Abstract
This work describes the perceptions that Industrial Engineering students have regarding Colombian firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. It also explores the incidence of gender, academic level, work experience and entrepreneurial intention on students’ vision. A survey with 70 CSR practices was designed based on previous research. Practices were grouped in ten dimensions: shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, stakeholders, ethics, environment, legal, human rights and society. A representative sample of 142 students was used. Results show that students perceive a higher commitment of Colombian companies with the shareholders dimension, while a lower with the society, ethics and environmental CSR practices. Work experience and entrepreneurial intention are the only variables affecting the identified perceptions. Thus, as they gain experience, their perceptions become more favorable. On the other hand, potential entrepreneurs have a more critical view on the companies’ commitment. Additionally, the fact that the academic level does not impact students’ perceptions constitutes a challenge for the academic program, since it is expected that this will affect the vision of future engineers. This is the first study that evaluates perceptions of Industrial Engineering students, who, given their object of study, will be responsible for designing and managing production processes in organizations of the future. Results respond to a specific context (students at a Colombian public university), therefore further research to explore the subject is recommended.
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Notes
It is important to mention that the vast majority of higher education academic programs in Colombia have a duration of 5 years. Therefore, given that most of the studies in the literature assess “academic level” into three subgroups (initial level, medium level and advanced level), we analyzed our results in a similar way.
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Acknowledgements
Presented results are part of the project “PI2015-5844 Perceptions of students and teachers of the Industrial Engineering program at the Universidad de Antioquia regarding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)” funded by the University of Antioquia. The authors would like to thank the students, professors and experts who participated in this study.
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Morales-Gualdrón, S.T., La Rotta Forero, D.A., Arias Vergara, J.A. et al. Corporate Social Responsibility Practices of Colombian Companies as Perceived by Industrial Engineering Students. Sci Eng Ethics 26, 3183–3215 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00264-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00264-8