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Corporate Social Responsibility in Management Education: Current status in

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 Copyright © eContent Management Pty Ltd. Journal of Management & Organization (2011) 17: 604–620.

Corporate social responsibility in

management education: Current
status in Spanish universities
DOLORS SETÓ-PAMIES, MISERICORDIA DOMINGO-VERNIS AND
NOEMÍ RABASSA-FIGUERAS
Faculty of Business and Economics, Rovira i Virgili University, Reus, Spain

ABSTRACT
In the context of education for sustainable development, the purpose of this paper is to report on the
findings of a study in Spain into the extent to which corporate social responsibility (CSR) is taught
in management schools. The study makes an exploratory and descriptive web-content analysis of the
curriculum and subjects on Business and Management degrees at all universities in Spain. Our find-
ings show that a high percentage of universities include CSR-related subjects on their curriculum.
CSR content is taught as either specific CSR subjects (stand-alone CSR subjects) or as part of various
subjects on the academic curriculum (embedded CSR subjects). Although at first sight our findings
may seem promising, a more detailed analysis shows that few universities include stand-alone CSR
subjects and that although many universities have embedded CSR subjects, the CSR content is by
no means fully developed.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), business ethics, higher education, curriculum,
management/business schools, CSR teaching programs

I n 2001, Kofi Annan argued that the biggest

challenge of the new century was to make
everybody on the planet aware that sustainable
development was a reality not an abstract concept
(United Nations, 2001). By this he meant that the
quality of life of present and future generations
needed to be improved by reconciling economic
growth, social development and environmental
protection.
In December 2002, the United Nations
General Assembly declared a Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development (2005–2014), the
aim of which was to promote education as a basis
for a more sustainable human society and to inte-
grate sustainable development into education
systems at all levels. It also designated the United
Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) as the lead agency to
promote the Decade. Education is the key to sus-
tainable development so it should be reviewed at
all levels and there should be a clear focus on the
development of sustainability-related knowledge,
skills, perspectives and values for the benefit of
current and future societies (UNESCO, 2005).
In management education, universities have a
vital role: to equip the next generation of business
leaders with the skills they need to cope with an
era of globalization, and create economic growth
and a sustainable future for people and the planet
(Ethical Corporation, 2006). Business educators

