The survey findings reveal that the European contribution to corporate social responsibility is a greater emphasis on environmental issues and sustainability than exists in the dominant CSR agenda of the United States.
It uncovered a broad trend of increasing visibility of CSR in teaching programmes and research. With the increasingly complex challenges of globalisation, these findings provide important information to support companies in integrating CSR into the core of the European business agenda.
This effort is the first of its kind to bring together businesses, academics, and others to better understand CSR research, education and training in Europe.
Professor Jeremy Moon, Director of ICCSR said: “The findings will be used for further investigation into the drivers and strategies for mainstreaming CSR teaching, business contributions to teaching, and national and comparative patterns of CSR teaching. This research will inform European business, as well as governments and policy makers”
Professor Gilbert Lenssen, President of EABIS reiterated Professor Moon’s sentiments saying: “This is a landmark survey in Europe. It is a stake in the ground, which will allow us to gauge the development of CSR in academic institutions across the region, now and in the future, and to positively influence the development of knowledge and skills on CSR.”
That this is an important development for European business was affirmed by Philippe Courtouis, CEO of Microsoft Europe: “The survey represents an important landmark in Europe for companies like Microsoft and other founding members of the European Academy who are increasingly looking to partner with business schools to develop our leaders, recruit talents and further improve the quality and structure of our management and leadership programmes”.
He was backed up by Mads Ovlisen, Chairman, Novo Nordisk, who said:P “This comprehensive survey of CSR research and education at universities, business schools and other educational institutions will provide a very useful map of what is being taught on CSR in Europe and where to seek training and insight. I am convinced that it will prove a valuable input to understanding how education contributes to mainstreaming CSR in Europe”
The survey of 600 European business institutions in 20 countries was driven by the demand to map what European business students are being taught about corporate social responsibility (CSR), as well as to discover whether European CSR education has a distinctive character.
The launch, took place during EABIS’s second Colloquium at Copenhagen Business School, attended by academics such as Michael Porter from Harvard Business School and business CEOs and Senior Executives as well as other stakeholders (NGOs/Governments etc).