of the GCSC, over the 8-weeks of the program, 86 groups of interdisciplinary Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) worked together: Establishing team-building dynamics while working in self-directed GVTs of 5-7 students, reflecting on (corporate) sustainability, collaborating on real-life business cases, and presenting their solutions and recommendations to a major global corporate partner at a virtual conference. The impact of the program on students’ competency development was measured using a longitudinal study design. The intercultural, digital communication, and sustainability competencies of the participants were measured pre-exchange (n=263) and post-exchange (n=274). The findings demonstrate a consistent increase of competencies over time among the program participants in almost all categories (knowledge, skills, attitudes), providing clear evidence of the overall positive impact of the GCSC on participants' competency development over the two-month program. Ultimately, the GCSC contributes towards students becoming highly effective members and leaders of high-performing Global Virtual Teams.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Newspaper Texts on the Science of Crude Oil Refining in Nigeria

As a country with a remarkable crude oil deposit, it is a dark irony that Nigeria depends on importation for its petroleum product needs. The devastating impact on Nigeria’s economy of this dependence continues to provoke polemics. Recently, the polemics dominated the text of Nigeria’s leading national newspapers. We see in the texts, manifest and latent ideological status quo thinking about the variant of science Nigerians believe might launch Nigeria into a sustainable competence in petroleum products affordability. Since latent ideological text meanings elude the competence of lay readers, we sampled as data, newspaper texts containing manifest and latent views expressed by Nigerians regarding the version of science of crude oil refining they believe Nigeria needs to enable it to exit its dependence on importation for its petroleum product needs. Leveraging our critical discourse analysis of these diversely sourced data, we raised and answered questions, such as whether the concern expressed by powerful Nigerians against indigenous crude oil refiners results from the patriotic disposition of the powerful or whether their concern is a pushback against anything with a potential to break the monopoly and the illicit gains that accrue from oil subsidy policy that enriches only those at the corridors of power. Our analysis also forayed into why Nigeria’s journalists and Nigeria’s political class see nightmare instead of dreams in the commitment of indigenous crude oil refiners to indigenize the production of petroleum products in Nigeria.

Research on brand loyalty of Costa coffee in Chinese marke

The purpose of this research is to explore how to improve Costa brand loyalty in Chinese market. According to the existing theories, it explained that brand loyalty is a sustainable competiveness for brand to acquired profits. And it also pointed that the advantages of brand loyalty, such as: reduce marketing costs, trade leverage, attract new consumers and respond competitive threats. It also pointed out consumers’ satisfaction, brand trust, perceive value, repeat purchase behavior, commitment and involvement all influence brand loyalty. In order to investigate which part is more important for improving brand loyalty of global coffee retail brand in Chinese market and find a way to help it success. This paper adopts secondary research to collect data and use Costa and Starbucks as case to analyze. According to Starbucks highly brand loyalty and successful experience in China, it expressed that understanding local culture and integrating it into their products and services are essential for global coffee retail brand to satisfy consumer’ need. At the end of the research, it found that global coffee brand loyalty closely related to consumers ‘satisfaction. And Costa need to provide more products choice for Chinese consumer and integrate Chinese flavor into their products will help it get highly brand loyalty then acquired more loyalty consumers.

The Interdisciplinary Responsible Management Competence Framework: An Integrative Review of Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability Competences

At the centre of responsible management (RM) learning is the development of managerial competence for ethics, responsibility, and sustainability (ERS). Important contributions have been made from each: the ethics, responsibility, and sustainability disciplines. However, we are yet to integrate these disciplinary contributions into a comprehensive interdisciplinary RM competence framework that corresponds to the interdisciplinary nature of RM challenges. We address this priority in this paper and report on the findings of an integrative structured literature review of 224 management competence articles across the ERS disciplines. Our thematic template analysis has produced an interdisciplinary RM competence framework of three layers of personal, behavioural, and intellectual competences and independent and interdependent competence dimensions. The resulting 3 × 2 competence matrix framework accommodates 33 interdisciplinary ERS competence themes and 90 subthemes in the six competence domains of being and becoming, acting and interacting, knowing and thinking. To the RM discussion, we contribute an interdisciplinary competence framework that enables the development of responsible managers who tackle the inherently interdisciplinary issues of RM. To the competence discussion, we contribute the interdependent competence dimension and future research directions through the lens of response-ability.JBE Section: Business Ethics Learning and Education