604 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
 Corporate social responsibility in management education
are responsible not only for providing students
with opportunities to build business skills, but
also to help them to understand the powerful
effects that business decisions and actions can
have on society and the potential collateral dam-
age they can cause. In this regard, teaching ethics
and social responsibility is a critical step towards
helping business students understand this balance
(Kolodinsky, Madden, Zisk, & Henkel, 2009).
Furthermore, graduates need to be made aware
of the importance of honesty and integrity. When
recruiting, business schools need to ensure that
students are equipped with the ethical integrity
to meet challenges in the real business world
(Giacalone, 2008). As Jackson (2009) suggests,
the incorporation of course units that address
business ethics and corporate social responsibility
are obvious attempts to counteract any negative
influences on graduate skills.
At all levels – undergraduate degree, master’s
degree and doctorate – universities must encour-
age students to develop skills in business ethics
and CSR. So how are Spanish universities facing
up to this challenge? Are they offering their stu-
dents training in CSR so it can then be applied in
the workplace?
The purpose of this paper is to report on the
findings of a study conducted in Spain in 2007 on
the extent to which CSR is taught in the manage-
ment schools of Spanish universities. In more spe-
cific terms, it provides an overview of teaching in
the broad field of CSR in Business Administration
and Management courses in Spanish universities.
It analyzes not only information from the curri-
cula of Spanish university management schools
but also the content of individual subjects.
Like Matten and Moon (2004), we assumed
that CSR would mostly be understood as an
umbrella term for a broad set of synonyms and
overlapping concepts reflecting both business
and society relations and ‘business ethics’. In this
regard, De Bakker, Groenewegen, and Hond
(2005) suggest that progress in the literature on
the social responsibilities of business is obscured
or even hampered by the continuing introduction
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
of new constructs. Over time, a number of con-
cepts have been added to a continuing debate that
builds on notions of the social responsibilities
of business, firms, and their managers. Mohan
(2003) views CSR as an empirical concept that
refers to one or a few of the many incarnations of
the business–society relationship. The meaning of
the concept varies in time and place. Furthermore,
it is a concept that relates to, but sometimes also
competes with other concepts such a business eth-
ics, sustainable development, corporate philan-
thropy or corporate citizenship (De Bakker et al.,
2005).
The paper is structured as follows. In the first
section, we review previous studies in the area
of CSR in Management Education. We then
describe the methodology used in our case study
of the Business Administration and Management
(BAM) courses offered by Spanish universities,
and go on to analyze and discuss the results.
Finally, we present our conclusions and their
implications for universities, the limitations of the
study and future lines of research.
REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES
For some time now, CSR has been a topic of
debate in the worlds of both business and edu-
cation. The debate on the role of business ethics
and management education is by no means new.
It started in the 1970s in the United States, but
has recently acquired renewed vigor (Melé, 2008).
Also, as Christensen, Peirce, Hartman, Hoffman,
and Carrier (2007) point out, over the years ethics
education in business schools has gradually incor-
porated new topics and domains (CSR, sustain-
ability, etc.). Our review of existing studies has
enabled us to better understand the various terms
used to refer to CSR issues. Ethical and social
responsibility are terms that have been in com-
mon use for some time now while, according to
Rands and Starik (2009) sustainability is a fairly
recent phenomenon in management education.
Interestingly, most research makes no distinc-
tion between the topics of ethics and CSR; rather
it reports on them as a whole (Evans, Trevino,
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION 605
 Dolors Setó-Pamies et al.
& Weaver, 2006; Matten & Moon, 2004).1 As
Fisher (2004) suggests the concepts of social
responsibility and ethics are often used inter-
changeably in literature because of the strong rela-
tion between them. Nevertheless, Epstein (1987)
proposes that corporate social responsibility and
business ethics can be envisioned as overlapping
circles sharing a common conceptual space. He
argues that the central concept of business ethics
is moral reflection concerning corporate behav-
ior while corporate social responsibility is a more
specific consequence of corporate action entailing
economic, ecological, social, and cultural conse-
quences. Morris (1997) documents that business
ethics influences corporate social responsibility.
Although the most commonly used terms to
date have been ethical and social responsibility,
there seems to be a trend towards greater use of
the term sustainability (Christensen et al., 2007).
The teaching of ethics/CSR has been examined
from different perspectives. Some papers have
provided a descriptive review of CSR courses,
their historical development and format. Others
have provided a prescriptive account of the peda-
gogical issues of teaching ethics and made rec-
ommendations for teachers. And yet others have
made analytical judgments about whether courses
in ethics are, in fact, effective at modifying values
and attitudes in students (McDonald, 2004). The
present paper essentially focuses on the review of
the descriptive literature (Bampton & Cowton,
2002; Barkhuysen & Rossouw, 2000; Cowton &
Cummins, 2003; Cummins, 1999; Macfarlane
& Ottewill, 2004; Mahoney, 1990; Matten &
Moon, 2004; McKenna, 1995; Pesonen, 2003).
Particular attention has been paid to the overall
status of CSR in universities or business schools.
The most comprehensive description of the
situation in Europe was made by Mahoney (1990)
in a comparative study on the teaching of business
ethics in the United States, the United Kingdom
and Europe. Nine years later, Cummins (1999)
1
In spite of this, some recent researchers (e.g. Christensen, Peirce, Hartman, Hoffman & Carrier, 2007) have intentionally
considered the topics separately throughout their research in order to observe how business ethics has evolved.
606 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION
reported a significant growth in the provision of
business ethics. Likewise, the research findings
reported by Cowton and Cummins (2003) sug-
gested that since Mahoney (1990) had conducted
his research, business ethics teaching had been on
the increase in the UK, perhaps helped, at least at
undergraduate level, by the relatively recent and
widespread adoption of the modular system. In
any case, they pointed out that while there were
encouraging signs of progress in the teaching of
business ethics in UK higher education, there was
still a long way to go before all business and man-
agement students could be said to have had a thor-
ough education regarding ethical issues.
Macfarlane and Ottewill (2004) reviewed the
aims and objectives of business and management
programs in the UK and concluded that business
ethics occupied a marginal position within the
curriculum.
In Australia, McKenna (1995) carried out two
surveys to ascertain, firstly, the views of Australian
business academics about the need for and value
of business ethics in the curriculum and, secondly,
current practice within universities. The results of
his research supported the view that Australian
business academics believed that business ethics
might be taught and should be included in the
curriculum. However, the survey of current pro-
grams revealed that very little had been done to
introduce business ethics into curricula.
In Africa, Barkhuysen and Rossouw (2000)
provided the first description of the teaching of
business ethics as an academic subject. They used
a survey structured questionnaire aimed at a wide
range of education institutions (business man-
agement, accountancy, economics, etc.) which
revealed that business ethics was being taught on
77 courses (55 undergraduate, 22 post-graduate)
in 40 departments or business schools in universi-
ties or colleges in six African countries. Most of
the departments providing these courses were in
South Africa (82.5%). They also concluded that
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
 Corporate social responsibility in management education
courses on business ethics were hosted in a vari-
ety of disciplines, such as Business Management,
Human Resource Management, Philosophy and
Law. Business schools top the list of departments
providing courses on business ethics with 27.5%
of the share.
In the particular case of management account-
ing, Bampton and Cowton (2002) conducted a
postal questionnaire survey to investigate how it
was currently taught in higher education in the
British Isles. The picture that emerged was that
ethics was given only limited coverage. Only
a minority of lecturers explicitly or implicitly
claimed that they dealt with ethics in their teach-
ing of management accounting.
From an environmental perspective, Pesonen
(2003) evaluated the challenges of integrating
environmental sustainability issues into a business
school curriculum by reporting the experiences of
the University of Jyväskylä in Finland between
the early 1990s and 2002. The author suggested
that the lessons learned could offer some valuable
insights for other business schools planning simi-
lar programs.
More recently, Matten and Moon (2004)
focused on CSR and provided a description of
CSR teaching in Europe by surveying a wide
range of business education institutions in dif-
ferent countries. They analyzed the extent of
CSR education, the different ways in which it is
defined and the levels at which it is taught. Their
research provides an account of the efforts that are
being made to ‘mainstream’ CSR teaching and of
the teaching methods deployed.
Other studies have also analyzed the topic of
ethics/CSR education in MBA programs (Benn
& Bubna-Litic, 2004; Benn & Dunphy, 2009;
Christensen et al., 2007; Cornelius, Wallace,
& Tassabehji, 2007; Navarro, 2008; Tilbury,
Crawley, & Berry, 2005). Benn and Bubna-Litic
(2004) and Tilbury et al. (2005) examined the
extent to which Australian MBA programs dealt
with sustainability issues. They concluded that
Australian MBA programs offered graduates little
preparation for dealing with the multidisciplinary
