IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/srjpps/srj-10-2017-0210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The contemporary definition of university social responsibility with quantifiable sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Issam Kouatli

Abstract

Purpose - The university social responsibility (USR) is still in embryonic stage compared to corporate social responsibility (CSR) which is still debatable by researchers. The purpose of this paper is to propose the contemporary dimension (on top of teaching and research dimensions) of USR in most educational institutes. Based on this new definition, a proposal of a mechanism to quantify USR sustainability was presented. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a review of the theme of the CSR with the inter-related recent research on USR with researchers perspectives, characteristics of USR were identified and incorporated in the proposed newly definition of USR. The new definition takes into account the interrelationship of university–corporate communication and create shared value (CSV) principle, as well as the knowledgeability and sustainability. Findings - Based on the review of most active research in the USR development and the concluded contemporary definition of USR, this paper proposes a new extended version of sustainability suitable for educational institutes, where it is composed of different zones, and each zone was defined in terms of value of sustainability with associated knowledgeability in each zone. The Green Cloud project was taken as a vehicle to demonstrate collaboration between a university and cloud service provider located in Middle East (Dubai). Sustainability quantification was provided with hypothetical numbers to illustrate the technique. Research limitations/implications - This paper is focused on University-specific social responsibility rather than general CSR. The proposed contemporary definition of the USR is a hybrid of a mutated latest research on CSR as well as cascaded recent development on USR. The view of this new definition can have different arguments depending on the ideology (communitarianism as opposed to individualism) adopted by specific university admiration of the objective of social responsibility which is sometimes driven by the political and strategic views of countries and the regions. However, the proposed sustainability zone-split between the CSV type of projects and the reputation values (described via hypothetical example) can minimize the gap between the two ideologies. Originality/value - This paper attempts to provide a universally acceptable definition of the USR based on different points of views of researchers and tries to accommodate both ideologies toward social responsibility into one coherent framework. The sustainability Venn diagram was extended and made suitable for educational institutes. This approach facilitates the mechanism of quantifying the value of sustainability of a university or educational institutes. Hypothetical “Green Cloud” project was used as a mechanism to show the quantification process.

Suggested Citation

  • Issam Kouatli, 2018. "The contemporary definition of university social responsibility with quantifiable sustainability," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(7), pages 888-909, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:srjpps:srj-10-2017-0210
    DOI: 10.1108/SRJ-10-2017-0210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SRJ-10-2017-0210/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SRJ-10-2017-0210/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/SRJ-10-2017-0210?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Habarurema Jean Baptiste & Yan Guang Cai & A. Y. M. Atiquil Islam & Nzabalirwa Wenceslas, 2022. "A Systematic Review of University Social Responsibility in Post-Conflict Societies: The Case of the Great Lakes Region of East Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 439-475, November.
    2. Mirna Leko Šimić & Ekta Sharma & Željka Kadlec, 2022. "Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes toward University Social Responsibility: Comparison between India and Croatia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Martina Jelinkova & Libena Tetrevova & Jan Vavra & Simona Munzarova, 2021. "The Sharing Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility: The Example of the Czech Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Libena Tetrevova & Jan Vavra & Simona Munzarova, 2021. "Communication of Socially-Responsible Activities by Higher Education Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, January.
    5. Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez & Emilio Abad-Segura & Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña & Valentín Molina-Moreno, 2020. "Examining the Research Evolution on the Socio-Economic and Environmental Dimensions on University Social Responsibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-30, July.
    6. Smolíková Lenka & Schüller David, 2021. "Importance of Stakeholders within University Social Responsibility," Economics and Culture, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 46-58, June.
    7. Maria Teresa Nardo & Georgiana Cristina Codreanu & Fabiana Roberto, 2021. "Universities’ Social Responsibility through the Lens of Strategic Planning: A Content Analysis," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:srjpps:srj-10-2017-0210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.