Sustainable Learning, Cognitive Gains, and Improved Attitudes in College Algebra Flipped Classrooms

To respond to global issues positively, education systems in higher education institutions play a significant role in empowering learners as well as promoting sustainable development goals. By implementing curricula that cultivate cross-cutting and transversal key competencies for sustainability, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration, we prepare our pupils to become sustainability citizens, who not only sustain learning throughout their lives in various circumstances and across different disciplines but also engage constructively and responsibly toward any future world’s challenges through their dispositions, strategies, and skills. One such sustainable teaching methodology is known as the flipped classroom, an active-learning, student-centered, flexible, and multidimensional pedagogy. Our objective is to investigate the effect of such pedagogy on learners’ academic achievement and their attitude toward mathematics using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We cultivated sustainable learning in mathematics education for college freshmen (n=55) by exposing them to both the conventional teaching method (CTM) and flipped classroom pedagogy (FCP). By splitting them into control and experimental groups alternately (n1=24, n2=31) and by selecting the four most challenging topics in college algebra, we measured their cognitive gains quantitatively via a sequence of pre- and post-tests. The topics are factorization, rational expressions, radical operations, and applied problems. Both groups improved academically over time across all these four topics with statistically very significant outcomes (p<0.001). Although they were not always statistically significant (p>0.05) in some topics, the post-test results suggest that generally, the FCP trumps the CTM in cognitive gains, except for the first topic on factorization, where the opposite is true with a very statistically significant mean difference (p<0.001). By examining non-cognitive gains qualitatively, we analyzed the students’ feedback on the FCP and their responses to a perception inventory. The finding suggests a favorable response toward the FCP with primary improvements in the attitudes toward mathematics and increased levels of cooperation among students. Since these students are so happy to have control of their own learning, they were more relaxed, motivated, confident, active, and responsible in learning under the FCP. We are confident that although this study is relatively small in scale, it will yield incremental and long-lasting effects not only for the learners themselves but also for other role-takers in education sectors who aspire in nurturing sustainable long-life learning and achieving sustainable development goals successfully.

A Needs Analysis for Embedding Sustainable Finance Competences into Vocational Business Education in the Baltic Region

Aim. The aim of this article was to analyse relevant literature as well as financial services sector professionals’ expectations on future sustainability competence needs among vocational business graduates as part of an ideation process to design an open online course within the project “Sustainability in Finance – SuFi” (2020-2022). Methods. The online mixed-method survey was elaborated using Google Forms and Webropol and distributed via email among finance services industry professionals in Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Aland Islands. In total, 221 responses were obtained. The qualitative and quantitative data analysis was performed using NVivo and SPSS. Results. Qualitative data analysis revealed that the conceptual knowledge of business graduates was the most frequently mentioned category, followed by procedural knowledge. Among the key competencies in sustainability, the most necessary was intra-personal competence, followed by inter-personal competence. Quantitative data analysis revealed that the top three sustainable finance competencies in demand within respondents’ organisations were: to understand relevant driving sustainable forces, to think and operate with a long-term perspective, and to communicate sustainable financial information in a meaningful way. Conclusion. In the Baltic Region’s finance sector, there is a need for a more holistic view for understanding the market as part of society as a whole and also the meaning of understanding long-term horizons. The competencies that financial services sector professionals found important for vocational business graduates in future work were used as an input for elaborating vocational business education study courses.

The Vision of Future Primary School Teachers as to Education for Sustainable Development from a Competency-Based Approach

This study was established as an interpretive or phenomenological approach, based on a content analysis of the vision of future primary education teachers for education for sustainable development and its relationship with professional sustainability competencies. The sample consisted of 367 people—113 men, 247 women, and 7 who preferred not to say—with an average age of 21.82 ± 2.56, all of whom were studying for a Primary Education teaching degree at the Universities of Zaragoza and Granada in Spain. The content analysis process followed the phases proposed by Bardin: pre-analysis, based on an adaptation of the Cebrián and Junyent questionnaire; exploitation of the material, wherein the fragments to be coded were selected and coded one by one, by consensus between the three researchers; data processing and interpretation, using the QRS NVIVO 11 software. The main results show that respect, coexistence, and collaboration are the normative principles that regulate behavior and that the competencies related to education for sustainability have to do with managing emotions, critical thinking, clarifying values, and contextualizing problems. Furthermore, there is a lack of pragmatism that shows the need to develop the field of education for sustainable development through experiential, interdisciplinary, collaborative, and critical educational plans and projects.