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
challenges of introducing sustainability or cor-
porate sustainability issues in their workplace.
Building on these previous studies, Benn and
Dunphy (2009) reported on an exploratory proj-
ect using an action research approach to integrate
sustainability into core subjects in the MBA cur-
riculum at a university in Australia. They also
identified some key facilitators and impediments
to successful integration of sustainability in the
MBA core.
Likewise, Cornelius et al. (2007) investigated
the nature and extent of ethics education provi-
sion in the top 25 business schools, as rated by
the Financial Times in its 2004 global MBA rank-
ings. They also explored and contrasted this with
the nature of ethics education in those business
schools that were outside this select group of
top-tier schools. They found that ethics was
either taught on separate, specific modules, or
was integrated within alternative general man-
agement and business modules. Between the
two tiers there was a distinct difference between
the type of provision in the core and the elective
modules. The majority of the top-tier business
schools did not have undergraduate courses. The
lower tier schools, however, provided a great deal
of core and elective undergraduate courses but
not MBA programs. Christensen et al. (2007)
analyzed how the top 50 business schools (as
rated by the Financial Times in its 2006 global
MBA rankings) addressed ethics, corporate
social responsibility and sustainability as sepa-
rate and distinct topics in their MBA curricula.
Their findings revealed that a majority of schools
(84.1%) required one or more of these topics to
be covered in their MBA curriculum and that
one-third of schools required all three topics to
be covered. They also identified a trend toward
the inclusion of sustainability-related courses.
Subsequently, Navarro (2008) analyzed the top-
50 US business schools and how many of them
exhibited the major features of the ideal MBA
curriculum: multidisciplinary integration, expe-
riential learning, soft-skill development, infor-
mation technology and global perspective, and
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION 607
 Dolors Setó-Pamies et al.
ethics and corporate responsibility. The results
of his research suggested that three of the six
major features of the ideal MBA curriculum –
soft-skill, corporate social responsibility and a
global perspective – continued to get less empha-
sis than traditional functional silo courses such as
accounting, finance and marketing. Concretely,
his research showed that less than half of the top
schools required a stand-alone course on corpo-
rate ethics and CSR.
More recent studies have focused on the topic
of sustainability. Several special issues of business
journals have focused on increasing attention to
sustainability in business education. The Journal
of Management Education has recently offered a
new special issue on sustainability across the man-
agement curriculum (Rusinko & Sama, 2009), as
a continuation of a previous special issue dealing
with the natural environment in management
education (Egri & Rogers, 2003). The Academy
of Management Learning and Education has also
published a special issue on the search for sustain-
ability management education (Starik, Rands,
Marcus, & Clark, 2010).
The articles in the special issues mentioned
above provide a wide range of approaches to
CSR and sustainability education in management
(classroom experiences, theoretical, pedagogical
perspectives, etc.), which will help advance the
design, adoption and success of CSR and sus-
tainability in management education. The study
by Wu, Huang, Kuo, and Wu (2010) provides a
holistic picture of the current state of manage-
ment education for sustainability, by making
an exploratory empirical content analysis of the
world’s major business schools. Their findings
revealed that European schools favored an elec-
tive-oriented approach and placed more emphasis
on the graduate level, whereas American schools
favored a more compulsory-oriented approach at
the undergraduate level. They also found differ-
ences in the overall level of sustainability-related
curriculum, the specific content, and the teaching
methods between global regions, national devel-
opment stages and university rankings.
608 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION
To date, no research has been done to gauge
the state of business ethics/CSR teaching in
Spanish universities. Even so, in Spain, as in other
European countries, there is a growing move-
ment in favor of CSR. Spanish companies con-
sider corporate reputation, competitive advantage
and industry trends to be the major driving forces
of CSR. However, as Melé suggests (2004) these
factors are closely related to other cultural, social
and political influences. The European Union
is now promoting CSR in all member states,
and Spain has come under this influence. Also,
the Spanish government has implemented such
important measures to foster CSR as the National
CSR Council and the recently approved Bill for
a Sustainable Economy (Ley 2/2011). Associations
and forums that bring together the top manag-
ers of major corporations, academic institutions,
NGO’s and the media are also actively promoting
CSR in Spain.
Business corporations are now more sensitive
to CSR initiatives and are implementing them
effectively. This means that promising new devel-
opments and implementations of CSR are to be
expected in Spain in the near future (Melé, 2004).
So that, the interest in teaching business eth-
ics or CSR at different levels is increasing. For
example, the National CSR Council aims, among
other things, to promote best CSR practices
in training and education because it considers
education to be essential if CSR is to be cor-
rectly understood and adopted. It is also worth
noting that one of the conclusions of the report
by the Sub-committee of the Spanish House of
Representatives to promote CSR (Congreso de los
Diputados, 2006, p. 117), states ‘… that promot-
ing environmental and social values at all levels of
education is essential’. In the case of higher edu-
cation, which produces the managers of compa-
nies and organizations, it is essential to promote
CSR in the curriculum. At the same time, some
Spanish academic institutions have also signed
up to the initiative of the United Nations Global
Compact (2007) called ‘Principles for Responsible
Management Education’, the aim of which is to
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
 Corporate social responsibility in management education
improve the education of future business leaders
in social issues, human rights and environmental
protection.
It seems that various Spanish institutions (aca-
demia, Government, corporations, etc.) support
the belief that CSR can be taught and should be
included in the higher education curriculum. But
they first need to know what current practice is in
universities. The aim of the current study is to sat-
isfy the need for an in-depth description of the sta-
tus of CSR in Spanish Universities. Understanding
current practice in Spanish universities is of par-
ticular importance not only because of the above-
mentioned cultural, social and political factors
but also because the higher education institutions
are faced with the major challenge of adjusting to
the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
The Spanish universities have the opportunity to
adapt their courses to the new context. It is also
a starting point for further discussion of the role
of business schools in leading and implementing
change towards CSR education.
METHODOLOGY
Research design and data collection
We considered that an exploratory and descrip-
tive web-content analysis would be an appropriate
strategy for this study. Although questionnaires
have played a significant role in the overall meth-
odology of previous studies (the majority being
distributed to the deans of business schools), we
decided that a web-based content analysis would
be the most appropriate method for our study. As
Wu et al. (2010) suggest, web-based content anal-
ysis may be indispensable to mitigate the weak-
ness of questionnaire research on the one hand,
and the resource constraints of interviews on the
other, since the selection process is nondiscrimi-
natory, and the information is publicly available.
This methodology has been also applied in recent
studies (e.g., Cornelius et al., 2007; Navarro,
2008; Wu et al., 2010).
The information disclosed on websites is
open to the public and also updated on a regular
basis. As a formal source of information, school
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
websites have become a commonly used tool for
interaction and communication between business
schools and their relative stakeholders. However,
it must first be acknowledged that the statistical
results of all web-based studies are influenced by
data availability, update frequency, and language
of use (Wu, 2007). Nevertheless, we have made
a significant attempt to minimize these inherent
limitations by performing our analysis on the
basis of the whole population.
To achieve our aim, we analyzed the curricula
of the Business Administration and Management
courses at all the universities in Spain as well as
the different teaching programs of the individual
subjects offered.
The universities were identified using the
directory of Spanish universities on the RedIRIS
website and the data was collected during April
and May 2007. Of the total of 73 universities, 62
offered Business Administration and Management
courses at the time the data was collected. In
keeping with the official distinctions made in the
Spanish university system, we have distinguished
between public, private and catholic universities.
However, we should point out that the fact that
there are very few Spanish Catholic universities
could be an inherent methodological limitation.
Anyway, as has been indicated above, we based our
analysis on the whole population; that is, the total
number of Spanish universities for each category.
In order to assess the degree of CSR content
exhibited by each business school, we made a
content analysis of the official websites and linked
internal documents. We accessed each business
school’s website to determine the list of required
and optional courses as well as other aspects of the
curriculum pertinent to the analysis. The analysis
included a comprehensive review of the subject
titles and their course outline.
CSR issues in the curriculum
It is beyond question at this point that CSR is one
of the skills with which students must be provided
by a business program. However, the question of
how CSR should be incorporated into Business
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION 609
 Dolors Setó-Pamies et al.

