IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i19p8169-d423426.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Education for Sustainable Development on Romanian Economics and Business Students’ Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Liana Badea

    (Department of Economic Doctrines and Communication, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 6 Romana Sq., District 1, 010734 Bucharest, Romania)

  • George Laurențiu Șerban-Oprescu

    (Department of Economic Doctrines and Communication, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 6 Romana Sq., District 1, 010734 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Silvia Dedu

    (Department of Applied Mathematics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 6 Romana Sq., District 1, 010734 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Grigore Ioan Piroșcă

    (Department of Economic Doctrines and Communication, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 6 Romana Sq., District 1, 010734 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has presented long-lasting interest for researchers and policy makers. Despite a significant body of research, more in depth empirical studies are required for a better understanding of how sustainable development goals are applied in higher education and how sustainable behavior could be shaped via ESD. The need for this kind of research arises from, first, the scarceness of existing studies that explore economic and business higher education, and, second, the necessity to properly assess the connection between ESD principles and students’ behavior. Following this rationale, the present paper aims to provide an overview of how students’ sustainable behaviors are shaped via their perception of sustainable campus initiatives, teaching staff involvement and curricula. Statistical and econometric analysis applied on data collected via a survey on students from Bucharest University of Economic Studies (N = 1253) provides findings on the extent to which the awareness of sustainable development-specific issues acquired through education leads to sustainable behavior among students. According to the results, we argue that an increasing share of sustainable development topics combined with teaching staff involvement to raise awareness of sustainability issues are crucial to students’ sustainable behavior. However, on-campus actions are unlikely to change behavior unless they are optional rather than compulsory. Our findings ratify that, since education is one of the main drivers of sustainable development, there is an urgent need for coherence in shaping higher education according to sustainability issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Liana Badea & George Laurențiu Șerban-Oprescu & Silvia Dedu & Grigore Ioan Piroșcă, 2020. "The Impact of Education for Sustainable Development on Romanian Economics and Business Students’ Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8169-:d:423426
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8169/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8169/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maria Kalamas Hedden & Roneisha Worthy & Edwin Akins & Vanessa Slinger-Friedman & R. C. Paul, 2017. "Teaching Sustainability Using an Active Learning Constructivist Approach: Discipline-Specific Case Studies in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Florentin Popescu & Tudor Edu & Iliuta Costel Negricea & Rãzvan Zaharia & Rodica Milena Zaharia, 2020. "How Do Students Assess the Sustainability of Their University? A Comparison between Dutch and Romanian Students from Business Schools," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 22(54), pages 412-412, April.
    3. Wakkee, Ingrid & van der Sijde, Peter & Vaupell, Christiaan & Ghuman, Karminder, 2019. "The university's role in sustainable development: Activating entrepreneurial scholars as agents of change," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 195-205.
    4. Isabel Banos-Gonzalez & Julia Martínez-Fernández & Miguel-Ángel Esteve-Selma & Patricia Esteve-Guirao, 2018. "Sensitivity Analysis in Socio-Ecological Models as a Tool in Environmental Policy for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-30, August.
    5. Shiel, Chris & Leal Filho, Walter & do Paço, Arminda & Brandli, Luciana, 2016. "Evaluating the engagement of universities in capacity building for sustainable development in local communities," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 123-134.
    6. Grigore Ioan Pirosca & George-Lauretiu Serban-Oprescu & Liana Badea & Silvia Dedu, 2020. "Education for Sustainable Development – An Evaluation of Students’ Perceptions within the Bucharest University of Economic Studie," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 22(54), pages 346-346, April.
    7. Gregory Trencher & Masaru Yarime & Kes B. McCormick & Christopher N. H. Doll & Steven B. Kraines, 2014. "Beyond the third mission: Exploring the emerging university function of co-creation for sustainability," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 151-179.
    8. Hanifah Mahat & Mohmadisa Hashim & Nasir Nayan & Yazid Saleh & Siti Mariam Shahirah Haron, 2017. "Sustainable Consumption Practices of Students through Practice-Oriented Approach of Education for Sustainable Development," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(6), pages 703-720, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Claudia E. Stoian & Simona Șimon & Vasile Gherheș, 2021. "A Comparative Analysis of the Use of the Concept of Sustainability in the Romanian Top Universities’ Strategic Plans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-34, September.
    2. Andreea Mirica & Ionela-Roxana Petcu & Liliana Catrina & Roxana-Violeta Partas-Ciolan & Adina-Andreea Neamtu, 2023. "Sustainability Competences In Romanian Higher Education," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 105-113, February.
    3. Vasile Gherheș & Mariana Cernicova-Buca & Marcela Alina Fărcașiu & Adina Palea, 2021. "Romanian Students’ Environment-Related Routines during COVID-19 Home Confinement: Water, Plastic, and Paper Consumption," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-24, August.
    4. Thomas J. Lampoltshammer & Valerie Albrecht & Corinna Raith, 2021. "Teaching Digital Sustainability in Higher Education from a Transdisciplinary Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Gamze Sart, 2022. "Impact of Higher Education and Globalization on Sustainable Development in the New EU Member States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-13, September.
