CSR Integration: Training Business Administration Professionals MBA

This report analyzes the integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The study uses content analysis of 28 full-time MBA programs to assess how CSR issues are covered, finding that core curricula often address CSR indirectly through business ethics courses but lack comprehensive integration. The research highlights a gap in training future business administration professionals with a CSR-sensitive mindset, suggesting that leading MBA programs are missing an opportunity to emphasize social responsibility. The findings serve as a guide for modifying and enhancing MBA programs to better incorporate CSR, emphasizing the importance of education in shaping ethical business leaders and promoting sustainable development.

sustainability
Article
Training the CSR Sensitive Mind-Set: The Integration
of CSR into the Training of Business
Administration Professionals
Egl˙e Stonkut˙e 1, Jolita Vveinhardt2 and Włodzimierz Sroka3,*
1 Research Department, Baltic Institute for Research and Development, 4 J. Savickio St., LT 01108 Vilnius,
Lithuania; [e-mail]
2 Management Department, Vytautas Magnus University, 28 S. Daukanto St., LT-44246 Kaunas, Lithuania;
[e-mail]
3 Management Department, University of D ˛abrowa Górnicza, 1c Cieplaka St.,
41-300 D ˛abrowa Górnicza, Poland
* Correspondence: [e-mail]; Tel.: [phone]
Received: 5 February 2018; Accepted: 6 March 2018; Published: 9 March 2018
Abstract:Currentcorporations are subjectto stringentrequirements in terms ofsustainable
development;however,a relevant problem is highlighted on the basis of the studies conducted.
On the one hand,corporations experience greater or lesser pressure,while on the other hand,
it must be admitted that the problem of demand for professionals, which is presupposed by the
insufficient quality of training in higher education institutions,is important.This is somewhat
strange given that the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability have
attracted increased attention in management education in recent years, and a five-fold increase in the
number of stand-alone ethics courses has been noted since 1988. This interaction could contribute
to the development of CSR, however a certain dissonance of cooperation between higher education
and business exists, as there is a lack of leadership in this area in the study programs of business
administration approved by the states,as well as in higher education institutions.Given these
facts, the goal of the paper is to analyze the Master of Business Administration programs in North
America, Europe, Asia, and Australia to offer direction to the challenge of integrating corporate social
responsibility (CSR) into management and training. The method of analysis of professional business
and administration training program content in terms of the integration of CSR was used during the
survey. Using panel data of 28 full-time MBA programs, our findings show that that the core parts
of MBAs under analysis merely—and mostly indirectly—cover CSR issues through one core course
on business ethics. However, the leading MBA programs are currently missing an opportunity by
ignoring their responsibility to support the training of CSR-minded future business administration
professionals.The results of our research may act as a guide to which areas should be modified