Administration and Management degrees is still
under discussion.
CSR content can be integrated into the curric-
ulum in specific CSR subjects or in non-specific
CSR subjects as cross-sectional topics. So, those
involved in the development of academic curricu-
lum may establish two different strategies: stand-
alone CSR subjects or embedded CSR subjects (see
Figure 1).
Therefore, our research contained two levels of
analysis:
• Stand-alone CSR subjects specific CSR subjects,
in which all the topics of the course focus on
CSR issues.
In order to identify the stand-alone CSR sub-
jects, we searched for core/compulsory, optional
or free elective subjects in the curriculum of BAM
courses that specifically included the words ‘eth-
ics’ and/ or ‘social responsibility’ in their titles.
• Embedded CSR subjects: non-specific CSR subjects
in which only some of the topics or topic sections
of the course outline focus on CSR issues.
In order to identify embedded CSR subjects,
we searched for core/compulsory, optional or
free elective subjects in the curriculum of BAM
courses that dealt with ‘ethics’ and /or ‘social
responsibility’, even if these words were not men-
tioned in their subject titles.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
The results are presented according to the two lev-
els of analysis proposed in the section above: stand-
alone CSR subjects and embedded CSR subjects.
Stand-alone CSR subjects
In this sub-section we analyze the stand-alone CSR
subjects, taking into account the university institu-
tions, the number of subjects, the type of subject,