    6. Arantza Rico & Elena Agirre-Basurko & Aritz Ruiz-González & Igone Palacios-Agundez & Daniel Zuazagoitia, 2021. "Integrating Mathematics and Science Teaching in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development: Design and Pilot Implementation of a Teaching-Learning Sequence about Air Quality with Pre-Service," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.
    7. Moataz Elmassri & María Luisa Pajuelo & Abdulhadi Ali Alahbabi & Ahmed Mohamed Alali & Moufak Alzitawi & Hamdan Hussain & Khaled Alnabhani & Tariq Elrazaz, 2023. "Student Perceptions of Pedagogical Approaches to Integrating the SDG 8 into Business School Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-22, September.
    8. Bogdan Fleaca & Elena Fleaca & Sanda Maiduc, 2023. "Framing Teaching for Sustainability in the Case of Business Engineering Education: Process-Centric Models and Good Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Elisabeta-Emilia Halmaghi & Diana-Elena Ranf & Dorel Badea, 2023. "Interdisciplinary Exploration between Organizational Culture and Sustainable Development Management Applied to the Romanian Higher Education Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Petersen, Il-haam & Kruss, Glenda, 2021. "Universities as change agents in resource-poor local settings: An empirically grounded typology of engagement models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Elisabeta-Emilia Halmaghi & Diana-Elena Ranf & Dorel Badea, 2023. "Interdisciplinary Exploration between Organizational Culture and Sustainable Development Management Applied to the Romanian Higher Education Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Marc Karahan, 2024. "Advancing sustainable entrepreneurial universities: sustainability transformations of university business incubators in Germany," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 575-609, August.
    4. Gesa Pflitsch & Verena Radinger-Peer, 2018. "Developing Boundary-Spanning Capacity for Regional Sustainability Transitions—A Comparative Case Study of the Universities of Augsburg (Germany) and Linz (Austria)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, March.
    5. Samah Abduljawad, 2024. "Enhancing Technical English Proficiency: A Video-Based Approach for Female Students at Industrial Colleges in Saudi Arabia," World Journal of English Language, Sciedu Press, vol. 14(5), pages 250-250, September.
    6. Shaikha R. Al-Nuaimi & Sami G. Al-Ghamdi, 2022. "Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Sustainability Aspects among Higher Education Students in Qatar," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-17, October.
    7. Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Faura-Martínez, Ursula & Lafuente-Lechuga, Matilde, 2024. "Evaluation of the concerns of Spanish university students in the face of current major challenges," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    8. Lovely S. Mores & Jeongwoo Lee & Woongkyoo Bae, 2019. "University-Community Partnerships: A Local Planning Co-Production Study on Calabarzon, Philippines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, March.
    9. Emmanuel Dornyoh & Abdul-Muhaeminu Tamakloe Ocloo & Tamakloe Ocloo, 2024. "The Environmental Sustainability Practices of Students at the Cape Coast Technical University Hostels," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3s), pages 3435-3453, August.
    10. Maria Rosario Perello-Marín & Gabriela Ribes-Giner & Odette Pantoja Díaz, 2018. "Enhancing Education for Sustainable Development in Environmental University Programmes: A Co-Creation Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. Carla Farinha & Sandra Caeiro & Ulisses Azeiteiro, 2019. "Sustainability Strategies in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions: Commitments and Practices from Internal Insights," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-25, June.
    12. Jam Shahzaib Khan & Rozana Zakaria & Siti Mazzuana Shamsudin & Nur Izie Adiana Abidin & Shaza Rina Sahamir & Darul Nafis Abbas & Eeydzah Aminudin, 2019. "Evolution to Emergence of Green Buildings: A Review," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, January.
    13. Taheri, Mozhdeh & van Geenhuizen, Marina, 2016. "Teams' boundary-spanning capacity at university: Performance of technology projects in commercialization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 31-43.
    14. Tomasi Sabrina & Cavicchi Alessio & Aleffi Chiara & Paviotti Gigliola & Ferrara Concetta & Baldoni Federica & Passarini Paolo, 2021. "Civic universities and bottom-up approaches to boost local development of rural areas: the case of the University of Macerata," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, December.
    15. Genovaitė Liobikienė & Mykolas Simas Poškus, 2019. "The Importance of Environmental Knowledge for Private and Public Sphere Pro-Environmental Behavior: Modifying the Value-Belief-Norm Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, June.
    16. Anca Draghici & Larisa Ivascu & Adrian Mateescu & George Draghici, 2017. "A Proposed Model for Measuring Performance of the University-Industry Collaboration in Open Innovation," International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, International School for Social and Business Studies, Celje, Slovenia, vol. 6(1), pages 53-76.
    17. Mara Bauer & Sebastian Niedlich & Marco Rieckmann & Inka Bormann & Larissa Jaeger, 2020. "Interdependencies of Culture and Functions of Sustainability Governance at Higher Education Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, April.
    18. Francesco Ferella & Idiano D’Adamo & Simona Leone & Valentina Innocenzi & Ida De Michelis & Francesco Vegliò, 2018. "Spent FCC E-Cat: Towards a Circular Approach in the Oil Refining Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, December.
    19. Humberto Merritt, 2015. "The Role of Human Capital in University-Business Cooperation: The Case of Mexico," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(3), pages 568-588, September.
    20. Jeremias Herberg & Tobias Haas & Daniel Oppold & Dirk von Schneidemesser, 2020. "A Collaborative Transformation beyond Coal and Cars? Co-Creation and Corporatism in the German Energy and Mobility Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-20, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8169-:d:423426. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.