University Social Responsibility Research Articles

Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Performance of Mount Kenya University.

Assuring the success of their organizations is every manager's most important responsibility. It is feasible for an enterprise to hastily achieve its objectives and gain a competitive edge by integrating a sustainable CSR. This research project aimed to determine how corporate social responsibility affects an organization's performance. The following clear goals served as its guide: to ascertain how CSR's economic, environmental, social, and humanistic cultural dimensions affected the performance of Mt. Kenya University. A descriptive research design was employed in the study. The study's target audience was the management team entrusted with conceptualizing and operationalizing the adoption of corporate social responsibility. The university administrative structure served as a guide for the study area selection, explicitly targeting employees of all management offices. The study made the best use of the primary data, which was gathered using semi-structured questionnaires with open-ended and closed-ended questions. The questionnaires were distributed using the drop-and-pick technique. The data gathered from the questionnaire findings underwent both quantitative and qualitative cross examination. Descriptive statistical methods were used in quantitative analysis. The usage of frequencies, means, and percentages that were aggregated and displayed using tables, graphs, and charts were complemented by descriptive statistics. The linear regression model was incorporated to facilitate data analysis analyzed using SPSS version 24.0. Notably, the research reveals that increasing the economic dimension by one unit increases organizational performance by 0.158 points, the environmental dimension by 0.227 points, the social dimension by 0.590 points, and the humanistic cultural dimension by 0.442 points. The descriptive and correlational analyses indicate that CSR positively impacts all aspects of performance at MKU. In future studies, it is recommended that researchers examine the impact of CSR initiatives on the satisfaction of consumers as a dependent variable.

Giving is receiving: exploring the linkage between university corporate social responsibility and university corporate brand legitimacy

PurposeThis study examined the influence of university corporate social responsibility (University CSR) on university corporate brand legitimacy through the lens of university brand trust.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized a cross-sectional research design with a quantitative approach to gather data from a sample of 398 university students. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe findings of the study suggest that University CSR has a significant influence on the legitimacy of a university's corporate brand. Moreover, the study identified the mediating role of university brand trust in the proposed relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in the context of higher education in Tanzania. As a result, the generalizability of the findings to other contexts that significantly differ from Tanzania, a developing country, may be limited.Practical implicationsThe study recommends that the management of higher education institutions in developing countries should include CSR practices in the strategic plans of universities. Additionally, faculty members should be empowered to play a significant role as initiators and implementers of CSR programs.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few attempts to examine the interplay between university CSR, corporate brand trust and university corporate brand legitimacy. The study contributes to the state of knowledge in the education sector by highlighting the role of university CSR in building social acceptance, which is a crucial pillar in empowering universities to play a role in social and economic development.

Navigating the COVID-19 Crisis: Higher Education Institutions and the Three Shades of Social Media Communication

This study analyzed the social media communication of six higher education institutions (HEIs) in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic within the context of university social responsibility (USR). The study used a mixed-method approach, conducting both quantitative and qualitative analyses of 5547 social media posts published by HEIs on their official Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. The analysis identified three rhetorical strategies that were used by HEIs during the pandemic: Business as Usual, We are Great!, and We are Together. The study found that when compared to posts not related to COVID-19, the posts concerning the pandemic achieved higher interaction and broader reach on social media platforms. Facebook and Twitter emerged as the most frequently utilized platforms for crisis communication. This study thus underscores the role of social media as a vital tool for HEIs to use to fulfill their USR by actively engaging with stakeholders and fostering community solidarity and education during crises. The findings also advocate for using HEIs to harness social media not merely for information dissemination, but also as a platform for active stakeholder engagement and community support, both integral to their social responsibilities during challenging times.

