Promoting sustainability and CSR initiatives to engage business and economic students at university: A study on students’ perceptions about extracurricular national events hosted at the local university

Abstract

Engaging students at universities to create change and make positive social and environmental impacts is not an easy task to accomplish. Many of these initiatives, even when defined as “successful” by the organizers do not always reach their inner goal: to engage students and partner for collective action for change. This paper aims to understand the role of extracurricular events in creating engagement of students and their actions for sustainability in campuses. This topic is relevant since it lies at the nexus of three areas of research: sustainability leadership of universities, students’ engagement at campuses and the analysis of students’ perceptions on sustainability initiatives. Starting from the analysis of these three bodies of literature, the study will introduce the case of a national event on sustainability and CSR designed and promoted by a private business at the national level and organized locally with the partnership of the University of Florence. The scope is to add new perspectives on challenges and opportunities universities face in promoting sustainability in campuses, so that it could contribute to an area of research still to be developed, that is the organization of extracurricular sustainability events on campuses promoted and leaded by private companies with the partnership and support of local universities. Main findings will be discussed and lead to insights for future research, action, opportunities and challenges.