Assessing engineering students’ attitudes towards corporate social responsibility principles

Abstract

Ethical and sustainable thinking is an important competence in the engineering education to support students’ abilities to act and perform in a responsible manner in corporate contexts, and consequently contribute to a sustainable future. This paper investigates engineering students’ attitudes towards ethical and sustainable thinking focusing on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles in the context of entrepreneurship courses as a part of larger research project. Engineering students from a Finnish and an Estonian university (N = 342) responded to a self-assessment survey. The students’ attitudes towards CSR principles were assessed both on the enterprise level and the individual level as expectations of potential future employees. The findings indicate that engineering students acknowledge the need to take into account responsible thinking and that it is important for enterprises to be both socially and environmentally responsible in their activities. The self-assessment tool of ethical and sustainable thinking associated with the entrepreneurship competence model and CSR principles can be helpful in practice when university teachers wish to support and assess their students’ attitudes towards CSR principles among other entrepreneurship competencies when creating new course content. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Engineering education Sustainable entrepreneurship Corporate social responsibility principles Responsible management education Self-assessment tool

Index Keywords

Curricula Engineering education Education computing Students Student attitudes Philosophical aspects Finnish Social aspects Management education Corporate contexts Corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility principle Responsible management education Self-assessment tools Sustainable entrepreneurship Sustainable thinking

Author Affiliations

Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University, Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland

Industrial Engineering & Management, Tampere University, Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland, Jönköping International Business School, Jonkoping, Jonkoping, Sweden

Department of Business Administration, Tallinna Tehnikaülikool, Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia

Industrial Engineering & Management, Tampere University, Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Turun yliopisto, Turku, Southwest Finland, Finland

Funding & Acknowledgements

Haridus- ja Teadusministeerium, HM

Funding text 1: This work was supported by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu\u2013Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia); Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland [grant number OKM/210/523/2016]. This work was partly funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland through a project focusing on the development of entrepreneurship education in Finnish universities (Grant number: OKM/210/523/2016). The research at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia was conducted with the support of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu\u2013Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia).; Funding text 2: This work was partly funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland through a project focusing on the development of entrepreneurship education in Finnish universities (Grant number: OKM/210/523/2016). The research at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia was conducted with the support of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu \u2013 Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia).

Tallinna Tehnikaülikool, TTÜ

Funding text 1: This work was supported by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu\u2013Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia); Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland [grant number OKM/210/523/2016]. This work was partly funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland through a project focusing on the development of entrepreneurship education in Finnish universities (Grant number: OKM/210/523/2016). The research at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia was conducted with the support of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu\u2013Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia).; Funding text 2: This work was partly funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland through a project focusing on the development of entrepreneurship education in Finnish universities (Grant number: OKM/210/523/2016). The research at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia was conducted with the support of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu \u2013 Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia).

Grant: OKM/210/523/2016

Funding text 1: This work was supported by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu\u2013Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia); Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland [grant number OKM/210/523/2016]. This work was partly funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland through a project focusing on the development of entrepreneurship education in Finnish universities (Grant number: OKM/210/523/2016). The research at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia was conducted with the support of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu\u2013Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia).; Funding text 2: This work was partly funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland through a project focusing on the development of entrepreneurship education in Finnish universities (Grant number: OKM/210/523/2016). The research at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia was conducted with the support of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union Social Fund (programme Edu ja Tegu \u2013 Systematic development of entrepreneurship education at all educational levels in Estonia).

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Assessing engineering students’ attitudes towards corporate social responsibility principles

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