Purpose:
This paper aims to conceptualize impacts of higher education institutions (HEIs) on sustainable
development (SD), complementing previous literature reviews by broadening the perspective from what HEIs
do in pursuit of SD to how these activities impact society, the environment and the economy.
Design/methodology/Approach:
The paper provides a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed
journal articles published between 2005 and 2017. Inductive content analysis was applied to identify major
themes and impact areas addressed in the literature to develop a conceptual framework detailing the
relationship between HEIs-
activities and their impacts on SD.
Findings:
The paper identi
fi
es six impact areas where direct and indirect impacts of HEIs on SD may
occur. The fi
ndings indicate a strong focus on case studies dealing with speci
fi
c projects and a lack of studies
analyzing impacts from a more holistic perspective.
Practical implications: This systematic literature review enables decision-makers in HEIs, researchers
and educators to better understand how their activities may affect society, the environment and the economy,
and it provides a solid foundation to tackle these impacts.
Social implications:
The review highlights that HEIs have an inherent responsibility to make societies
more sustainable. HEIs must embed SD into their systems while considering their impacts on society.
Originality/value:
This paper provides a holistic conceptualization of HEIs-
impacts on SD. The conceptual
framework can be useful for future research that attempts to analyze HEIs-
impacts on SD from a holistic perspective.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VIENNA/oai:epub.wu-wien.ac.at:6776 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Findler, Florian, Schönherr, Norma, Lozano, Rodrigo, Reider, Daniela, Martinuzzi, Robert-Andre |
| Publisher | Emerald Publishing Limited |
| Source Sets | Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, PeerReviewed |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) |
| Relation | https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-07-2017-0114, https://www.emeraldinsight.com/, http://epub.wu.ac.at/6776/ |
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