IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i23p13406-d694450.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Social Responsibility and Pro-Environmental Behavior of the Individuals from the Perspective of Protection Motivation Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Ghulam Jilani

    (School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China)

  • Guangqin Yang

    (School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China
    Voice President and Secretary General of Henan Education Quality Society, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Irfan Siddique

    (Faculty of Management Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan)

Abstract

Several research studies have investigated the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and pro-environmental behavior of individuals in the industrial context (considering the employees as individuals) while ignoring the non-industrial context. Climate change and related issues associated with the interaction of humans with the environment are of great importance in today’s context, hence, it is equally important to test such a relationship in a non-industrial context. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between CSR and pro-environmental behavior of students (SPEB) in the higher education sector of Pakistan. Given that university students are more inclined to act pro-environmentally, as they partake in different climate change activities and are part of the debate on the global environmental crisis, considering this sector to promote SPEB is of the utmost importance. The current study also proposes emotional affinity towards students (EATN) as a mediator between the proposed relationship. The current study data were collected from university students ( n = 656) studying in different universities of Pakistan. The results were validated by employing the structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The results confirmed that there exists a positive association between CSR perception of a university and SPEB, and EATN partially mediates this relationship. The findings of the current study will be helpful to the higher education policymakers in Pakistan to mitigate the country’s environmental footprint by promoting the sustainable behavior of students as an outcome of CSR. Moreover, these findings will also be helpful to the academia for policymaking pertinent to educational governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghulam Jilani & Guangqin Yang & Irfan Siddique, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Pro-Environmental Behavior of the Individuals from the Perspective of Protection Motivation Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-20, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13406-:d:694450
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13406/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13406/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martina Jelinkova & Libena Tetrevova & Jan Vavra & Simona Munzarova, 2021. "The Sharing Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility: The Example of the Czech Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Giulia Sonetti & Martin Brown & Emanuele Naboni, 2019. "About the Triggering of UN Sustainable Development Goals and Regenerative Sustainability in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, January.
    3. Younghan Jung & Kayoung Park & Junyong Ahn, 2019. "Sustainability in Higher Education: Perceptions of Social Responsibility among University Students," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-14, March.
    4. Shengqin Zheng & Ye Cheng & Yingjie Ju, 2019. "Understanding the Intention and Behavior of Renting Houses among the Young Generation: Evidence from Jinan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Sandra Cavaco & Patricia Crifo, 2014. "CSR and financial performance: complementarity between environmental, social and business behaviours," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(27), pages 3323-3338, September.
    6. Nicola Misani, 2010. "The convergence of corporate social responsibility practices," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(7), pages 734-748, June.
    7. Basheer M. Al‐Ghazali & Bilal Afsar, 2021. "Retracted: Green human resource management and employees' green creativity: The roles of green behavioral intention and individual green values," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 536-536, January.
    8. Piyapong Janmaimool, 2017. "Application of Protection Motivation Theory to Investigate Sustainable Waste Management Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-16, June.
    9. Shah Ali Murtaza & Asif Mahmood & Saima Saleem & Naveed Ahmad & Muhammad Suhail Sharif & Edina Molnár, 2021. "Proposing Stewardship Theory as an Alternate to Explain the Relationship between CSR and Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    10. Sea-Jin Chang & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Lorraine Eden, 2010. "From the Editors: Common method variance in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 178-184, February.