Sustainability 2018, 10, 754 2 of 14
concept. Some criticism of the CSR concept [2] cannot change this opinion. However, the impression
exists that CSR is yesterday’s problem, while in some regions, e.g., post-Soviet Central and Eastern
European countries,insufficient attention is paid to it.While researchers from Western countries
sometimes show the ongoing withdrawal of enterprises from the very idea of CSR and present
themselves to stakeholders by imitating CSR as one of the marketing tools [3–6], or even lobbying [7]
(pp. 51–67), it is becoming a clear trend in post-Soviet countries.Therefore, attention is paid to the
fact that the implementation of CSR should be oriented not towards charity, marketing, and public
relations, but should first and foremost be understood as social responsibility towards stakeholders [8].
However,even the perceived benefits of communication do not increase the scale of CSR activity.
As with a litmus paper, this indicates that CSR ideas in the latter societies are still not sufficiently
relevant to cause business enterprises to respond more actively to them. The slow realization of ideas of
social sustainability are also partly reflected in the dynamics of membership in the UN Global Compact.
For example, there are 2.5 enterprises per 100,000 citizens in Sweden, 0.2 in Poland, 0.1 in Ukraine,
and 0.9 in Lithuania. In terms of the number of active members, the trend is towards a decrease.
The research problem is raised by the question of whether CSR is an integral part of the mindset
of business and administration professionals, who make decisions and express the values of their
enterprises through them. Logically, the question arises as to where these values are and where they
can be developed and trained.The focus should be on the training of business and administration
professionals, i.e., on the people expected to be future entrepreneurs and administrators of enterprises.
Research shows that the level of knowledge and management culture of managerial staff of enterprises
is closely related to the sustainable development of CSR [9]. For example, Berber et al. [10] analyzed
the relationship of CSR and human resources management in Central and Eastern European countries
through an analysis of written statements of social responsibility. Although this practice is recognized
as effective,it turned out that almost half of the companies surveyed did not have such written
statements. A lower level of human resources operational programs for specific groups of employees
was also found in such companies. Thus, the examples show that the development and understanding
of CSR ideas should change significantly.In this case,an important role must be played by the
education system in terms of the preparation and training of business and administration professionals.
However,significant changes are necessary in this area as well.During reorganization from a
narrow and planned economy into the global market economy, the task of preparing business and
administration professionals who would increase the competitiveness and profitability of enterprises
in as short a period of time as possible continues to fall to the system of higher education. Therefore,
ethical aspects of business development remained somewhat in the shade. Of course, a comparison
of data from studies carried out in different countries highlights certain differences.For example,
what differences exist in the preparation of professionals, familiarizing them with business ethics in
academic institutions of different levels? It is worth mentioning that Lithuanian colleges (institutions
of non-university higher education) have less chance of setting up CSR teaching disciplines than

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on the integration of CSR in the training of management professionals and in parallel with it in the
development of public opinion, are deemed necessary.
Given the deliberations presented, the goal of our paper is to analyze the Master of Business
Administration programs in North America,Europe,Asia, and Australia to offer direction to
the challenge of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into management and training.
The method of analysis of professional business and administration training program content in terms
of the integration of CSR was used during the survey. The objectives of the study were achieved on
the basis of data gathered through content analysis, i.e., data gathered and analyzed using a content
summative approach and binomial analysis.The target subjects included a group of 28 full-time
MBA programs offered by the universities in question.The paper is structured as follows:Firstly,
we describe the concept of CSR which has been presented in the literature,concentrating on the
relationship between CSR, education, and training programs at the MBA level. Secondly, we present
the methodological part, i.e., the materials and methods of the research which has been conducted.
The next part of our paper analyzes the results of the aforementioned research in detail, which, in turn,
is followed by the Discussion section. Finally, we present the conclusions and limitations of our study.
2. Literature Review
At present, the idea of corporate social responsibility is not an innovation or a message that the
directors of enterprises would not have faced unexpectedly or that the shareholders of enterprises
would not have heard about. However, the problem of understanding the significance of CSR is often
encountered, as the main purpose for which managers set up and developed the CSR concept is an
axiomatic maximization of profit, while at the same time reducing the expenditure and the risk of
decreasing profitability [14–16]. These are solid arguments, as most corporations are not charities
or social enterprises seeking specific social goals.On the one hand, according to Weinzimmer and
Esken [17] (p. 336), numerous studies have contended that taking a stand on a social issue may lead to
long-term competitive advantages. Therefore, when firms decide to support or oppose specific social
issues, they should be aware that their positions may have an impact on business outcomes. On the
other hand, del Rosario González-Rodríguez et al. [18] point out that the way the consumers perceive
corporate social responsibility may be directly affected by the individual benefit structures, the range
of which is very extensive. Studies in this area show that CSR provides more flexibility to organizations
themselves, when operating in various situations [16,19], such as in dealing with emerging crises [20],
contributing to the active development of goodwill [21–23], while addressing relevant social and ethical
problems not only by means of specific support—as is often perceived—but also by changing the moral
and ethical climate in the socio-cultural media in which they operate through their values [24–27].
This can be compared with the metaphor of a growing snowball, especially if the organizations focus
not only on the present, but also on the long-term rebound effect.
Thus, one can observe that a plethora of research which justifies the direct and indirect benefits to

