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Building an Industry-Oriented Business Sustainability Curriculum in Higher Education

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  • Mei-hui Chen

    (Department of Cosmetics Science, Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan 71710, Taiwan)

  • Yenchun Jim Wu

    (Graduate Institute of Global Business and Strategy, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 10645, Taiwan)

  • Kune-muh Tsai

    (Department of Logistics Management, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung 824, Taiwan)

Abstract

In the past, research addressing the issues reflecting industrial needs for sustainability-related curriculum design in higher education has been limited. To narrow this gap and to provide students with better business sustainability curricula, we propose employing a mapping concept to extract the opinions and needs of industrial professionals. A total of 14 industrial professionals were invited to brainstorm on topics of business sustainability to be included in the curriculum, and we were able to obtain 52 topics. The participants were then asked to group the topics on the basis of their own perception of similarity, and rated their importance and difficulty levels. To associate the topics into clusters, we conducted multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. We achieved five clusters: resource usage reduction and management, corporate governance and labor safety, business sustainability practices, employee rights and community involvement, and knowledge of the regulations. A derived importance–performance analysis (dIPA) was later implemented to further categorize the topics on the basis of the distinct levels of importance and difficulty of each topic. The four quadrants in dIPA could act as guidelines for designing a series of progressive courses on business sustainability in higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Mei-hui Chen & Yenchun Jim Wu & Kune-muh Tsai, 2018. "Building an Industry-Oriented Business Sustainability Curriculum in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4698-:d:189391
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rebeka Kovačič Lukman & Vasja Omahne & Lobna Tag el Sheikh & Peter Glavič, 2021. "Integrating Sustainability into Logistics Oriented Education in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, February.
    2. Yuan Ma & Jingzhi Men & Wei Cui, 2020. "Does Environmental Education Matter? Evidence from Provincial Higher Education Institutions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-13, August.
    3. Thomas J. Lampoltshammer & Valerie Albrecht & Corinna Raith, 2021. "Teaching Digital Sustainability in Higher Education from a Transdisciplinary Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.

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