Stand-alone CSR subject Embedded CSR subjects

...
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4 Subject 5 Subject 6... Subject n

Topic 1

Topic 2

....

Course
outline

Topic n

BAM curriculum program

CSR content (or CSR issues)

FIGURE 1: STAND-ALONE CSR SUBJECTS AND EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS IN THE CURRICULUM

610 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
 Corporate social responsibility in management education

the academic year in which they were offered and
the scientific discipline to which they belong.
University institutions
After analyzing the 62 universities that offer
a Business Administration and Management
degree, we found 11 universities (17.7%) which
include the term ‘social responsibility’ or ‘business
ethics’ in their subject titles.
In keeping with the distinctions made in the
Spanish university system, we have distinguished
between public, private and catholic universities.
It is interesting to note that while stand-alone CSR
subjects are not very widespread in public and
private universities, they are present in almost all
Catholic universities (see Table 1).
Catholic universities, then, have traditionally
placed greater emphasis on issues related to ethics,
both in general terms and in their application in
the various professional spheres.
TABLE 1: STAND-ALONE CSR SUBJECTS – UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTIONS
Total Public Private Catholic
No. of 62 46 11
universities
Universities 11 5 2
with stand-alone
CSR subjects
Percentage 17.7 10.9 18.2
per type of
university
Subjects: Number, type, academic
year and discipline
As can be seen in Table 2, we found 14 stand-alone
CSR subjects,2 six of which were core/compulsory
and eight optional or free elective.
There are no compulsory stand-alone CSR
subjects in the curriculum of any Spanish public
universities. Instead, students are always offered
stand-alone CSR subjects as optional subjects. By
contrast, in private and Catholic universities,
stand-alone CSR subjects are almost always com-
pulsory for students.
Stand-alone CSR subjects are usually offered in
the final academic years of the students’ curricu-
lum (the second cycle), irrespective of whether
they are core/compulsory or optional.
Another important aspect is the particular disci-
pline in which a university places its stand-alone CSR
subjects. This reveals the approach the university
takes to CSR, given that it can be dealt with from
different study perspectives and that it covers a range
of disciplines. In Table 3 we can see that 64.3%
of stand-alone CSR subjects are taught in Business
Organization or Business Management, 28.6%
in Sociology of Organizations and 7.1% in Moral
5
Philosophy. This suggests that in most universities
CSR is treated as a management issue requiring a
4
strategic approach that should form part of decision
making and operations throughout the organization.
80.0 If we look at the type of university, we can
see that in private universities all CSR subjects
are taught under the discipline of Sociology,

TABLE 2: STAND-ALONE CSR SUBJECTS – TYPE

Total Public Private Catholic

(%) (%) (%) (%)

No. of subjects 14 100.0 7 100.0 2 100.0 5 100.0

Type of subject
Core/compulsory 6 42.8 – – 2 100.0 4 80.0
Optional/free elective 8 57.2 7 100.0 – – 1 20.0

2
Our research makes no distinction between ethics and CSR. Instead it reports on the subjects as a whole. However, the explicit
term that appears most frequently in the subject title was Ethics (71.4 %), Ethics and CSR (21.4%) and CSR (7.1%).

Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION 611
 Dolors Setó-Pamies et al.

whereas in public and Catholic universities they of 43 offered embedded CSR subjects. Therefore,
are mostly taught under the discipline of Business almost 70% of universities consider aspects of
Organization. The discipline of Moral Philosophy CSR in embedded CSR subjects (Table 4).
only appears in public universities.
Subjects: Number, type, academic
Embedded CSR subjects year and discipline
In this sub-section we analyze embedded CSR sub- As Table 5 shows, we found 75 subjects which
jects, taking into account the university institu- included aspects of CSR in their list of topics
tions, the number of subjects, the subject type, even if the terms ‘ethics’ and/or ‘social responsi-
the academic year, the scientific discipline and the bility’ were not mentioned in their subject title;
level of development of CSR content. 55 (73.3%) of these were core/compulsory sub-
jects, whereas 20 (26.7%) were optional or free
University institutions elective. So, CSR contents are mainly integrated
Of the 62 universities that offer a Business into subjects required by all students of BAM
Administration and Management degree, a total degrees.
TABLE 3: STAND-ALONE CSR SUBJECTS – DISCIPLINES Stand-alone CSR subjects were found in the final
Disciplines Total Public Private Catholic academic years of the degree curriculum, whereas
(%) (%) (%) (%) embedded CSR subjects were more widely dis-
tributed across the student’s curriculum. Table 6
Business 64.3 71.4 – 80.0
organization
shows that 53.3% of embedded CSR subjects were
taught in the first cycle of the degree. Therefore,
Sociology 28.6 14.3 100.0 20.0
students start to receive training in this area from
Moral 7.1 14.3 – – the beginning of their degrees. This suggests that
philosophy
CSR issues are infused in day-to-day management
100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 education in Spanish universities.
Like stand-alone CSR subjects, embedded CSR
TABLE 4: EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS – UNIVERSITY subjects are mainly taught under the disciplines of
INSTITUTIONS
Total Public Private Catholic
Business Organization and Sociology (68.0%);
however, other disciplines also deal with CSR in
No. of universities 62 46 11 5 their course content (Table 7).
This suggests that the discipline of Business
Universities with 43 34 6 3
embedded CSR Organization plays the biggest role in teaching
subjects CSR. However, in the case of embedded CSR
Percentage per 69.4 73.9 54.6 60.0 subjects, more areas of knowledge cover CSR in
type of university some part of their programs, except in Catholic

TABLE 5: EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS – TYPE

Total Public Private Catholic

(%) (%) (%) (%)

No. of subjects 75 100.0 59 100.0 11 100.0 5 100.0

Type of subject
Core/compulsory 55 73.3 42 71.2 9 81.8 4 80.0
Optional/free elective 20 26.7 17 28.8 2 18.2 1 20.0

612 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
 Corporate social responsibility in management education

TABLE 6: EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS – CYCLES

Cycle Total Public Private Catholic

Subjects (%) Subjects (%) Subjects (%) Subjects (%)

First Core/compulsory 36 48.0 26 44.1 7 63.6 3 60.0

Optional/free 4 5.3 4 6.8 0 – 0 –
election
Second Core/compulsory 19 25.3 16 27.1 2 18.2 1 20.0
Optional/free 16 21.3 13 22.0 2 18.2 1 20.0
election
Total 75 100.0 59 100.0 11 100.0 5 100.0