EntreComp and GreenComp for Entrepreneurship. What is the ‘Real’ Relationship?

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between two educational frameworks: EntreComp, the European entrepreneurship competency framework (Bacigalupo et al., 2016) and GreenComp, the European sustainability competency framework (Bianchi et al., 2022). At first sight the relationship is just a matter of competency addressing entrepreneurship and sustainability respectively. Thus, a simple comparison between the two lists of competences would reveal two similar but different competency lists, perhaps aimed at different audiences? The reality though, we posit, is that there is an underlying conceptual emphasis on responsibility which is yet to be fully explored. This paper provides the above comparison but then explores this conceptual underpinning in the light of what we term Responsible Entrepreneurship Education.

Improving sustainability teaching by grouping and interrelating pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences: Evidence from 15 Worldwide Higher Education Institutions

AbstractThere has been increasing research on pedagogical approaches, sustainability competences, and how to connect them in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper's aim is to provide deeper insights into the system of pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences, as well as how these interrelate. A survey was developed to investigate sustainability teaching in 15 HEIs. The survey was sent to educators of each HEI from which 668 responses were obtained. The responses were analysed in a five‐step process: (1) descriptive statistics; (2) Pearson correlations; (3) principal component analyses (PCAs) to detect groups; (4) Pearson correlations between the groups; and (5) regressions. The first step provided the base to carry out the PCAs, from which three groups for the pedagogical approaches (Universal, Social, and Environmental) and three for the sustainability competences (Extrospective‐social, Introspective‐personal, and Cogitative‐processual) were obtained. The correlations between the groups showed that: (1) the competences are closely interrelated; (2) the pedagogical approaches are somehow interrelated; and (3) the pedagogical approaches are somehow interrelated to the competences. The regressions showed that the Universal and Social groups would be most suitable to develop all the competences' groups. The Environmental group develops only the cogitative‐processual competences' group. The results served as bases to propose the Sustainability Teaching System (STS), which provides deeper insights into the system of pedagogical approaches and sustainability competences by grouping them, as well as showing directionality and strength. To improve sustainability teaching, it is necessary to understand the pedagogical approaches' groups and how they can develop the competences' groups.

Backcasting for sustainability – An approach to education for sustainable development in management

• Backcasting invites thinking from future visions about possible pathways to achieve desirable futures. • This paper proposes a backcasting approach for sustainability education in management. • Our study shows the approach to advance core sustainability competencies, specifically anticipation and collaboration. • Service-learning concretizes course material, and enables place-based learning via the interaction with social innovators. • Backcasting in education is a response to current unsustainability: utopia dynamizes action, and action dynamizes utopia.

Higher education in turbulent times: navigating the transition from un-sustainability in a world dominated by technology

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reflect on the implications for higher education of a rapidly changing global context, where technologies play a role in the propagation of unsustainable patterns of change. Drawing from research on science and technology studies as well as existing work on (higher) education for sustainability, it seeks to expose the multidimensional nature of these patterns to raise a series of questions for educators, particularly those in engineering, computer science and other technical disciplines, and inform structured curricular and organisational interventions.Design/methodology/approachTheoretical perspectives on unsustainable patterns of technological change are explored with the objective of informing how the mitigation of their evolution could be addressed in educational settings. Key themes in the sustainability and higher education literature are then identified with the purpose of informing curricular and organisational intervention.FindingsCountering unsustainable patterns of technological change requires the development of key sustainability competencies within more technical disciplines, informed by concepts in science and technology studies. This requires change at curricular, organisational and institutional levels to enable spaces for inter- and transdisciplinary learning to be created, so that skills may be developed.Originality/valueThis paper reflects on unsustainable patterns of technological change, identifying challenges for educators, in particular those in more technical disciplines.