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education itself, which influences human values, as well [16,18]. On the one hand, enterprises cannot
wait for governments to understand the significance of CSR and start improving the preparation of
professionals.On the other hand, however, one cannot rely on the mere belief that the maturity of
enterprises will reach a certain level of maturity of corporative philosophy by itself, interacting with
separate stakeholder groups.Studies which focus on some of the stakeholders (e.g., communities,
consumers) reveal that corporate social responsibility is inadequate as a certain image-forming tool
when the published position does not necessarily correspond to reality [4].
One should also point out that the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and
sustainability have come to attract increasing attention in management education in recent years [45]
and the increasing prominence of CSR education in American and European business schools is
observed [46]. This is confirmed inter alia by a five-fold increase in the number of stand-alone ethics
courses since 1988 [47]. Some authors go even further,claiming that the public sector plays an
important role in the development of social responsibility, of which universities are an essential part
as they represent an irreplaceable role in society, where they take part in the creation and increase of
human capital.One perceives the social responsibility of universities as part of the so-called “third
role” of universities, perceived as the meaning of the impact of universities’ activities on society in
the broadest sense [48]. On the other hand, however, if aiming at closer cooperation between higher
education and business, it is necessary to identify what leads to miscommunication and gaps between
theory and practice. According to Hayter and Cahoy [49], within an increasingly global context, society
expects colleges and universities to undertake new and increasingly complex social responsibilities that
expand traditional higher education missions while emphasizing new obligations such as economic
development and sustainability.In this case,it would be useful to go deeper into the integration
of the concept of corporate social responsibility in university study programs.However, these are
also struggling with the same broader education problem [50], as they remain rather unchanged
and are not able to cope with a broader view of the world. Instead, they remain oriented towards a
narrow specialization, focusing on profit maximization instead of social and economic prosperity, i.e.,
preferring shareholders over stakeholders. The short-term mindset of business corporations makes
the integration of long-term issues, such as CSR, difficult to integrate into educational programs [51].
The dissemination of sustainable development ideas is complicated, not only in corporations and/or
the policies of the states [52], but also in higher education institutions, which, themselves, need certain
changes related to the realization of CSR philosophy in practice and in studies in the preparation of
future professionals [34,53]. It should transform their programs to transformative ones that would
integrate a holistic approach [54] and would even change the metaphor (i.e., the way they perceive the
world) of a war which is still based on business administration education [55].
The role of higher education institutions in the perception of CSR by their students seems to be
important. One may observe that there is a higher percentage of student interest in the topics of ethics,
corporate social responsibility, and sustainability in the MBA programs offered by top 10 business

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H2: CSR is not integrated into professional business and administration training.
The results of studies show that business administration study programs, especially Masters of
Business Administration (MBA) programs that have a significant positive correlation between CEOs
with an MBA and corporate environmental performance [59], could, and should, play an important
role in the preparation of students for understanding the essence, meaning, and benefits of corporate
social responsibility, because business students are our future managers [60].
3. Materials and Methods
The world’s leading fulltime Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs were chosen
for the comparative analysis with the goal of finding the scope of the integration of CSR into full-time
MBAs, i.e.,into the education of the future leaders of the business world and decision-making
professionals.According to the 2016 MBA and Business School Rankings [61], there were 28 full
time MBAs chosen for comparative analysis: 10 of them being the best full time MBAs provided by
higher education institutions in North America, 10 in Europe, and eight in Asia/Australia (there were
nine full time MBAs in Asia/Australia; however, one program was excluded from further analysis as
the program’s structure and courses were not comparable with other programs and the summative
content analysis for that program was impossible to apply). All MBA programs were coded using the
code reflecting their regional dependency, i.e., AAU—for MBAs in Asia/Australia, EUR—in Europe,
and NAM—in North America, and numbered starting from the MBAs with the largest number of
elective CSR courses to those with zero elective CSR courses, i.e., number 1 is the MBA with the largest
number of elective CSR courses and number 28 is the MBA with the smallest number (in this case
zero) of elective CSR courses. The MBA structure and program content were retrieved from the official
websites of institutions in January 2017.
The developed sample of full-time MBA programs represents the potential immersion into CSR
by those studying in these programs, while the total population is the total number of MBA students
in the relevant regions. As it was impossible to find a reliable (not fragmented) single source for the
number of MBA students in relevant regions, the approximation of data was made using the data on
MBA enrolment in business schools from the members of Association of Advance Collegiate Schools
of Business (AACSB). There were 294,651 general management/MBA students enrolled in AACSB
member business schools in Asia/Oceania, Europe, and North America in 2015–2016 [62], and this
number represented 96% of all MBA students enrolled by AACSB member business schools. According
the AACSB, on average, 414 students (in 2014–2015) are enrolled in MBA programs at each business
school [63]. Thus, our 28 programs under analysis can be considered as 4% of the total MBA student
population, if it is assumed that there is one MBA program per institution.
The collected data on MBAs was analyzed using a summative content analysis, where core and
elective courses were assigned to course groups covering specific business administration areas, such
as: general management (including courses on the globalization of business enterprises, management

