This survey, the first of its kind in India, assesses how Management Institutions are responding to the increasing need for training and capacity-building of business managers. The findings of the study are encouraging and indicate fairly high levels of awareness of the global CR agenda across the leading Management Institutions in the country. With CR being embedded in three-fourths of their mission or vision statements, Management Institutions already have the ground prepared for CR implementation. But whereas Management Institutions have linkages with international academic institutions and are even aware of some of the best institutions abroad for CR teaching and research abroad, their own position in the global scheme of things, however, is not very clear. The research reveals that many do not feature in any international Management Institutions ranking, the reasons for which could be many. Interestingly enough, they all seem to set great store by CR and its inclusion as a rating parameter for Management Institutions. Institutions claim to draw support and drive from stakeholders both within and outside their fold for the development of CR teaching and research but admit that there remain factors impeding the progress of the CR agenda. Whereas on the one hand, corporate entities aside from NGOs and the government are fuelling CR in business education, on the other, it seems there is a lack of support from the corporates for the same. As the study suggests, CR education may not be in a nascent stage in India but seems to have more ground to cover. Management Institutions are unanimously positive about the idea of mainstreaming CR across the entire gamut of programmes they offer but have not been able to evolve independent CR programmes (there are only seven institutions in the leadership sample that offer dedicated programmes on CR). Just over half the institutions covered in the sample provide resource support for the study of CR. Knowledge of global standards in environmental, social and management domains probably needs to be improved because half the respondents are not aware of the existence of some of these leading conventions let alone abiding by them. This explains why so few of them (11.1 percent) have any such certification.
The readiness of Management Institutions to take up CR appears encouraging. A substantial majority is actively involved in CR advocacy and public policy already.
The findings of this study may be used in the future as a baseline for tracking CR education trends in Management Institutions. In furtherance of the CR education agenda, it is even recommended that as a follow-up, PiC undertake research to explore if there is a correlation between profitability and social responsibility discharge in corporate houses. Studies that are being conducted abroad are pointing increasingly to the existence of a link between sales and CR practice of companies. Findings show that customers are willing to pay a premium on goods or services purchased if there is a cause linked to it. Business education is driven largely by the job market and if sales figures and profit margins of companies are connected with CR, it is likely to feed CR growth in business education as well.
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