Regional Economic Sustainability: Universities’ Role in Their Territories

Abstract

The sustainability of territories (e.g., regions and countries) is currently an issue that should be considered when implementing organizational strategies. The globalization, industrialization, and population growth trends observed in recent decades have forced experts to adopt a sustainable approach capable of guaranteeing that a population’s present needs can be met without compromising future generations’ well-being. Among the essential pillars of successful sustainability strategies, social development stands out as quite important, so the present study focused on it. Social development strategies include ensuring a satisfactory level of education while simultaneously fostering an adequate quality of life and long-term sustainability. Thus, this study’s objective was to gain a clearer understanding of universities’ role as promoters of education and generators of populations that become more deeply rooted in their territory of origin. One public university, the University of Extremadura in Spain, was found to play a unique, specific role in its region, as this institution has quite unique characteristics that differentiate it from other nearby universities. This study measured the regional population’s preferences by assessing an interest group’s levels of satisfaction and by observing the influence of quality and innovation on this group’s perceptions of the public university’s operations. A questionnaire was prepared and distributed electronically to all University of Extremadura students. The final sample consisted of data from 362 questionnaires, which were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the students’ perceptions of this institution’s innovation and quality are determinants of their satisfaction levels. In addition, this university is considered to be a reason to remain in the region, promoting residents’ sense of belonging and helping consolidate the region as a sustainable area.

Validation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Italian Version of the Bergen–Yale Sex Addiction Scale

“…Cronbach’s alpha in the present study was 0.787 and could not be improved by removing any items. The FDI was 0.929, EAP marginal reliability was 0.864, expected percentage of true differences (EPTD) was 90.9% (EPTDs above 90% and marginal reliabilities above 0.80 are recommended for a good model; Ferrando & Lorenzo-Seva, 2018 ), McDonald’s omega was 0.787 and Gutmann’s λ6 was 0.779 (λ6 > 0.70 is sufficient to be considered reliable [Gallardo-Vázquez & Folgado-Fernández, 2020 ], see Table 7 and Fig. 3 for details), H-coefficient was 0.508 ( H > 0.5, is considered strong; Sijtsma & Molenaar, 2002 ), Generalized H Index (G-HI) was 0.864 (G-HI values > 0.80 suggest a well-defined latent variable; Hancock & Mueller, 2000), and the CR was 0.806 (for a narrowly defined construct with five to eight items to meet a minimum threshold of 0.80; Netemeyer et al, 2003 ).…”

The Role of Natural and Human Resources on Economic Growth and Regional Development: With Discussion of Open Innovation Dynamics

“…Despite previous economic growth, the world is headed toward resource depletion and serious social crises, and old ways of problem-solving have proven inadequate. Something has to be done to change development-its philosophy and methods-if societies want to reverse those negative trends [55]. The expected role of investors is to invest in the sector because it has great potential.…”

Teaching Disruption by COVID-19: Burnout, Isolation, and Sense of Belonging in Accounting Tutors in E-Learning and B-Learning

“…(2) the calls for more research about the effects of COVID-19 on society, including emotional, mental, physical, and psychological problems; (3) another critical matter is the scarce attention paid to teacher burnout in e-learning and b-learning modalities compared to conventional education; and (4) another special characteristic of this study is the focus on tutor collective, which are key participants in both e-learning and b-learning modalities. Indeed, the tutor collective has been scarcely examined in the previous literature, and (5) in addition, the discipline is also important because little evidence exists on the analysis of professional stressor factors linked to the work market in accounting courses compared to other disciplines.…”

“…Méndez et al [ 4 ] documented that teachers with high levels of burnout have high levels of depression and lower scores in self-esteem. At the university level, it is even more worrying because the university goes beyond education, being a dynamic agent for local and national development [ 5 ]. Therefore, understanding the factors associated with teacher burnout is not only relevant to foster job satisfaction, self-health, and learning outputs but also for the whole society.…”