Students' perception of corporate social responsibility: Analyzing the influence of gender, academic status, and exposure to business ethics education

• Author: Felix Okechukwu Ugwuozor
• Published date: 01 October 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12306
• Date: 01 October 2020

Business Ethics: A Eur Rev. 2020;29:737–747. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer  

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  737© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

In this study, we ident ify some fac tors responsi ble for studen ts’

perception of cor porate social responsibilit y (CSR) in a developing

country setting. We test whether gender, academic status (level of

study), and taking business ethics courses influences these percep-

tions. Student s in less develop ed countries (LD Cs) often are not

familiar with t he concept of CSR despite its p otential to shape and

sharpen thei r disposition to fa irness and soc ial justice, esp ecially

in the workplac e, either as empl oyees or managers of b usinesses

(Amaeshi, Ad i, Ogbechie, & A mao, 2006; Kolo dinsky, Madden,

Zisk, & Henkel, 2010). H owever, studies show tha t CSR enables

businesses to f unction maximally, stimulate s favorable policies for

businesses to th rive, and fulfills th e duty businesses h ave to society

with respec t to social good (Kilcullen & Koois tra, 1999; Kolodinsky

et al., 2010; Rupp, Wright , Aryee, & Luo, 2015). Converse ly, favor-

able policies wi ll tend to stimula te businesses to gi ve back to the

society via CSR.

The ease of doing bu siness is arguab ly the most sign ificant

difference between developing and developed countries. Policies,

processes, an d procedures for star ting and running busin esses are

by far more eff icient, secure , and suppor tive of entrepren eurs in

the latter tha n in the former. As stu dents in Afric a observe an d

thereby experience the complexity and challenges facing busi-

ness effectiveness and performance in developing countries, they

are unlikely to be C SR-sensitive. Many s tudents in sub -Saharan

African set tings such as Nigeria seek e ducation primarily to e man-

cipate from pover ty, that is, to lead a mo re prosperous l ife and

secure a more sustainable future. Thus, they seek gainful em-

ployment after leaving school, further implicating the possibility

that their prim ary motivation is surv ival. Job-seeking grad uates in

Nigeria are firs t likely to seek secure jobs in t he civil services or in

high-paying private sectors or with multinational companies, for

example, She ll, Chevron, MTN , Coca Cola, a nd others. The C SR

disposition of these graduate employees will, therefore, depend

on the CSR behavior of their employers. Conversely, students

Received: 30 Au gust 2018 

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  Revised: 2 June 202 0 

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  Accepted: 9 June 202 0

DOI: 10 .1111/bee r.12306

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Students' perception of corporate social responsibility:

Analyzing the influence of gender, academic status, and

exposure to business ethics education

Felix Okechukwu Ugwuozor

Department of Educational Foundations,

Faculty of Educ ation, Universit y of Nigeria,

Nsukka, Nigeria

Correspondence

Felix Okechukwu Ugwuozor, Department

of Educationa l Foundations, Facul ty of

Education, U niversity of Niger ia, Nsukka

PMB 41001, Nigeria.

Email: Fugwuozo@yahoo.com

Abstract

Studies on student s' perception of corpo rate social responsib ility (CSR) have be en

growing in western sch olarship. For stude nts in African coun tries, such as Nigeria ,

there is little th at is known about how and whether gender, level of stud y, and being

enrolled in busines s education cours es impact their p erception of and disposit ion

towards CSR. Thi s study explores the signific ance of gender, academic status or level

of study, and exposure to busin ess ethics education (BEE) on Nigeri an students' per-

ception of CSR as a verit able business ethic. Specific ally, the effects of these facto rs

on students' per ception of CSR are exam ined using analysis of var iance. The result s

show a significant ef fect of exposure to BEE a nd gender on CSR-sensit ivity, and a

mild, but signific ant effect of aca demic status. T his implies that male st udents and

female students had different perspectives on CSR issues. Students who took ethics

courses and those w ho did not would run busin esses different ly. However, age and

experience on campus did not influence students' perception or position on CSR. The

study recommen ds that more behaviora l models be estimat ed with the inclusion of

more demographi c and socioeconomic variables to elici t more robust results.