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learning-by-doing activity options covering CSR issues (one option among three to be chosen by the
student); thus, the totality of these options are excluded from the analysis, and research is focused on
core and elective courses of MBAs.Several MBA providers indicate that MBA students can choose
their electives from the complete list of courses being taught at the higher education institution. In the
framework of this analysis, electives provided by other divisions of the higher education institution
than that which provides the MBA program being analyzed are not taken into account.The total
number of all elective courses is identified and used to define the probability of a student choosing CSR
courses among all the electives, which may potentially be chosen. The Bernoulli binominal probability
distribution (P(X = k) = Pn (k)), which calculates the probability of obtaining the exact number of
chosen events (k) in a chosen number of trials (n), is applied to define the probability of each individual
student choosing CSR courses among their electives. The formula is:
P(X = k) = Pn (k) = Cnk pk qn−k
where Cnk is the Binomial coefficient;p is the probability that the event will occur;and q is the
probability that the event will not occur.
The initial comparative analysis revealed that, among all MBAs in this research sample, students
can choose a different number of electives with the majority choosing from four to six elective courses
on average; however, the probability of choosing CSR courses from among these electives is rather low.
Thus, despite varying real numbers of trials in each MBA, for this specific analysis it is assumed that
there are four trials in each case and the probability is calculated for zero, one, two, and three positive
events, i.e., that among four chosen electives there will be zero, one, two, or three elective CSR courses.
The chosen method of analysis is limited, as the study credit value in terms of hours allocated to
each credit in the MBAs is different.The course value in credits can be different, even if the course
has the title and covers the same subject across different MBAs. Furthermore, we acknowledge that
certain CSR issues and aspects can be integrated horizontally into the content of non-CSR courses;
however, their identification and extraction from these courses appeared to be impossible after reading
the course descriptions. These differences are not taken into account in this research and are known,
but ignored, under this analysis.
Furthermore, we adopted a simplifying assumption and neither analyzed what is regarded as
the definition of CSR by the creators of the syllabi and/or programs,nor what the boundaries of
this concept are. Though it may mean that the MBA programs offered by different universities may
not be homogeneous, we believe that this allowed us to obtain a true picture of the situation in the
sector analyzed.
4. Results
The analysis of leading MBA programs revealed that, among the core courses, those covering

