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Can universities be good corporate citizens?

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  • Nagy, Judy
  • Robb, Alan

Abstract

As universities respond to a prolonged period of economic rationalism there appears to be resignation, for the most part, that the role of a university is not what it once was. By adopting the operational strictures of economy, efficiency and performance, many universities are behaving like and being run as though they were a business. The term ‘corporate university’ now carries much meaning and has been the subject of significant discourse over the last decade. Resource limitations, political influences and competitive pressures are commonplace with implications for the way in which a university can fulfil a role in society, however that is defined. In this paper we consider the notion of corporate citizenship and ask whether this concept is relevant to the role of a university in Australia and New Zealand. In these countries universities are substantially (although progressively less so) funded by the government and are public service entities. The application of corporate citizenship to universities serves to highlight the duality of these institutions, which operate like corporations, and yet have more obvious historically based obligations to society. The comparison also suggests that as corporations are becoming more aware of the long-term benefits of a societal role for business entities that universities appear to be moving in the opposite direction. With a few exceptions academics have been reluctant to engage in public debates. They have progressively lost control of their working environment. The risk is that the public interest will have no place in the corporatised university of the 21st century unless academics increase their critic and conscience activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Nagy, Judy & Robb, Alan, 2008. "Can universities be good corporate citizens?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1414-1430.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:19:y:2008:i:8:p:1414-1430
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2007.10.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lee Parker, 2005. "Corporate governance crisis down under: Post-Enron accounting education and research inertia," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 383-394.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dixon, Keith, 2013. "Growth and dispersion of accounting research about New Zealand before and during a National Research Assessment Exercise: Five decades of academic journals bibliometrics," MPRA Paper 51100, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Vibhav Singh & Surabhi Verma & Sushil S. Chaurasia, 2020. "Mapping the themes and intellectual structure of corporate university: co-citation and cluster analyses," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(3), pages 1275-1302, March.
    3. Egwurugwu, B.C & Prof. Amadi, R N & Dr. Harcourt, D.W, 2023. "Assessment of Corporate Social Responsibility Performance of Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(4), pages 1545-1556, April.
    4. Christopher, Joe, 2012. "Tension between the corporate and collegial cultures of Australian public universities: The current status," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 556-571.
    5. Berggren, Christian & Karabag, Solmaz Filiz, 2019. "Scientific misconduct at an elite medical institute: The role of competing institutional logics and fragmented control," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 428-443.
    6. Ulrike Schmidt & Thomas Günther, 2016. "Public sector accounting research in the higher education sector: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 66(4), pages 235-265, December.
    7. Perkiss, Stephanie & Moerman, Lee, 2020. "Hurricane Katrina: Exploring justice and fairness as a sociology of common good(s)," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    8. Daniela Pianezzi & Hanne Nørreklit & Lino Cinquini, 2020. "Academia After Virtue? An Inquiry into the Moral Character(s) of Academics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 571-588, December.
    9. Anirban Chakraborty & Sumit Kumar & L. S. Shashidhara & Anjali Taneja, 2021. "Building Sustainable Societies through Purpose-Driven Universities: A Case Study from Ashoka University (India)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-20, July.

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