Students’ perception of CSR and its influence on business performance. A multiple mediation analysis

• Date: 01 October 2020
• Author: Encarnación Manresa‐Marhuenda,Bartolomé Marco‐Lajara,Eduardo Sánchez‐García,Mercedes Úbeda‐García,Enrique Claver‐Cortés,Pedro Seva‐Larrosa,Francisco García‐Lillo,Laura Rienda‐García,Patrocinio Carmen Zaragoza‐Sáez,Rosario Andreu‐Guerrero,Lorena Ruiz‐Fernández,Esther Poveda‐Pareja
• Published date: 01 October 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12286

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  wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer Business Ethics: A Eur Rev. 2020;29:722–736.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

In a society tha t is more and more con cerned with re spect for the

common good, corporate responsibility, and sustainability are in-

creasingly pri oritized (Hsieh , 2017). Evidence of this ca n be found

in the appeal ma de by different political, e conomic, social, and aca-

demic institu tions for enterp rises to pay greate r attention to soc ial

and environmental issues through the development of three essen-

tial pillars, n amely: economy, society, and environm ent (also known

as the “Triple Botto m Line”).

Being socially r esponsible not only e ntails fulfilling le gal expecta-

tions but also goin g beyond compliance and inve sting more in human

capital, the environment, and relationships with stakeholders.

Implementation involves a strategic higher management approach

to decision making, creating long-term value, obtaining sustainable

competitive ad vantages over tim e and incorpor ating new value s

linked to philanthropic action by business organizations.

The role of firm ma nagers in corporate so cial responsibilit y (CSR)

implementat ion cannot be de nied. Educati on is a key player in de-

veloping a sense of m oral responsi bility among st today's busin ess

students and tomorrow's company managers and decision makers.

In fact, Alo nso-Almeida, Fe rnández de Nav arrete, and Rodr iguez-

Pomeda (2015) obser ved in their review that most of the re search

on CSR has been conducted using business students’ perceptions.

The adoption by f irms of socially r esponsible be haviors implie s

transforming the classical governance formula—with an organization

exclusively focused on the bilateral shareholder–manager relationship—

into another mult ilateral formula that involve s every interest group,

including shareholders, managers, employees, customers, providers,

public adminis trations, inve stors, and th e local commun ity. Such

a transformat ion seeks to br idge the gap bet ween traditi onal and

new conceptions . Subjects r elated to Strategi c Management have

traditional ly been taught from the Agenc y Theory p erspecti ve, as-

suming that the de cisions made by the board of di rectors may affect

Received: 7 Novem ber 2019 

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  Revised: 24 March 202 0 

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  Accepted: 27 March 20 20

DOI: 10 .1111/bee r.12286

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Students’ perception of CSR and its influence on business

performance. A multiple mediation analysis

Enrique Claver-Cortés | Bartolomé Marco-Lajara  | Mercedes Úbeda-García |

Francisco García-Lillo | Laura Rienda-García | Patrocinio Carmen Zaragoza-Sáez |

Rosario Andreu-Guerrero | Encarnación Manresa-Marhuenda | Pedro Seva-Larrosa |

Lorena Ruiz-Fernández | Eduardo Sánchez-García | Esther Poveda-Pareja

Department of Management, University of

Alicante, Alicante, Spain

Correspondence

Bartolomé Marco-Lajara, Department

of Management , University of Ali cante,

Carretera S an Vicente del Rasp eig, Alicante

03690, Spain.

Email: bartolome.marco@ua.es

Abstract

Firm managers play an im portant role i n the implementat ion of corporate social

responsibility (C SR) actions . Education is emergi ng as the key factor in devel oping

a sense of moral respo nsibility among st the business st udents who will event ually

become company manager s and decision makers . The aim of this researc h is, thus,

twofold. First , to analyze the existence of a direct positi ve correlation betwe en uni-

versity stude nts’ perception of C SR and its impac t on business per formance; and

second, to examine th e extent to which two f actors (advant ages brought by CSR

and responsibilities toward stakeholders) act as mediation variables in the aforemen-

tioned correlation . The analysis was perfor med with a sample of 390 business-re lated

university stu dents. Amongst the potential cont ributions made by this study we can

highlight the possibili ty of knowing future managers’ way of thin king and of knowing

the aspects w here educational centers might improve t heir CSR teaching.