Predictors of Reputation Through University Social Responsibility Practices in a Malaysian Private University: The Customer’s Perspective

Abstract

Social responsibility has emerged tremendously as an important field of study in the past decades. Institutions today have realised the significance of being ethical in their operations in order to attract various stakeholders, especially the customers. However, majority of the past studies on social responsibility mainly focus on big corporations, while the influence of social responsibility practices in university remains understudied. The purpose of this study was to examine the predicting factors of University Social Responsibility (USR) practices and reputation from the students' viewpoint on one of the private higher educational institutions in Malaysia. A survey method was employed using multistage sampling. Questionnaires were distributed and generating 400 valid responses. The data were then analysed using Pearson-Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression test (enter method) through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. Based on the findings, all the seven USR dimension, namely operational responsibility, stakeholder's (student) responsibility, university-firm relationship, legal responsibility, environmental values, philanthropy responsibility, and community engagement yielded positive and moderate relationships with reputation. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that operational responsibility, university-firm relationship, legal responsibility, philanthropy responsibility, and community engagement were the significant predicting factors that can enhance reputation in the current context. Conclusion, limitations of the study, implications of the findings, and suggestions for future study are also discussed.

Students’ Perceptions on the University Social Responsibilities of a Malaysian Private University: Does Gender Matter?

“…Therefore, universities are jumping into the bandwagon, and more universities adapt to these business approaches due to the marketization and privatization of the universities (Mohamad, Ismail & Bidin, 2017), where universities have become the current 21 st century business entities (Chang, Sirat & Abdul Razak, 2018). This has further supported the notion that adopting the social responsibility concept towards sustainability in the Malaysian university context has become a pivotal agenda that requires further investigation (Chan & Huam, 2019;Chan & Hasan, 2018).…”

“…Larran-Jorge, Hernandez and Cejas (2012) supported the notion by arguing that academic research of USR and its influence on university stakeholders are still scarce. Hence, the USR initiatives require further investigation, especially in the universities of the developing countries, particularly in the Malaysia setting (Chan & Huam, 2019;Chan & Hasan, 2018;Senin, Halim & Ali, 2019).…”

University social responsibility and sustainability. How they work on the SDGS and how they communicate them on their websites

“…In any case, the presence of USR in WOS publications has grown in recent years (Ali et al, 2021; Jie & Huam, 2019; Larrán Jorge & Andrades Peña, 2017). Some papers define the term USR (Ali et al, 2021; Duque & Cervantes‐Cervantes, 2019; Kouatli, 2018), while others look at its benefits (Erazo‐Coronado et al, 2020) or its position in the education process (Cabedo et al, 2018).…”

El profesorado y la responsabilidad social universitaria: un análisis cualitativo de redes

“…El profesorado juega un papel protagónico para la RSU, en razón a que en representación de la institución de educación transfiere el conocimiento a nuevas generaciones, enseñando, formando e investigando (Fonseca et al 2019). En consecuencia, al desarrollar tales actividades, las organizaciones educativas estarían descubriendo la posibilidad de trasladar ese conocimiento más allá del aula a sus propias operaciones institucionales (Jie y Huam, 2019). Esto significa profundizar su compromiso con la responsabilidad social a nivel académico, principalmente a través de acciones que redunden para beneficio de los entornos.…”