Management Students’ Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: The University Context of Each Country as an Explanatory Variable

Oscar Licandro, José Luis Vázquez Burguete (), Luis Camilo Ortigueira Sánchez and Giselle Viviana Pinochet Sánchez
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Oscar Licandro: Cathedra of Organizational Social Responsibility, Universidad CLAEH (Centro Latinoamericano de Economía Humana), Montevideo 11100, Uruguay
José Luis Vázquez Burguete: Business Management and Economics Department, Universidad de León, 24071 León, Spain
Luis Camilo Ortigueira Sánchez: Department of Administration, Faculty of Business, Universidad del Pacífico, Jesús María, Lima 15072, Peru
Giselle Viviana Pinochet Sánchez: Department of Psychology, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá 16486, Colombia

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-21

Abstract: Many scientific articles have been written about management students’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility. Most of these investigations were carried out on small samples, made up of students from a single university. Very few investigations have compared students from different universities and countries. The main objective of this paper is to investigate whether students’ countries operate as an explanatory variable for their perceptions of this concept. Fifty-four previous articles were reviewed, identifying some important conceptual problems and a high amount of methodological diversity. The second objective of this paper is to describe and analyze these problems and methodologies, with the aim of contributing to the development of this field of research. A sample of 1992 undergraduate students in management courses who were studying at 18 universities located in three countries (Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) was selected. A definition of corporate social responsibility was adopted. This concept was operationalized through a set of 18 indicators. An exploratory factor analysis showed that these indicators operationalize the main dimensions of social responsibility. It was found that there are statistically significant differences between the perceptions of the students from the 18 universities, but when comparing universities from the same country, these differences disappear. In addition, it was found that the relationship between perception and country is independent of gender, age, work experience and the degree that students are pursuing. This work contributes to our current knowledge in this field of study, because it shows that the university environment of each country operates as an explanatory variable for students’ perceptions of social responsibility. Also, this work contributes to the design of appropriate methodological strategies for carrying out comparative studies on the perceptions of social responsibility, both locally and internationally.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility; sustainability; student perception; university; country; measuring tool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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