DOCTORAL STUDENTS AT RISK ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT: QUALITY MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Academic engagement and support of vulnerable categories of learners is a crucial thematic issue within the EU and globally. In this respect, the research is focused on searching for suitable solutions for gaps in doctoral education capacity strengthening at institutional and national levels in Ukraine, primarily due to underestimating its societal dimensions, and on synchronizing the Ukrainian practices with European policies and standards, including helpful initiatives in integrating resilience and sustainability into its academic, research and engagement activities; creating an inclusive and welcoming culture within academia that encourages respect, support, and mentorship. The developed educational courses aim to facilitate a cross-sectoral dialogue on solutions for the challenges faced by Ukrainian academia in reforming the doctoral education sector, within the framework of a sustainable, cohesive, and peaceful Europe. The implementation of the proposed educational courses aims to achieve the following short-term effects: to ensure Ukrainian PhD students’ belonging and research engagement, return to stability, and help to alleviate psychological anxiety; to advance doctoral students’ research competencies in line with ethical and methodological standards; to minimize the risks of doctoral student attrition; to activate faculty and peer mentorship and professional networking within the academia regarding doctoral students at risk diversity; to diversify the institutional strategies of doctoral students’ academic and researcher identity development in war and post-war circumstances. This will provide a significant context for advancing a new type of academic culture in doctoral education within Ukrainian academia – a culture of university social responsibility that prioritizes human values and addresses the real needs of Ukrainian researchers while providing early-career researcher-friendly support, both academic and professional.

Feasibility Assessment of Stakeholder Benefits in Community-Based Agritourism through University Social Responsibility Practices

This study selected the TaiAn rural community in Taiwan as the study site. TaiAn collaborated with local universities to implement the University Social Responsibility (USR) practice through community-based agritourism (CBA). The social exchange theory (SET) was adopted as a theoretical framework to weigh the costs and benefits perceived among different stakeholders (residents, tourists, students, and lecturers) regarding CBA development. The research purpose was to explore the determinants of support for sustainable CBA using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach based on the SET. The empirical results from 117 completed surveys indicated that Agricultural Experiential Benefits, Perceived Environmental Impacts, and Mental Health Benefits positively influenced tourists’ support for CBA. The qualitative interview results also supported the notion that agriculture students, faculty, and community members could derive various benefits from participating in USR practices within local communities. Theoretical and managerial implications were proposed for marketers and policymakers to gain a deep understanding of CBA practices.

University social responsibility strategy: a case study

University social responsibility strategy: a case study

The Impact of Social Responsibility on Students’ Perceptions in Higher Education Institutions: A Theoretical Synthesis of Recent Research and Bibliometric Analysis

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to analyze international scientific publications related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and higher education institutions, providing a map of the connection found in the studies published on these areas. CSR has become increasingly important for the creation of value in an organization and this study aims to understand how universities act to build a responsible approach in their management activities, education, research programs, and sustainability. To do this, we employed a three-step research approach: 1) We used bibliometric techniques to analyze 1,119 articles and present a comprehensive contextual picture of students’ perception of university social responsibility research. 2) We conducted an extensive literature review demonstrating the evolution of concepts, variables, and studies. 3) A subsequent content analysis of the 10 most recent and relevant academic articles was carried out to investigate and identify potential opportunities for future research. It was possible to analyze the maps by constructing and visualizing bibliometric networks using VOSviewer. The results make it clear that growing higher education institutions need to invest in CSR to attract and retain stakeholders. The impact of social responsibility maximizes the relationship between them, having a positive impact on students’ perceptions, as well as a better reputation and competitive advantage. In today’s environment, there is a strong relationship between innovation and market orientation in higher education institutions, and it is necessary to identify not only the perceptions of students but also of other stakeholder groups.

