Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have started to incorporate sustainable development (SD) into their system. A variety of sustainability assessment tools (SATs) have been developed to support HEIs to systematically measure, audit, benchmark, and communicate SD efforts. In recent years, stakeholders have increasingly asked HEIs to demonstrate their impacts on SD. These impacts are the direct and indirect effects an HEI has outside of its organizational boundaries on society, the natural environment, and the economy. This study analyzes to what extent SATs are capable of measuring the impacts that HEIs have on SD. A mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and an inductive content analysis, was used to examine 1134 indicators for sustainability assessment derived from 19 SATs explicitly designed for application by HEIs. The findings reveal that SATs largely neglect the impacts HEIs have outside their organizational boundaries. SATs primarily use proxy indicators based on internally available data to assess impacts and thus tend to focus on themes concerning the natural environment and the contribution to the local economy. Updating existing SATs and developing new ones may enable HEIs to fully realize their potential to contribute to SD.
Purpose This paper aims to conceptualize impacts of higher education institutions (HEIs) on sustainable development (SD), complementing previous literature reviews by broadening the perspective from what HEIs do in pursuit of SD to how these activities impact society, the environment and the economy. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2005 and 2017. Inductive content analysis was applied to identify major themes and impact areas addressed in the literature to develop a conceptual framework detailing the relationship between HEIs’ activities and their impacts on SD. Findings The paper identifies six impact areas where direct and indirect impacts of HEIs on SD may occur. The findings indicate a strong focus on case studies dealing with specific projects and a lack of studies analyzing impacts from a more holistic perspective. Practical implications This systematic literature review enables decision-makers in HEIs, researchers and educators to better understand how their activities may affect society, the environment and the economy, and it provides a solid foundation to tackle these impacts. Social implications The review highlights that HEIs have an inherent responsibility to make societies more sustainable. HEIs must embed SD into their systems while considering their impacts on society. Originality/value This paper provides a holistic conceptualization of HEIs’ impacts on SD. The conceptual framework can be useful for future research that attempts to analyze HEIs’ impacts on SD from a holistic perspective.
Transnational corporations (TNCs) today are facing rising expectations that they will engage with societal stakeholders and get involved with sustainable development, even in light of an increasingly uncertain international business environment. This article explores how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global agenda may serve as a reference framework that can support TNCs in improving their corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement in a way that contributes to sustainable development. The authors specifically consider the role of systematically measuring and managing corporate impacts on sustainable development as a prerequisite for demonstrating a net contribution to the SDGs. In order to capture these impacts, existing corporate measurement and evaluation systems need to be adapted and new management instruments have to be developed. We conclude by proposing a research agenda for this purpose.
The responsibility of industry towards society and the environment is a much discussed topic, both in academia and in business. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has recently emerged as a new concept with the potential to advance this discourse in light of two major challenges industry is facing today. The first relates to the accelerating race to innovate in order to stay competitive in a rapidly changing world. The second concerns the need to maintain public trust in industry through innovations that generate social value in addition to economic returns. This Special Issue provides empirical and conceptual contributions that explore corporate motivations to adopt RRI, the state of implementation of concrete RRI practices, the role of stakeholders in responsible innovation processes, as well as drivers and barriers to the further diffusion of RRI in industry. Overall, these contributions highlight the relevance of RRI for firms of different sizes and sectors. They also provide insights and suggestions for managers, policymakers and researchers wishing to engage with responsibility in innovation. This editorial summarizes the most pertinent conclusions across the individual articles published in this Special Issue and concludes by outlining some fruitful avenues for future research in this space.
There is still work to be done in conceptualizing how responsible innovation applies to business. Lessons can be drawn from adjacent fields of inquiry such as sustainability-oriented or social innovation. However, the central challenge of developing a business case for responsible innovation requires additional insights into how responsible innovation may support companies in generating competitive advantage, and what levers can be effectively employed to engage business. This final chapter summarises the most important lessons learned from the contributions to this volume. Based on these insights, the authors develop the outlines of a business case for responsible innovation. In doing so, they show that responsibility and innovation can mutually strengthen each other. Such a synergy between responsibility and innovation may help to maintain trust in business' ability to drive desirable social change while improving innovation performance.
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