Integrating sustainability themes for enhancing interdisciplinarity: a case study of a comprehensive research university in Japan

Interdisciplinary education and education for sustainable development provide a complementary approach to enhancing learners’ interdisciplinary and sustainability competencies. An interdisciplinary approach is considered a crucial method for enhancing university students’ competencies in sustainability. However, the use of integrating sustainability issues for the purpose of enhancing interdisciplinary education in universities is still under investigation. In contrast to the analyses of sustainability studies programs, this case study explores how sustainability issues could enhance interdisciplinarity in teaching and learning in non-environmentally related courses that do not have special learning objectives related to sustainability. By borrowing Biggs’ comprehensive model of teaching and learning in higher education, this case study analyzes an undergraduate general education course and a postgraduate course at a comprehensive research university in Japan from four perspectives: students’ perspectives learning environment, learning process, and learning outcomes. This qualitative case study data were collected through mixed research methods, including questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with instructors and learners. Findings demonstrate that interdisciplinary teaching and learning can be enhanced by integrating sustainability issues into non-environmentally related courses. By integrating sustainability issues into the curriculum, students and instructors from various disciplines can collaborate with the intention of enhancing students’ abilities to integrate knowledge and communicate with people from different backgrounds and experiences. The paper concludes by discussing the achievements of and barriers to incorporating sustainability themes into interdisciplinary teaching and learning in non-environmentally related courses at universities. Moreover, it provides implications of utilizing a complementary relationship between sustainability and interdisciplinarity to innovate and rethink teaching and learning in higher education to prepare students to build a sustainable future.

Connecting curricula and competence through student learning journeys

This research examines the connection between higher education curricula for sustainable development and student development of key competencies for sustainability. The authors conducted a comparative case study that followed ten students from three graduate sustainability programs. Through a combination of student-generated and contextual data, we created a set of learning journeys. These journeys showed that activities which foster reflection, interaction, and real-world connections are especially critical for competence development as part of the whole curriculum. What and how students found most useful depended on individual disposition and we identified four general categories based on prior experience, attitude to learning, and individual goals. Barriers to competency development were frustration, feelings of helplessness, and being unable to link competence to concrete activities or concepts. These barriers could be mitigated through peer interaction and mentorship, environmental support such as spaces for collaboration, and instructor scaffolding. Because no single course can fit the needs of each student, we recommend that beneficial components in the form of courses that support the above-mentioned activities be part of purposeful curriculum design.

Toward holistic corporate sustainability—Developing employees' action competence for sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises through training

AbstractTo advance holistic corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) requires employees to fully engage in sustainability efforts, which, in return, means to develop employees' action competence for sustainability. Little empirical evidence, however, exists on how to do this considering well‐known constraints SMEs face (time, expertise, resources). We present a transdisciplinary project that developed, delivered, and evaluated a sustainability training for the workforce of the Bohlsener Mühle, an SME that has pioneered corporate sustainability in Germany. The training was piloted for the business' apprentices and combined different learning modes to build participants' sustainable action competence. The pre‐post evaluation, supported by observations and qualitative interviews, revealed that employees' action competence for sustainability can be fostered through such trainings and is most effective if organizational factors that enable a corporate culture of sustainability are aligned. We conclude that a human‐centered and action‐oriented approach to training is needed to unleash the full potential of the workforce to advance corporate sustainability.

The quality of management schools, the ethical behavior of firms and sustainability level: a cross-country investigation

PurposeThis paper examines the association between the quality of management schools and sustainability and investigates whether ethical behavior of firms moderates relationship between the quality of management schools and sustainability.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of 500 country-year observations over the period of 2014-2017. Sustainability is collected from the Global Sustainable Competiveness Index reports for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, while the quality of management schools and ethical behavior of firms are collected from the Global Competiveness Report for the same years.FindingsThe findings of this study suggest that the quality of management schools is positively associated with sustainability. When testing for the moderating effect of ethical behavior of firms on the association between quality of management schools and sustainability, results show that the positive association becomes positive and more significant for countries where firms operate with high ethical behaviors, while the association becomes insignificant for settings where firms operate with low ethical behaviors. Findings also show that the quality of management schools and ethical behavior of firms play a complimentary role in improving sustainability.Social implicationsThe findings emphasize the role played by business schools and business ethics in improving sustainability. These results may have policy implications for governments aiming to improve sustainability by emphasizing on education for sustainable development in management schools’ 2019 programs enforcing standards dealing with business ethics and controlling firms’ 2019 compliance with them.Originality/valueThe findings of this study highlight the importance of education, as proxied by the quality of management schools, in the development of sustainable societies and economic systems. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study that tries to empirically link business schools programs to sustainability efforts and how business ethics may affect this association.