    11. Mengmeng Guo & Naveed Ahmad & Mohammad Adnan & Miklas Scholz & Khalil-ur-Rehman & Rana Tahir Naveed, 2021. "The Relationship of CSR and Employee Creativity in the Hotel Sector: The Mediating Role of Job Autonomy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    12. Tak Jie Chan & Nurul Ain Mohd Hasan, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility Practices from the Employees’ Perspective: A Case of Malaysian Higher Education Institution," 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. 8(4), pages 131-153, April.
    13. Walder, Peter & Kantelhardt, Jochen, 2018. "The Environmental Behaviour of Farmers – Capturing the Diversity of Perspectives with a Q Methodological Approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 55-63.
    14. Oleg V. Petrenko & Federico Aime & Jason Ridge & Aaron Hill, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility or CEO narcissism? CSR motivations and organizational performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 262-279, February.
    15. Saeed Gholamrezai & Vahid Aliabadi & Pouria Ataei, 2021. "Understanding the pro-environmental behavior among green poultry farmers: Application of behavioral theories," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16100-16118, November.
    16. Bilal Afsar & Basheer Al‐Ghazali & Waheed Umrani, 2020. "Retracted: Corporate social responsibility, work meaningfulness, and employee engagement: The joint moderating effects of incremental moral belief and moral identity centrality," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1264-1278, May.
    17. Chung-Fah Huang & Ho-Chi Lien, 2012. "An empirical analysis of the influences of corporate social responsibility on organizational performance of Taiwan’s construction industry: using corporate image as a mediator," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 263-275, February.
    18. Syed Haider Ali Shah & Sadia Cheema & Basheer M. Al‐Ghazali & Muhammad Ali & Nosheen Rafiq, 2021. "Perceived corporate social responsibility and pro‐environmental behaviors: The role of organizational identification and coworker pro‐environmental advocacy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 366-377, January.
    19. Bilal Afsar & Basheer M. Al‐Ghazali & Zia Ur Rehman & Waheed Ali Umrani, 2020. "Retracted: The moderating effects of employee corporate social responsibility motive attributions (substantive and symbolic) between corporate social responsibility perceptions and voluntary pro‐envir," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 769-785, March.
    20. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226316529 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Aminah Abdul Rahman & Pavel Castka & Tyron Love, 2019. "Corporate social responsibility in higher education," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 916-928, July.
    22. Daniel J. Anderson & Tobias Krettenauer, 2021. "Connectedness to Nature and Pro-Environmental Behaviour from Early Adolescence to Adulthood: A Comparison of Urban and Rural Canada," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, March.
    23. Qing Tian & Jennifer L. Robertson, 2019. "How and When Does Perceived CSR Affect Employees’ Engagement in Voluntary Pro-environmental Behavior?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 399-412, March.
    24. Patrizia Faustini, 2014. "The Challenges of Climate Change: Children on the front line," Papers innins716, Innocenti Insights.
    25. Duygu Turker, 2009. "Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility: A Scale Development Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(4), pages 411-427, April.
    26. Bilal Afsar & Waheed Ali Umrani, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility and pro‐environmental behavior at workplace: The role of moral reflectiveness, coworker advocacy, and environmental commitment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 109-125, January.
    27. Ali Raza & Muhammad Farrukh & Muhammad Khalid Iqbal & Muhammad Farhan & Yihua Wu, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and employees' voluntary pro‐environmental behavior: The role of organizational pride and employee engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 1104-1116, May.
    28. Naveed Ahmad & Rana Tahir Naveed & Miklas Scholz & Muhammad Irfan & Muhammad Usman & Ilyas Ahmad, 2021. "CSR Communication through Social Media: A Litmus Test for Banking Consumers’ Loyalty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.
    29. Wells, Victoria K. & Manika, Danae & Gregory-Smith, Diana & Taheri, Babak & McCowlen, Clair, 2015. "Heritage tourism, CSR and the role of employee environmental behaviour," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 399-413.
    30. Linghui Kong & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Naveed Ahmad & Mariana Sehleanu & Zhihui Li & Malik Zia-Ud-Din & Daniel Badulescu, 2021. "CSR as a Potential Motivator to Shape Employees’ View towards Nature for a Sustainable Workplace Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-13, February.
    31. Tiina Onkila, 2015. "Pride or Embarrassment? Employees’ Emotions and Corporate Social Responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(4), pages 222-236, July.
    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. Nandini Bhalla, 2022. "Examining the Impact of Issue Salience, Issue Proximity, Situational Motivation, and Communicative Behaviors on Environmental CSR Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-15, February.