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Table 1. Frequency of specific business administration areas covering core and elective courses.
Code of MBA
Core Courses, Learning by Doing Activities Electives
General
Management
Decision
Analysis Fin/Econ Marketing Operations
Human
Resources/
Organizational
Behavior
LeadershipEntrepreneurshipStrategy
Learning by
Doing:
Project/Games/
Internships *
Core
CSR Electives CSR
Electives
AAU06 5 2 6 1 3 2 1 + 2 136 10
AAU12 2 3 1 1 1 1 + 40 3
AAU13 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 + 1 50 3
AAU16 2 1 3 1 1 + 2 30 2
AAU17 3 1 5 1 2 2 1 + 2 70 2
AAU18 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 + 1 70 1
AAU22 1 2 1 4 3 2 + 1 0 0
AAU23 1 6 1 2 1 2 1 1 + 1 18 0
Average for AAU 1.6 1.1 4.1 0.9 1.9 0.9 0.8 0.3 1.1 + 1.3 51.8 2.6
EUR07 5 1 2 1 2 1 + 1 80 9
EUR11 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 + 1 76 5
EUR14 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 + 1 70 3
EUR15 2 2 5 2 3 2 1 1 + 1 100 3
EUR19 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 + 1 19 1
EUR20 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 + 1 6 1
EUR24 2 4 1 2 1 2 1 + 1 150 0
EUR25 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + 18 0
EUR26 3 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 2 + 1 19 0
EUR27 1 1 7 1 4 2 1 2 + 1 20 0
Average for EUR 1.2 0.9 3.7 1.1 2.0 1.0 1.0 0.7 1.2 + 0.9 55.8 2.2
NAM01 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 + 1 100 17
NAM02 1 1 6 2 1 + 100 14
NAM03 1 2 5 1 2 1 1 1 + 1 93 12
NAM04 1 4 1 4 1 1 + 1 130 12
NAM05 1 1 6 1 2 2 1 1 + 2 73 11
NAM08 1 6 1 1 1 + 1 214 6
NAM09 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 + 135 6
NAM10 1 1 3 2 1 1 + 100 6
NAM21 4 2 7 2 2 1 2 + 1 68 1
NAM28 3 5 2 2 1 + 1 200 0
Average for NAM 1.4 1.0 4.8 1.2 1.6 0.5 0.9 0.1 0.8 + 0.8 121.3 8.5
Average total 1.4 1.0 4.2 1.1 1.8 0.8 0.9 0.4 1.0 + 1.0 78.0 4.6
* “+” means learning by doing, project, game, internship type activities are integrated in a specific MBA program.

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After a regional analysis of MBA programs, it is clear that the core part of the programs is broadly
similar, i.e., of the same importance (in terms of frequency) of courses covering economics/finance,
the main business functions, and other areas, including core CSR courses, except entrepreneurship
courses. The attention paid to the development of entrepreneurial competencies through specific core
courses is comparatively high (frequency—0.7) in MBAs delivered by higher education institutions
in Europe compared to those delivered in Asia/Australia and North America (frequency of 0.3 and
0.1, respectively).The largest number of elective courses, i.e., the most diverse choice, is provided
by higher education institutions in North America (121.3 elective courses on average), while their
counterparts in Asia/Australia and Europe limit their package of electives to around 50. The results
of the analysis revealed that MBAs with the largest number of elective CSR courses are provided by
higher education institutions in North America, where an average of 8.5 courses among all electives
are CSR courses,with the highest such number of elective CSR courses 17 and the lowest zero.
MBAs provided by higher education institutions in Asia/Australia and Europe are relatively modest in
terms of elective CSR courses, accounting for 2.6 and 2.2 elective CSR courses per program, respectively,
on average.It is worth noting that approximately a third of all elective CSR courses provided by
higher education institutions in all regions cover social business issues,i.e.,not-for-profit activity.
Even if the existence of a greater number of elective CSR courses does not mean that students will
choose them, it could be interpreted as higher education institutions, as a provider of MBA courses,
placing greater emphasis on these issues. In that case, the probability of CSR being integrated into the
culture of the higher institution could be expected to be higher, and the probability of the students
developing a more CSR-sensitive mindset could be expected to be higher, too (the relationship stated
by Sobczak et al. [56]).
Bearing in mind the elective course option provided by the higher education institutions presented
above, a binomial analysis is undertaken in order to reveal the probability that a student of a particular
MBA program will choose specific program electives covering CSR issues. The results of the binomial
analysis are presented in Table 1, where P(x) represents the probability of obtaining the exact number
of chosen elective CSR courses (0, 1, 2, or 3) in a chosen number of trials, and is applied to define
the probability of each individual students choosing a specific number of CSR courses from among
the electives.
In the framework of this research, it is assumed that a particular student of any of these MBA
programs may choose four electives. Thus, the question of what is the probability that there will be
zero,one,two, or three elective CSR courses among these four chosen elective courses should be
answered.Based on an average-type MBA program with 78 elective courses and four full elective
CSR courses,the highest probability is that a student would not choose any elective CSR course
(P(0) = 0.77—Table 2). The probability of choosing one course in that case is P(1) = 0.21 and, together
with the probability of choosing zero elective CSR courses, indicates that the probability of choosing
more than one course is very low (P(2) = 0.02,and P(3) = 0.00).There are seven MBAs in which

