An Explanatory Study of MBA Students with Regards to Sustainability and Ethics Commitment

Marian Buil, Juan Pedro Aznar, Jorge Galiana and Alba Rocafort-Marco
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Marian Buil: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department, Escola de Ciències Socials i de l’Empresa-Tecnocampus, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Mataró 08302, Spain
Juan Pedro Aznar: Economy, Accounting and Finance Department, ESADE Business & Law School, Barcelona 08034, Spain
Jorge Galiana: Accounting Department, LaSalle Barcelona, EAE Business School, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08015 Barcelona, Spain
Alba Rocafort-Marco: Politics, Philosophy and Economics Departament, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: (1) Background: The consequences of the recent economic crisis have shown the need for promoting certain key skills in future entrepreneurs to create enterprises that are capable of producing added value, generating employment and remaining solvent or growing in a competitive and highly volatile environment. Therefore, the issue is not simply a matter of creating more businesses, but rather, a model based on organizations with strong sustainable values in the long term. (2) Methods: The originality and new approach of this article is to establish, through an empirical approach, the link between the entrepreneurial skills and environmental and social commitment in times of crisis. Based on the analysis of a questionnaire answered by MBA students and using structural equation modelling, the relation between entrepreneurial skills, social and environment commitment are tested. (3) Results: The statistical analysis proved the existence of a positive relation between entrepreneurs’ skills and environmental and social commitment pointing out the importance of sustainability commitment as a source of high added value activities. (4) Conclusion: The paper demonstrates that investing in the promotion of entrepreneurial skills in education systems has positive effects on how future entrepreneurs will manage their firms. Therefore, this sustainably depends on the present education policies.

Keywords: entrepreneurship skills; social commitment; environmental commitment; sustainability; ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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