University Social Responsibilities-Based Green Accounting: Implementation of Green Universities

The research aims to examine the differences in the implementation of green accounting based on University Social Responsibilities (USR) at the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) and Brawijaya University (UB). The data analysis method uses a different test approach with a sample size of 150 respondents from the academic community. The data collection method uses a mail survey with Google Forms. The research results prove no difference in implementing environmental awareness, environmental involvement, environmental reporting, environmental audit, and university social responsibility at ITS and UB. UB initiated the green campus concept and ITS with the eco campus concept. However, there are no audit reports related to green accounting at either campus. The contribution of this research will lead to policies for drafting environmental audit report regulations because campuses also produce waste from the impact of their activities. This regulation can strengthen sustainable practices on campus environments in Indonesia and ensure a sustainable environmental legacy for future generations.

Research on Critical Factors in University-Corporation Social Responsibility

Abstract This study investigated three factors of strategic philanthropy, social impact, and social participation in university-corporation joint implementation of social responsibility. This study employed Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to systematically analyze complex issues of social responsibility. The participants included enterprise and university staff who used to carry out social responsibility projects, and 20 valid questionnaires were collected. Synthesized critical factors from literature included policy benefit, social impact, and community participation, which were further divided into five sub-phases, including fifteen criteria in total. Finally, based on the importance, factors that influenced university and corporate joint implementation of social responsibility were ranked and discussed on their priority. This study expects to provide practical suggestions to university and corporate joint implementation of social responsibility projects. Keywords: Strategic philanthropy, Social impact, Community participation, University social responsibility, Corporate social responsibility.

Environmental Awareness and Its Impact on University Social Responsibility of Students at A Private University in Chimbote, Perú

Purpose: To analyze the influence of environmental awareness on university social responsibility among students of a private university in Chimbote, Peru.
  
 Theoretical framework: Theories associated with environmental awareness, university social responsibility and other factors were addressed.
  
 Method: A mixed Dexplis-type approach was applied, with a non-experimental and cross-sectional design, where the total population was 1180 university students and the probability sample for the survey was 290 students and the non-probability sample for the interview was 30 students that served to collect quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Quantitative data were obtained through the ECA-FMEP instrument of environmental awareness (Laso et al., 2019), whose reliability was assessed by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient α = 0.905 and the RSU was evaluated through the RSU scale instrument of university social responsibility (Serrano et al., 2022), whose reliability was assessed by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient α = 0.868 which was obtained by being applied to a pilot test of 30 learners, where the quantitative data obtained were then processed in SPSS, and the qualitative data were obtained from the answers to the questionnaire of open questions that were evaluated with Atlas.ti software considering 20 codes, 12 sub categories and 8 categories, also taking into account other factors that influence the USR.
  
 Results and conclusions: The results support a very high degree of positive correlation between environmental awareness and university social responsibility with an rs = 0.967 and a significance level of p = 0.000, where the coefficient of determination shows that environmental awareness influences 94.7% of university social responsibility, while the remaining 5.3% is affected by other factors. It is concluded that there is a very high positive correlation and there is a 94.7% influence of environmental awareness on university social responsibility, where the remaining 5.3% is due to other factors such as socioeconomic level, previous education, personal experiences, influences and the legal framework in force.
  
 Originality/value: To provide insight into students' perceptions on the management of environmental awareness and its influence on university social responsibility.

Moral Values as Mediators in the Relationship between Prosocial Behaviour and Social Responsibility among University Students

Universities must confront social challenges and prepare their students to be future socially responsible professionals. This research considers social responsibility in depth and examines how it can be promoted among university students. Specifically, it analyses whether prosocial behaviour and moral values are predictor variables, and to study whether moral values are a mediator variable between prosocial behaviour and university student social responsibility. Non-probabilistic convenience sampling was used in a Spanish university (N = 193; 115 females; Mage = 19). Three scales were applied: the University Student Social Responsibility scale, the Prosocial Tendencies Measures scale and the Importance of Personal and Professional Values scale. The results of the regression models showed that prosocial behaviour and moral values both contributed significantly to the model (F (2,196) = 41.979; p < .001), predicting 30.2% of university student social responsibility. In the mediation model, total effects between the variables were observed, as was an indirect effect of prosocial behaviour on social responsibility mediated by moral values (β = .07; t = 3.80; p < .001). This suggests that university programmes that seek to help the community and enable people to discover values will more effectively be able to develop social responsibility.

