Abstract:

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is considered a key discipline in business and universities. Although the origin of this concept cannot be stablished exactly, it is clear that it has been gaining space since the middle of the last century. This includes, not only within the design of business strategies and management but also in the academic field. The idea of CSR implies that companies are challenging the internal values and the corporate mentality. Hence, Stakeholder management can be considered an essential element within the framework of developing a CSR strategy inside a company. In other words, creating value for all stakeholders results in greater value creation for all of the society. So, it is very important to identify the expectations and demands of all stakeholders correctly.

Usually, it is argued that the university has very little practical relationship with business and society. In this study, through exploratory research carried out by academics at EAE Business School in 2021, we will seek to understand the introduction of CSR within universities. As we will see, CSR contains an educational dimension in its application. In fact, CSR requires a training process by people, which can be conducted by educational agents. Universities then need to live "their own" CSR. This educational dimension can help an organization with internal human growth, together with the commitment to improve the quality of life of all members within a society.

Among the results, we found that there are professors, with experience both in business and academic fields, who have helped to incorporate different concepts and applications of CSR in the study plans of different subjects. Likewise, the practical application of these ideas can include CSR actions within the day-to-day internal university work. In this sense, exercising social responsibility can contribute with a very important task: to build a more balanced society considering and respecting all community members.

Keywords:

CSR, university, company, educational dimension.