TABLE 7: EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS – DISCIPLINES
Disciplines Total Public Private Catholic
(%) (%) (%) (%)
Business 59.7 62.7 27.3
organization
Sociology 8.3 6.8 9.1
Other 32.0 30.5 63.6
disciplines
universities, which concentrate CSR in the same
two areas of knowledge. The diversity of disci-
plines which teach CSR content demonstrates
that this subject is multi-disciplinary in nature
and can be focused on from numerous perspec-
tives. As Weber (1990) suggested, each of these
perspectives (philosophical, managerial, etc.) has
a different pedagogical basis on which it presents
and teaches the course material.
The analysis of embedded CSR subjects is com-
pleted with a final sub-section that deals with the
level of development of CSR content.
Level of development of CSR content
Obviously, the entire content of stand-alone
CSR subjects deals with CSR, but in embedded
CSR subjects, CSR can appear in the course out-
line in different ways: as a section of a topic,
as different sections of different topics or as a
specific topic.
Below we analyze the extent to which CSR
content is developed in embedded CSR subjects in
the Business Administration and Management
curriculum. We use two perspectives: the first
considers how CSR content appears in the out-
line of the course, whereas the second considers
80.0
the relative weight of this content in terms of aca-
demic credits. In both approaches, we consider
20.0
the distinction between core/compulsory subjects
– and optional subjects.
The first approach reveals that 65.5% of the
total core/compulsory embedded CSR subjects treat
CSR as merely one section of one of the program
topics (see Table 8). CSR, then, is still relatively
underdeveloped on the mandatory courses in the
BAM degree curriculum.
A total of 80% (16 out of 20) of optional
embedded CSR subjects dedicate an entire topic to
CSR (see Table 9).
CSR content in embedded CSR subjects is more
developed in the programs of optional subjects
than in the programs of core/compulsory sub-
jects. Even so, differences can be observed accord-
ing to the type of university institution.
In our second approach, we estimated the cred-
its assigned to subjects containing CSR in order
to analyze the depth in which these subjects cover
CSR. This estimation will give us a more detailed
idea of the relative importance of the CSR con-
tent because it not only shows the extent to which
CSR is covered by a subject, it also shows the
relative weight of CSR within the entire subject
program (given that not all subjects contain the
same number of topics). To make this estimation,

Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION 613
 Dolors Setó-Pamies et al.

TABLE 8: LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT OF CSR CONTENT IN CORE/COMPULSORY EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS

Total % Pub. % Priv. % Cat. %

Part of a topic 36 65.5 30 71.4 5 55.6 1 25.0

One topic 18 32.7 11 26.2 4 44.4 3 75.0
More than 1 topic 1 1.8 1 2.4 – – – –
Embedded subjects 55 100.0 42 100.0 9 100.0 4 100.0

TABLE 9: LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT OF CSR CONTENT IN OPTIONAL EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS

Total % Pub. % Priv. % Cat. %

Part of a topic 4 20.0 4 23.5 – – – –

One topic 16 80.0 13 76.5 2 100.0 1 100.0
More than 1 topic – – – – – – – –
Embedded subjects 20 100.0 17 100.0 2 100.0 1 100.0

we assumed that all subject topics have the same TABLE 10: RELATIVE WEIGHT OF CSR CONTENT – CORE/
weight in the subject and calculated the percent- COMPULSORY EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS

age of credits that correspond to CSR content. Total Public Private Catholic
Again we consider the distinction between core/
compulsory subjects and optional subjects. Number of 55 42 9 4
embedded CSR
Table 10 shows the number of core/compul- subjects
sory embedded CSR subjects, the total credits cor- Total subject 426.0 339.0 64.5 22.5
responding to these subjects, an estimation of the credits
credits assigned to CSR and the percentage of the Total credits with 21.2 11.1 2.7 7.4
total that this estimation represents. It can be seen CSR content
that only 5.0% of the credits of core/compulsory % CSR credits/ 5.0 3.3 4.2 32.9
embedded CSR subjects are dedicated to CSR. If total subject
credits
we also take into account the type of institution,
it can seen that this percentage is even lower in
public universities (3.3%) and private universities TABLE 11: RELATIVE WEIGHT OF CSR CONTENT –
(4.2%), whereas in Catholic universities CSR is OPTIONAL EMBEDDED CSR SUBJECTS
once again given greater emphasis, accounting for Total Public Private Catholic
nearly 33% of the credits.
Table 11 shows the number of optional embed- Number of 20 17 2 1
embedded
ded CSR subjects, the total credits corresponding CSR subjects
to these subjects, an estimation of the credits
Total subject 108.0 91.5 12.0 4.5
assigned to CSR and the percentage of the total credits
that this estimation represents. It can be seen
Total credits 9.7 8.2 1.0 0.4
that the relative weight of CSR content in the with CSR
optional embedded CSR subjects is higher (9.0%), content
and that the percentages of CSR credits are simi- % CSR credit/ 9.0 9.0 8.6 10.0
lar irrespective of the type of institution. These total subject
credits
results allow us to analyze the development of