University Social Responsibility as Part of Sustainable Development in Latin America: A Study of Scientific Production in the Last 20 Years

University social responsibility refers to the policies of continuous improvement of institutions aimed at greater community development from a holistic and sustainable perspective. The objective was to describe the current state of scientific production on university social responsibility in the Latin American context during the period 2000-2022. The study was a bibliometric, descriptive and retrospective study of scientific production in Scopus. A total of 117 documents were found where there was a predominance of the original article type of document, representing 83.76% of the total number of documents. It was found that the countries of Colombia and Peru had the highest scientific production with 23.93% and 17.95% respectively. Likewise, it was identified that from the year 2019 there was a growing trend in publications. There was international collaboration between authors who published in the Latin American context. The findings allow identifying that scientific production on university social responsibility is linked to ethical commitments and university student training, sustainable development and university social responsibility from an educational management approach.

University social responsibility and sustainable development: illustration of adapted practices by two Tunisian Universities

Purpose This study aims to show how universities may engage in social responsibility approaches and to understand in depth how the university social responsibility (USR) practices contribute in achieving sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach Exploratory qualitative research was directed based on two Tunisian Universities (two case studies); the first one belongs to the public sector and the second one to the private sector. Data were collected through participant observations, group interviews, documentation as well as semistructured interviews with students and administrative staff. The survey was carried out in 2022, immediately following the COVID-19 health crisis. The interview lasted 45-min on average. Findings The results confirmed that USR was applicable within the two studied institutions. The two cases under investigation primarily concerned academic and philanthropic responsibilities, with practices pertaining to ethical and legal responsibilities being observed, albeit not to the same extent as the other two responsibilities. Therefore, universities prioritize the welfare of people over anything else when they implement a USR policy. Originality/value The USR is an approach that many higher education institutions, both public and private, must appropriate. Nevertheless, this field is still virgin in academic research and this theme remains unexplored within the Tunisian territory. Thus, through the present study, the authors were able to understand in depth the USR practices and confirmed that these two institutes were socially responsible. Consequently, the authors are inviting other Tunisian Universities to adhere to these approaches regarding their benefits among society, environment and economy.

Including the social responsibility of universities and sustainable development goals in the strategic plans of universities in Europe

AbstractSocial responsibility of higher education institutions (HEIs) and 2030 Agenda represent a new tool for improving the management of HEIs. This article aims to conduct an in‐depth study on the diagnosis of the integration of social responsibility guidelines (SR) and sustainable development goals (SDGs) into the strategic plans of Polish and European HEIs. The work shows connections and similarities between the UN Sustainable Development Goals, United Nation Global Compact Principles and the Polish declaration of social responsibility of universities and the forming on this basis the HEI's strategic documents. The methodology of the study was based on the content of open information published on the university's website and research questions addressed to two groups. First was Polish HEIs (N = 83) that have signed the Polish declaration of social responsibility by 2019, the other was European HEIs belonging to the United Nation Global Compact (N = 141). The results indicate that in the current strategic plans of Polish HEIs the process of integrating university social responsibility (USR) into strategic plans is visible at 61.6%, and 43.8% of strategic plans refer to SDGs, unlike for the foreign universities 37.2% and 62.8%.

