Corporate Social Responsibility in the University Courses in Italy: An Empirical Analysis

In recent years, the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility is widely discussed in various contexts: in businesses, government, not for profit organizations, university studies, with customers and users of various types of business, etc. Our study focuses on the role of CSR in Higher Education Institutions and on the role of the teachings related to this discipline in Italian universities. In particular, we intend to analyse lessons learned from the CSR in all Faculties of Economics, leaving out other types of tertiary education (e.g., master, postgraduate courses, etc.). The research questions to which we intend to answer are: 1. How widespread is the teaching of CSR in Italian universities? 2. In consideration of the growing importance of CSR in many important aspects of today’s global economy, are the Italian universities moving in the same direction, giving more attention to this discipline? 3. How CSR is interpreted in Italian universities? The data collection has been performed using two source categories: the database contained in the web site of the Italian Ministry of Education and the web sites of all the existing Faculties of Economics in Italy. These sources are useful to identify all the CSR teachings in bachelor-level degrees and master-level degrees. Our aim is to outline the contents of these teachings, analyzing the following aspects: Type of course (bachelor or master-level) Year Number of credits awarded Type of examination (basic, characterizing, etc.) Main topics identified in the program Textbooks Professors in charge In this way we try to draw a map for each of the analysed courses in order to identify their significant features (e.g. the type of approach to CSR welcomed by the teacher).