614 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
 Corporate social responsibility in management education
CSR content in more detail. So, although 80%
of optional embedded CSR subjects dedicate an
entire topic to CSR, the relative weight of this
content is less than 10%.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
The aims of this paper were to provide an initial
description of the educational status of CSR in the
Spanish context, analyze whether students receive
CSR training in the Business Administration and
Management degrees offered at Spanish univer-
sities and, if so, determine how specialized this
training is.
To achieve our aims, we analyzed the cur-
ricula and subject programs of the Spanish uni-
versities that offered Business Administration and
Management degrees at the time of the study.
Our results are presented for each of the three
official categories of Spanish university: public,
private and catholic.
One of the main results of the research is that
a high proportion of Spanish universities (more
than three-quarters) include CSR issues in their
curriculum, either as specific CSR subjects (stand-
alone CSR subjects) or as part of other subjects
(embedded CSR subjects).
Although at first sight these findings may seem
promising, they do not mean that the CSR train-
ing offered by universities is sufficient to meet
the present demands of society. A more detailed
analysis of the data shows us that only 18% of
universities include stand-alone CSR subjects in
their curriculum. Also, public universities offer
the stand-alone CSR subjects as optional sub-
jects, whereas private and Catholic universities
make them compulsory. This suggests that CSR
is still not considered a basic skill for Business
Administration and Management degrees in pub-
lic universities while private and Catholic univer-
sities have made it a nonnegotiable element of
their curriculum.
However in many Spanish universities, espe-
cially public ones, CSR is included in embedded
CSR subjects. And a high percentage of these sub-
jects are compulsory to ensure that all students
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
have at least some elementary knowledge of CSR
from the beginning of their degrees.
An additional analysis of the embedded sub-
jects, which takes into account how CSR content
is portrayed in the course outline and its relative
weight in terms of academic credits, suggests that
the level of development of CSR is relatively low.
In more specific terms, CSR content has a relative
weight of less than 10% in embedded subjects.
Our findings show that CSR training in
the Business Administration and Management
courses offered by Spanish universities is still
relatively underdeveloped. In general terms, the
results of our research are similar to those of
most previous studies (Barkhuysen & Rossouw,
2000; Cowton & Cummins, 2003; Macfralane
& Ottewill, 2004; McKenna, 1995 ) conducted
in other countries on the extent to which CSR
is taught in management schools: although
there are encouraging signs that CSR is being
included in management education, there is still
a long way to go before all management students
can be said to have had a thorough education on
CSR issues.
Our research also provides some insights into
which disciplines CSR issues should be integrated
in. The disciplinary focus reveals the approach
adopted by the university towards CSR, given
that it may be dealt with from various perspec-
tives. Our results show that Business Organization
or Business Management play the greatest role in
teaching CSR in Spanish universities, which sug-
gests that CSR is treated as a management issue
that requires a strategic approach and should be
part of decision making and operations through-
out the organization. According to Audebrand
(2010) CSR has become a key issue for organiza-
tions. CSR, then, has evolved from being a mar-
ginal concern in management theory, research,
and education to occupying a central position,
and students need to be presented these topics
from a strategic perspective.
Although Business Organization is the disci-
pline that most integrates CSR issues in the man-
agement curriculum, the number of disciplines
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION 615
 Dolors Setó-Pamies et al.
with embedded CSR subjects is greater. That is,
embedded CSR subjects are distributed over a
wider range of business or management fields
(marketing, human resources, etc.), whereas
stand-alone subjects seem to be more disci-
pline-specific. Whatever the case may be, as
Audebrand (2010) points out, the ultimate goal
is to comprehensively ground CSR in strategic
management education. Determining how CSR
issues and values can be made an integral part
of strategic decision making is one of the most
important challenges in management education
(Stead & Stead, 2004; Throop, Starik, & Rands,
1993).
Business schools and universities interface
with a large number of future leaders and occupy
a strategic position which they can use to contrib-
ute to the development of skills and values related
to sustainability and social progress. Therefore,
business schools and universities must accept
their responsibility and make attempts to increase
the weight of ethics and CSR in their curricula
(Sims & Sims, 1991).
As Melé (2008) suggested, the crisis in business
ethics not only signifies a change for companies,
but also an opportunity to improve education in
the field of management. In order to adapt uni-
versity education to a more sustainable human
society, the curriculum will have to be rethought
so that it equips professionals with the appropri-
ate CSR skills.
This research is a starting point for further dis-
cussion on how CSR should be integrated into
the curriculum of Business Administration and
Management degrees and the different academic
disciplines (organization, marketing, human
resources, etc.). Currently, there is an ongoing
debate over whether CSR should be incorporated
as specific subjects (stand-alone CSR subject),
whether it should be integrated into a variety
of subjects as a cross-sectional topic (embedded
CSR subject) or whether both strategies should be
adopted simultaneously (e.g., Christensen et al.,
2007; Hartman & Werhane, 2009; Rusinko,
2010; Tilbury, Crawley, & Berry, 2005). As
616 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION
Hartman and Werhane (2009) point out, there
is by no means universal agreement on how best
to prepare our students. On the one hand, the
stand-alone CSR subject option would allow more
time and opportunity to develop the relationships
between CSR and the discipline, and to illustrate
the three dimensions of CSR. The advantage of
this approach is that CSR would have its own,
clearly defined identity within the discipline of
management. The major disadvantage, however,
is that it requires time, resources, and cooperation
by faculty and administrators throughout the dis-
cipline, the school, and the university (Rusinko,
2010). In addition, CSR would run the risk of
being seen as a separate issue, disconnected from
larger business concerns (Carrithers & Peterson,
2006; Gruenewald, 2004).
On the other hand, with the embedded CSR
subject option, management educators would
have to challenge students’ worldviews and
encourage them to explicitly analyze their
assumptions about business, the environment,
and society (Audebrand, 2010; Ghoshal, 2005;
Stubbs & Cocklin, 2008). The advantage of this
option is that CSR is integrated across numerous
disciplines within business, or across the entire
business curriculum, and impacts on a larger