University social responsibility, the level of digital ethics and knowledge about data security: The case of first-year and fifth-year students

University social responsibility, the level of digital ethics and knowledge about data security: The case of first-year and fifth-year students

Integrating Education and Responsibility: Enhancing Carbon Neutrality through CSR, EnEd, and USR Synergies

This article explores the dynamic relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Environmental Education (EnEd), and carbon neutrality in the industrial sector, with a special focus on the enhancing role of University Social Responsibility (USR). Through a detailed analysis of various case studies, we examine how integrated CSR and EnEd approaches contribute to effective carbon-zero/negative initiatives. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data, and includes insights from a comprehensive literature review of USR case studies focused on environmental sustainability. Findings reveal that EnEd significantly influences CSR strategies, which in turn impact carbon neutrality efforts. The introduction of USR is proposed as a key component to strengthen this sequential link, fostering a more holistic approach to sustainability. Novel recommendations for future academic research and strategic directions are presented, emphasizing interdisciplinary studies, technological integration in sustainability efforts, and the importance of aligning educational initiatives with corporate environmental goals. The article contributes to the ongoing discourse on CSR and EnEd’s role in achieving environmental sustainability, highlighting the need for collaborative efforts between academia, industry, and policymakers in fostering a sustainable future.

More than just mind-games. University social responsibility (USR) And its practical applications

More than just mind-games. University social responsibility (USR) And its practical applications

Indicators of university social responsibility as a challenge for educational quality: teacher perception

Universities around the world play a key role in shaping the leaders of the future. It is therefore essential that, in the exercise of University Social Responsibility (hereinafter, USR), the teaching staff is actively involved in engaging students with the principles of social, economic, and environmental responsibility. The aim of this study was to analyze the perception, attitude, and participation of the teaching staff of a private Spanish university with respect to USR at its Madrid and Barcelona campuses. A total sample of 43 university professors from both campuses related to socially relevant subjects in business careers was selected to answer a 21-question questionnaire on USR. In general, the results show significant differences between professors at the Barcelona and Madrid campuses with respect to their perceptions of existing social responsibility practices at the university, as well as their own roles in education for sustainable development, highlighting the lack of promotion of specific actions within the subjects taught. This study, although with a reduced sample, is a first diagnosis that seeks to find the strengths and weaknesses of the current situation and provide an objective view. It is hoped that these data will be a starting point to increase the training and awareness of teachers in USR, increasing the number of teachers in the field.

Areas and dimensions of universities response to COVID-19: Diversity, trends, and evidence from the University Social Responsibility Network

The University Social Responsibility Network (USRN) promotes civic engagement in higher education and awareness of the nature of University Social Responsibility (USR), how it functions, and what it means depending on its context. In 2019 the USRN started a collaborative Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called Introduction to University Social Responsibility. The outbreak of COVID-19 affected the production of the course, however this also led to the addition of a Special Session on Universities’ Response to the MOOC showing how members addressed the challenges of the pandemic. Based on the experiences from 13 universities and the USRN, this article portrays flagship responses of how universities in the network tackled some of the challenges presented by the pandemic in range of academic and non-academic initiatives categorized as University Social Responsibility (USR) Areas of Engagement, namely research, education, advisory role, outreach, information management, provision of support, institutional reforms, and extended services. The article discusses broader questions referring to how COVID-19 impacted the understanding of what USR is; therefore, looking into both policy and theoretical implications of how the concept of USR and universities responses can be understood and applied in different contexts and universities.
 Received: 31 January 2022Accepted: 30 August 2023

Social responsibility of Spanish universities for sustainable relationships

As institutions committed to society, universities communicate their responsible behavior and their impacts on the environment and community through University Social Responsibility (USR) and sustainability reports. This paper analyzes USR management in the 50 higher education institutions that belong to the Spanish public university system and their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. A descriptive methodology was followed to carry out a document review and content analysis of their social responsibility and sustainability reports, as well as their institutional development plans. The results show that both the conceptualization and management of USR as a policy is very heterogeneous between universities and by regions. There is little evidence that USR policies are deeply rooted in a government framework and that the contribution of public universities to the 2030 Agenda is incipient. Although the relationship with internal and external audiences is represented in the documents, there are weaknesses in the relationship with mixed interest groups. Responsible communication is presented as a mechanism for the integration and promotion of the SDGs in universities and as a manifestation of their relationships with stakeholders.