An empirical study of what institutions of higher education in the UK consider to be their corporate social responsibility

Abstract

The field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is relatively new when compared with other fields. It was in the 1980s that corporate entities around the world started to generate increasing interest in CSR, as we currently know it. However, a search of the literature has revealed that researchers in the field have tended to concentrate more efforts on the CSR of profit seeking corporate entities. Unfortunately this does not appear to be the case when it comes to the CSR of not-for-profit (NFP) corporate entities such as educational establishments (schools, colleges and universities), hospitals, the police, the armed forces, the fire services and other social entities that play equally important roles in modern economies. Do these NFP organisations consider that they have a role to play in CSR as is perceived by corporate stakeholders in the 21 st century? If they do, then do they play these roles as effectively as they should? How do these entity stakeholders perceive the contributions they make to society's well-being? These and other pertinent questions are what this research study seeks to find answers to.The study looks at what the UK's institutions of higher education consider to be their corporate social responsibilities and how they have absorbed these responsibilities into what they do in order to discharge these responsibilities to local, national and international communities. The research shows that most institutions of higher education in the UK are conscious that they owe some responsibility to all their stakeholders and are striving to demonstrate this awareness in various ways.

Professionals' Perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility

“…Despite these contradictory arguments, scholars have made some remarkable progress with regard to whether or not CSR is a legitimate role of business, see for example; Laine (2005), , Redmond et al (2008). The notion that corporate entities should affect all their stakeholders positively has been noted in studies and Idowu (2008a). McManus (2003) recites in the Social Market Foundation report -Race to the top the three broad types of relationship with CSR.…”

Corporate social responsibility in non-profit organizations

“…Many publications establish a link between CSR and sustainability (Filho et al, 2019;van Marrewijk, 2003;Montiel, 2008) while Lin-Hi et al (2015) incorporate sustainability into CSR. Idowu (2008) conceptually did the same incorporation and specified that "corporate entities (…) which aspire to be perceived by their stakeholders as being socially responsible must be interested in sustainability and sustainable development".…”

Education for the Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Evidence from Greece

“…Due to the lack of an institutional framework requiring universities to incorporate sustainable development policies, all best CSR practices and actions have been a result of voluntary initiatives. In sustainable university level, the study of Professor Idowu (2008), examined whether the universities of U.K. are implementing CSR in their business operations. The research shows that most institutions of higher education in the UK are conscious that they owe some responsibility to their stakeholders and are striving to demonstrate this awareness in various ways (Idowu, 2008).…”

“…In sustainable university level, the study of Professor Idowu (2008), examined whether the universities of U.K. are implementing CSR in their business operations. The research shows that most institutions of higher education in the UK are conscious that they owe some responsibility to their stakeholders and are striving to demonstrate this awareness in various ways (Idowu, 2008). A survey by Nejati et al (2011) shows the effects and benefits of CSR integration for the top 10 universities worldwide.…”