number of students. Nevertheless, its major dis-
advantage is that it requires a schoolwide com-
mitment with respect to time, resources, and
support (Rusinko, 2010). Even so, embedded
CSR subjects need to take into account the level
of development of CSR content (for example,
through its relative weight in terms of academic
credits).
Overall it appears that many universities are
seeking new ways of integrating CSR and new
methodologies into business schools (stand-
alone/embedded subjects, concentrations,
majors, specializations, co-curricular options,
etc.), but this is a relatively new multifaceted
and ongoing process. In this regard, a number
of studies (Audebrand, 2010; Benn & Dunphy,
2009; Benn & Martin, 2010; Hartman &
Werhane, 2009; Rands, 2009; Rusinko, 2010)
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
 Corporate social responsibility in management education
have recently been published from a variety of
perspectives on how to integrate sustainabil-
ity in higher education. For example, Rands
(2009) presents a principle – attribute matrix to
help instructors integrate environmental sustain-
ability into management courses at both under-
graduate and graduate levels. Similarly, Rusinko
(2010) offers a matrix of options for integrating
sustainability in management education which
describes how sustainability should be delivered
(through existing structures or by creating new
structures) and the disciplines in which it should
be integrated. The matrix includes both cur-
ricular and co-curricular options for integrating
sustainability in management education. From a
methodological perspective, Benn and Dunphy
(2009) argue that action research can be a suc-
cessful approach in the context of curriculum
change in business schools. In a more specific
context, Benn and Martin (2010) focus on the
role of communities of practice and boundary
objects as a means of developing shared sus-
tainability awareness, knowledge and skills.
Likewise, Audebrand (2010) provides some
insights into how new metaphors can be created
and promoted to establish sustainability as a
framework for strategic management education.
As the author suggests, part of the challenge in
teaching sustainability is to deal with students’
preconceptions about the nature of business
activities. In this regard, new metaphors can
be an effective way of getting students to think
along new lines.
It is imperative that universities develop new
methodologies and frameworks that will facili-
tate students’ understanding of CSR or sustain-
ability in the business environment (Audebrand,
2010). However, any effort to integrate sustain-
ability in management and business education
at university requires enthusiastic support at a
variety of levels (faculty members, department,
and university). Therefore, each university will
have to adopt the integration strategy that is
most suited to its environment. And indepen-
dently of the process of delivery, the university
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011
must ensure that it is able to demonstrate stu-
dent learning with regard to CSR, especially in
the accreditation process.
In Spain, higher education institutions are cur-
rently faced with the major challenge of adjust-
ing to the EHEA. Both the public authorities and
universities are immersed in the process of adapt-
ing current university courses to the Bologna
Process. The new legislative framework will make
it possible to design new courses that are suffi-
ciently flexible to adapt their individual scientific
and professional characteristics and which are in
harmony with existing trends in Europe. Official
degrees will be regulated with a clear educational
objective: to offer students a comprehensive uni-
versity education that combines both basic and
general skills, along with the specific knowledge
and skills they need to enter the labor market.
For this reason, it is important to take advan-
tage of the great opportunity offered by the
EHEA reforms so that the incorporation of CSR
within future design Business Administration and
Management degrees can be properly debated and
dealt with.
The European convergence process also offers
the chance to consolidate and replicate the exist-
ing good practice across the international higher
education community.
This research should also prompt further dis-
cussion on how and why Spanish universities have
developed current CSR content and the condi-
tions that are suitable for the successful imple-
mentation of CSR contents in higher education
in comparison with other European nations.
Our hope is that this study will encourage
Spanish universities to take more initiative in
increasing CSR in their curricula and will lead to
an opportunity to improve education in the field
of management.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE LINES OF
RESEARCH
In this section we highlight some of the limita-
tions of the present study. First, we have used
only the terms ‘ethics’ and ‘social responsibility’
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION 617
 Dolors Setó-Pamies et al.
to identify the subjects that study CSR issues
because they are the ones that are most com-
monly used at European level. However, there are
numerous other terms that are broadly synony-
mous. In the near future it would be interesting
to consider some of those terms (corporate citi-
zenship, corporate philanthropy, environmental
management, etc.).
Another limitation concerns the sources of
information. Although all the subject programs
we analyzed were posted on official university
websites, the format and level of detail were dif-
ferent. At present, there is no single official for-
mat for presenting university information, but we
hope that the European accreditation process will
give us completely standardized information in
the near future.
Finally, we would like to mention some of the
future lines of research that could result from
this study. Given that the EHEA is giving us the
chance to redesign degree courses, this research
could be continued with a longitudinal study that
compares the current degrees offered by Spanish
universities with the new degree courses that will
be on offer in the near future. This would show
how universities are responding to the growing
demands of society.
In addition, the study could be extended to
cover postgraduate courses and MBA programs
offered by Spanish universities. In the new uni-
versity context, postgraduate courses are provid-
ing an opportunity to broaden the CSR skills of
current and future professionals. In this regard, it
would also be interesting to examine the current
status of teaching CSR in postgraduate courses
and MBA programs in Spanish universities.
On the other hand, education for sustainable
development is important for all fields in the uni-
versity system, not only for the field of manage-
ment. Since CSR can be regarded as a general skill
for all university students, it would be interesting
to examine to what extent it is included on other
courses (e.g., engineering, law, etc.).
Finally, we must not forget that one of the
principal functions of university is to contribute
618 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION
to the advancement of knowledge. Therefore,
it would be interesting to analyze the extent of
research into CSR in Spanish universities and
how this can contribute to better understanding
and better training in this area.
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Received 14 May 2010 Accepted 01 April 2011
Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2011