    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. Wang Hongxin & Mohammed Arshad Khan & Jian Zhenqiang & Laura-Mariana Cismaș & Mohammad Athar Ali & Usama Saleem & Lucia Negruț, 2022. "Unleashing the Role of CSR and Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior for Organizational Success: The Role of Connectedness to Nature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Jing Shao & Asif Mahmood & Heesup Han, 2021. "Unleashing the Potential Role of CSR and Altruistic Values to Foster Pro-Environmental Behavior by Hotel Employees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Huan Zhang & Khaoula Omhand & Huaizheng Li & Aqeel Ahmad & Sarminah Samad & Darie Gavrilut & Daniel Badulescu, 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Energy-Related Pro-Environmental Behaviour of Employees in Hospitality Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Xin Guan & Naveed Ahmad & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Jacob Cherian & Heesup Han, 2023. "CSR and organizational performance: The role of pro‐environmental behavior and personal values," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 677-694, March.
    5. Shilong Wei & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Wenxia Zhou & Alina Badulescu & Daniel Badulescu, 2021. "Improving the Environmental Footprint through Employees: A Case of Female Leaders from the Perspective of CSR," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-23, December.
    6. Shilong Wei & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Ubaldo Comite & Phung Anh Thu & Daniel Badulescu & József Popp, 2021. "An Examination to Explain the Mechanism of Employees’ Environment-Specific Behavior through CSR and Work Engagement from the Perspective of Stewardship Theory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Li Xu & Jacob Cherian & Muhammad Zaheer & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Ubaldo Comite & Laura Mariana Cismas & Juan Felipe Espinosa Cristia & Judit Oláh, 2022. "The Role of Healthcare Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior for De-Carbonization: An Energy Conservation Approach from CSR Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, May.
    8. Li Xu & Suleiman Jamal Mohammad & Nishad Nawaz & Sarminah Samad & Naveed Ahmad & Ubaldo Comite, 2022. "The Role of CSR for De-Carbonization of Hospitality Sector through Employees: A Leadership Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, April.
    9. Yuwei Deng & Jacob Cherian & Naveed Ahmad & Miklas Scholz & Sarminah Samad, 2022. "Conceptualizing the Role of Target-Specific Environmental Transformational Leadership between Corporate Social Responsibility and Pro-Environmental Behaviors of Hospital Employees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    10. Ali Raza & Muhammad Farrukh & Muhammad Khalid Iqbal & Muhammad Farhan & Yihua Wu, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and employees' voluntary pro‐environmental behavior: The role of organizational pride and employee engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 1104-1116, May.
    11. Sadia Cheema & Bilal Afsar & Basheer M. Al‐Ghazali & Ahsen Maqsoom, 2020. "Retracted: How employee's perceived corporate social responsibility affects employee's pro‐environmental behaviour? The influence of organizational identification, corporate entrepreneurship, and envi," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 616-629, March.
    12. Shah Ali Murtaza & Asif Mahmood & Saima Saleem & Naveed Ahmad & Muhammad Suhail Sharif & Edina Molnár, 2021. "Proposing Stewardship Theory as an Alternate to Explain the Relationship between CSR and Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    13. Ahmad, Naveed & Ullah, Zia & AlDhaen, Esra & Han, Heesup & Scholz, Miklas, 2022. "A CSR perspective to foster employee creativity in the banking sector: The role of work engagement and psychological safety," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Mengmeng Guo & Naveed Ahmad & Mohammad Adnan & Miklas Scholz & Khalil-ur-Rehman & Rana Tahir Naveed, 2021. "The Relationship of CSR and Employee Creativity in the Hotel Sector: The Mediating Role of Job Autonomy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    15. Qinghua Fu & Wafa Ghardallou & Ubaldo Comite & Irfan Siddique & Heesup Han & Juan Manuel Arjona-Fuentes & Antonio Ariza-Montes, 2022. "The Role of CSR in Promoting Energy-Specific Pro-Environmental Behavior among Hotel Employees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, May.
    16. Syed Haider Ali Shah & Sadia Cheema & Basheer M. Al‐Ghazali & Muhammad Ali & Nosheen Rafiq, 2021. "Perceived corporate social responsibility and pro‐environmental behaviors: The role of organizational identification and coworker pro‐environmental advocacy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 366-377, January.
    17. Mario Morales-Parragué & Luis Araya-Castillo & Fidel Molina-Luque & Hugo Moraga-Flores, 2022. "Scientometric Analysis of Research on Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
    18. Saskia Crucke & Marie Servaes & Tom Kluijtmans & Shana Mertens & Eveline Schollaert, 2022. "Linking environmentally‐specific transformational leadership and employees' green advocacy: The influence of leadership integrity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 406-420, March.
    19. Zaheer Alam & Yasir Bin Tariq, 2023. "Corporate Sustainability Performance Evaluation and Firm Financial Performance: Evidence from Pakistan," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    20. Edina Molnár & Asif Mahmood & Naveed Ahmad & Amir Ikram & Shah Ali Murtaza, 2021. "The Interplay between Corporate Social Responsibility at Employee Level, Ethical Leadership, Quality of Work Life and Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Case of Healthcare Organizations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-16, 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:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13406-:d:694450. 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.