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Table 2. Probability of choosing elective CSR courses.
Code of MBA P(X)
0 1 2 3
AAU18 0.94 0.05 0.00 0.00
NAM21 0.94 0.06 0.00 0.00
NAM08 0.89 0.10 0.00 0.00
AAU17 0.89 0.10 0.00 0.00
EUR15 0.89 0.11 0.01 0.00
EUR14 0.84 0.15 0.01 0.00
NAM09 0.83 0.16 0.01 0.00
EUR19 0.81 0.18 0.01 0.00
AAU13 0.78 0.20 0.02 0.00
NAM10 0.78 0.20 0.02 0.00
EUR11 0.76 0.21 0.02 0.00
AAU16 0.76 0.22 0.02 0.00
AAU6 0.74 0.23 0.03 0.00
AAU12 0.73 0.24 0.03 0.00
NAM04 0.68 0.28 0.04 0.00
EUR07 0.62 0.31 0.06 0.01
NAM03 0.58 0.34 0.08 0.01
NAM02 0.55 0.36 0.09 0.01
NAM05 0.52 0.37 0.10 0.01
EUR20 0.48 0.39 0.12 0.02
NAM01 0.47 0.39 0.12 0.02
AAU22 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AAU23 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
EUR27 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
EUR24 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
EUR26 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
EUR25 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
NAM28 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Average type 0.77 0.21 0.02 0.00
5. Discussion
A discussion on the integration of CSR into the education of the future leaders of the business
world and decision-making professionals starts from the question:are CSR issues covered and
integrated into leading MBAs? If the answer is yes,what is the scope of that integration? If the
answer is no, what could be the consequences of ignoring CSR issues in MBAs? The research question
is followed by the formulation of two opposite hypotheses at the beginning of the research: one (H1)
which states that CSR is integrated into professional business and administration training, and another
(H2) that CSR is not integrated into professional business and administration training.

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inclusion and coverage of the topics of ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability at their
respective institutions. Their research revealed inter alia that (1) a majority of the schools require that
one or more of these topics be covered in their MBA curriculum and one-third of the schools require
coverage of all three topics as part of the MBA curriculum; and (2) there is a trend toward the inclusion
of sustainability-related courses. However, our results reveal that even with the enforcement of the
inclusion of CSR-related courses by the directors of MBA programs, CSR courses remain marginalized.
Just two MBA programs offer learning by doing activities covering CSR issues; however, one of
them focuses only on social business, i.e., not-for-profit business. Elective CSR courses are nonexistent
in seven MBAs, and in the case of the rest of the MBA programs, the highest probability is that each
individual student will choose zero elective CSR courses.Generally, a mere one quarter of the best
MBA graduates are developing their competencies and mind-set in CSR, i.e., those with one core course
directly covering CSR issues, while the rest of their CSR education remains their responsibility in
terms of elective courses to be chosen. These results would support the statement that CSR integration
into MBAs (i.e., into the education of future business administration professionals), is marginal and
almost entirely nonexistent (statistically it exists but, practically speaking, it is negligible at best), i.e.,
it supports our second hypothesis (H2) that expresses the lack of integration of CSR into professional
business and management training. The results support the statement of Rasche et al. [65], who argue
that the introduction of CSR into management programs was merely an ad hoc reaction to meeting the
needs of society after the global financial crisis of 2008 without any substantial changes to management
programs themselves. Even in the case of MBAs delivered by higher education institutions in North
America, which has the largest number of elective CSR courses, the highest probability is that zero
elective CSR courses will be chosen by an individual student. The content of MBA programs remains
more or less sluggish and continues to reflect its classical core structure and content. The issues of CSR
are treated as emerging, not core, issues, and have little potential to become one of the cornerstones of
MBA programs. It seems that CSR issues are being converted into non-profit business administration
issues and are marginalized or kept apart from for-profit business administration issues. This could
even be interpreted as meaning that not-for-profit activity administrators should take care of CSR,
rather than for-profit business administrators.One may at least hope, if Gillespie’s [51] statement
about the general lack of transformative leaders and the inadequacy of their management training
holds true, that such business administrators will not be excessively successful in developing these
CSR-free organizations.
The discussion on the results of the research reveal that the results confirm our second hypothesis
(H2) that CSR is not integrated into professional business and administration training and does not
support the first hypothesis (H1) that CSR is integrated into professional business and administration
training (integration being marginal at best). However, our interpretation of results and their support
for the hypotheses should be treated with caution.There are some CSR elements integrated into
professional business and management training, but this does not adequately reflect the change in

