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Toward the Dissemination of Sustainability Issues through Social Media in the Higher Education Sector: Evidence from an Italian Case

Author

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  • Elena Gori

    (Department of Business and Economics, University of Florence, Via delle Pandette 9, 50127 Florence, Italy)

  • Alberto Romolini

    (Faculty of Economics, International Telematic University Uninettuno, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 39, 00186 Rome, Italy)

  • Silvia Fissi

    (Department of Business and Economics, University of Florence, Via delle Pandette 9, 50127 Florence, Italy)

  • Marco Contri

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Via Cosimo Ridolfi 10, 56124 Pisa, Italy)

Abstract

Nowadays, universities play a pivotal role in building a more sustainable society, promoting sustainable development by reducing the negative impacts of their activities. Accordingly, universities have been incorporating sustainability into the different dimension of their activities (i.e., campus operations, research, teaching, and community engagement). Against this backdrop, the active involvement of stakeholders is a critical element, and, in this regard, social media platforms are particularly well-suited tools thanks to their inherent dialogic features. While there are several studies on the implementation of sustainability within university activities, only a few previous researches explore whether and how such institutions use social media platforms (SM) to disclose their green initiatives and engage users. Based on this, our paper aims to fill the literature gap by exploring the case of the University of Florence. To achieve this aim, we performed a content analysis of the posts published by the university on Facebook. In contrast with prior studies which found scarce use of SM to share green activities in the higher education sector, our findings reveal that the University of Florence has been using SM to disclose their sustainability initiatives. Moreover, our results suggest that most posts are related to the community engagement dimension, while previous research pointed out prevalent attention to the environmental aspect. Finally, this research reveals a low interaction level between the university and its followers, which greatly hampers the dialogic potential of social platforms themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Gori & Alberto Romolini & Silvia Fissi & Marco Contri, 2020. "Toward the Dissemination of Sustainability Issues through Social Media in the Higher Education Sector: Evidence from an Italian Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4658-:d:368391
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    2. Minos-Athanasios Karyotakis & Nikos Antonopoulos, 2021. "Web Communication: A Content Analysis of Green Hosting Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Dua’ Ghosheh Wahbeh & Eman A. Najjar & Adel F. Sartawi & Maysa Abuzant & Wajeeh Daher, 2021. "The Role of Project-Based Language Learning in Developing Students’ Life Skills," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-14, June.
    4. Benedetta Esposito & Maria Rosaria Sessa & Daniela Sica & Ornella Malandrino, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility Engagement through Social Media. Evidence from the University of Salerno," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Paul Capriotti & Ileana Zeler, 2023. "Analysing effective social media communication in higher education institutions," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.

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