Implementation of Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Organic Rhizome Supply Partnership

The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the implementation of Sustainable SCM in organic rhizome supply partnerships which includes 7 aspects. The program developed multi-stakeholder partnership governance within a supply chain management (SCM) framework for organic rhizome agroindustry. Stakeholders involved in partnerships are grouped into 3 according to the components in SCM, namely 1) downstream SC who provide input needs for organic rhizome cultivation (producers of compost, cocopit and other planting media), 2) internal SC who carry out the cultivation process starting from the Organic Rhizome Learning Center (until the age of 4 months) and households rhizome cultivation, and 3) upstream SC, namely households (post-harvest and processing). The evaluation results show that of the seven aspects of SSCM, only the logistics aspect is optimized and the transportation is sustainable, while the other 6 aspects are already running. The use of organic waste available for seedling and planting media meets the aspect of a sustainable source of raw materials, is able to reduce the risk of concentration in nature so as to reduce risks to occupational health and safety. Development of research and learning centers in each target village as a means of sharing in sustainable competency development. On the other hand, with tiered partnerships involving customers, suppliers, communities and community groups with government and university facilitation, the model built has a positive impact on local communities. Based on the three aspects of sustainable development, the development of a multi-stakeholder partnership model in this organic rhizome agroindustry can be a best practice for other commodities.

Competence-Based Assessment in Higher Education during COVID-19 Lockdown: The Demise of Sustainability Competence

Sustainability competence is understood as the interlinked set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that effectively enable embodied action in the world concerning real-world sustainability problems, challenges, and opportunities, according to the context. Higher education institutions should promote this competence in their graduates due to its importance, which has been stressed during the period of COVID-19. However, it seems to be becoming forgotten, in the syllabus as well as in the voices of teachers and students. A study carried out at the University of Barcelona (UB) with n = 265 students and n = 129 professors on the importance and frequency of assessing this competence in times of pandemic is presented. Quantitative data was supplemented with n = 31 interviews. The data show a scarce use of assessment strategies to evaluate this competence (9.7% of the students and 15.2% of the teachers indicate some type of assessment) as well as a very low consideration of the usefulness of the assessment processes of this competence. Interviews prove that this is a missing competence. However, 14% of the students associate it with productive assessment tasks, and 19.4% of the teachers think it is related to well-aligned assessment tasks. Therefore, it seems that the future challenge is in the design of learning and assessment tasks which should consider sustainability in teaching plans and ask students to apply, solve or make decisions considering environmental, social or economic sustainability.

How to Assess Generic Competencies: From Sustainable Development Needs among Engineering Graduates in Industry

Achieving many of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals requires the active contribution of skilled engineers. Globally, however, there appears to be a mismatch between the sustainable competencies that engineering graduates possess and those required by industry. Closing this gap requires a reliable and valid means of establishing which competencies are of greatest importance to engineering practitioners. In this research, we developed a model of generic engineering competency and designed a scale comprising 55 skills in total. This instrument was then used to survey two samples of engineering graduates working in the Chinese industry, with 746 in the first round of surveys, and 1183 in the second. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), seven subscales were extracted from the data: (1) leadership, (2) engineering design, (3) professionalism, (4) problem solving, (5) lifelong learning, (6) technical theory, and (7) communication. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated that the total number of generic engineering competencies was represented by a second-order, single-factor model that adequately fitted the data. Further, the Cronbach’s alpha values and composite reliability of the scale indicate its reliability. Overall, the evidence shows that the instrument offers a valid and reliable means of researching and assessing engineering education practices.