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Master of Business Administration programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia to offer
direction to the challenge of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into management and
training. Using panel data of 28 full-time MBA programs, our findings show that that the core parts of
MBAs under analysis merely—and mostly indirectly—cover CSR issues through one core course on
business ethics.
Our study contributes to the prior literature in several ways.First,this research adopts an
international approach,analyzing universities located in several continents,i.e.,North America,
Europe,Asia, and Australia.This offers a wider perspective than a single-country or two-region
approach, allowing us to obtain potentially more generalizable results. The relatively better integration
of CSR into professional business and management training in North America compared to Europe,
Asia, and Australia could act as a benchmark for the improvement of CSR training in other regions.
Second, given the growing role of CSR in any aspect of business, as well as non-business activities,
one should expect that the content of MBA programs related to CSR will have to take this growing
trend into account. The results achieved may be a reliable indicator of which areas should be modified
and/or changed. The marginalization of CSR courses, where the greatest possibility is that a single
student will study just one CSR course, which is expected to be focused on general business ethics,
could become a motivator for an in-depth analysis of training programs and the impetus for at least a
vertical—if not horizontal—integration of CSR into professional business and management training.
Leaving CSR training to be chosen by a single student, as our findings reveal, as an elective CSR course
should be considered too opportunistic an approach to professional business and management training.
Our study has its limitations, however, the first of which is that empirical evidence is conditioned
on the availability of information for a specific set of countries (continents): our sample is restricted to
28 MBA programs. In other words, this limitation needs be addressed in future research, increasing
the number of MBA programs, as well as countries. Secondly, the current results and discussion are
based on a content analysis of MBA course titles and short descriptions.We adopted a simplifying
assumption and neither analyzed what is regarded as the definition of CSR by the creators of the syllabi
and/or programs (in fact, it would not even be possible) nor what the boundaries of this concept are.
It is possible that the cases used during the study of specific subjects or other tasks provided for the
students integrate CSR issues and the training of business administration professionals, but are not
explicitly presented in the short course descriptions.Despite the limitations presented, we believe
that the results achieved allowed us to obtain a true picture of the situation in the sector which
was analyzed.
Finally, there is a need for further research on the presented topic.One should point out that
the decision to choose a specific course can be dependent on the suggestions of program managers,
the opinions of professors, student preferences, his/her coursemates’ decisions, and other factors.
Thus, these decisions are not fully independent and accidental. Given these facts, further focus on the
issue of immersion into business administrators’ competencies is needed. We were unable to find any

Sustainability 2018, 10, 754 12 of 14
educators and/or academic staff members. This would be helpful for three reasons: (1) it would allow
researchers to find out what they think in terms of the core and parameters of CSR concept; (2) it would
present visible differences between different regions; and (3) it would allow research hypotheses to be
tested further.
Author Contributions:Jolita Vveinhardt and Włodzimierz Sroka conceived and undertook the literature review.
Egle Stonkute conceived and designed the metrics of the research, and undertook data collection and analysis.
Jolita Vveinhardt and Włodzimierz Sroka wrote the theoretical part of the paper, and Egle Stonkute wrote the
empirical and discussion parts of the paper.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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