Factors Affect the Social Responsibility among Universities in Saudi

Arabia: The Role of Government Support

MONA ABDULLA AL-SAMHAN

King Saud University,

Riyadh,

SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract: - Research into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focused on business organizations in

developed countries. The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that affect the CSR in public

CSR while GS moderated the effect of TL on CSR. Decision makers are recommended to implement effective

training and TL style. Government support is critical for improving the role of CSR by universities.

Key-Words: Social Responsibility, Transformational Leadership, Government Support, Training,

Individualized Influence Public Universities, Saudi Arabia

Received: July 12, 2022. Revised: August 2, 2022. Accepted: August 25, 2022. Available online: September 15, 2022.

1 Introduction

Universities are the source of knowledge. Countries

and awareness and contributing to the society is

considered as important objectives that increase the

reputation of universities and enhance their

responsibility toward the community [6], [7].

Accordingly, universities are similar to other

institutions aim to enhance their corporate social

responsibility (CSR) to benefit the society. For this

reason, CSR has become one of the critical issue for

all organizations [8]. CSR practices are widely

known and practiced in developed economies while

productivity of private and public sector [10]–[12].

This fits with the mission of universities to develop

knowledgeable graduates who are capable of

producing knowledge and employing it efficiently in

all areas of community activity, and actively

participating in various community institutions [13].

Social responsibility is a concept that includes many

areas that revolve around moral responsibility,

community responsibility, and national

responsibility. In business context, researchers

interaction, in which the spirit of cooperation,

harmony and collectively prevails, and the creation

of positive opportunities to support and praise the

national culture and adhere to its content without

closing or rejecting the product of knowledge

development, and developing the feeling of each

individual that he has an active role within the

organization and the community. This can be done

by implementing effective leadership such as the

transformational leadership (TL) [15]. Additionally,

studies have examined the CSR of educational

institutions. Several studies indicated that there is

limited studies that examined the social

responsibility among organizations in developing

countries. A review of CSR using scientometric

and government support. Leadership is critical for

improving the contribution of a university to the

community. One important type of leadership is the

transformational leadership (TL) [18]. Along with

leadership, training is important to support the

capability of academic staff in the university to

achieve their role in educating the community [19].

In this regard, the government support plays

essential role in enable public and private

institutions to fulfil their roles [20]–[22]. However,

that influence CSR and reporting in those countries,

preferring to rely on theories and hypotheses

developed from studies undertaken in the West,

particularly the US, UK and Australasia [23].

Therefore, this study aims to examine the factors

that affect the CSR among university in Saudi

Arabia. The study aims is to examine the effect of

TL and training on the CSR of public university in

Saudi Arabia. The study aims to examine the

mediating role of training and the moderating role of

2 Literature Review

This section discusses the literature of this paper.

The section discusses the concept of CSR as well as

the conceptual framework.

2.1 CSR in Educational Institutions

Universities as organization are more into providing

the teaching and learning services. The role of CSR

by higher educational institution is still emerging.

Studies indicated that universities are paying less

factors that might lead to effective CSR by

universities. Among the findings that size, status

Several theories that can explain the role of CSR by

organizations. One of the widely used theory is the

stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory argues that

corporations should treat all its stakeholders fairly

and by doing so, can improve their performance

[24] and thereby secure their future. Freeman [25]

stated that if organisations want to be effective, they

need to pay attention to their stakeholders.

students and creating effective graduates can

contribute to the community. In addition, educating

citizens about emerging issues such as outbreak of a

pandemic or general knowledge regarding an issue

is a contribution of the universities toward the

community. This study deploys the stakeholder

theory to explain the CSR activities of a university.

Along with this theory, the TL theory suggests that

leaders will focus on the development of skills and

capabilities of organizational member to develop the

appealing and inspiring to followers. The last

instils pride, gains respect and trust [30]–[32].

examined its effect on CSR. For instance, the effect

Further, in non-for-profit organizations, the TL

H1: TL affects positively the CSR of public

H2: Individualized Consideration affects

positively the CSR of public universities.

sustainability [39]. Training also affected positively

found to be a critical factors for the job satisfaction

Accordingly, this study examines the role of training

H6: Training has a positive effect on CSR of

can play a moderating role. High government

support encourages research and development

effect of TL on CSR. Accordingly, the following is

hypothesized:

H8: Government support moderates the effect of

TL on CSR of public universities.

normality, and multicollinearity. Missing value

analysis resulted in removing seven of the responses

17 responses. This has made the valid responses

and it shows that the data is distributed normally

because the skewness (SK) and kurtosis (KU) is less

than 1. In addition, the table shows that there is no

high correlation between the variables because the

Note: TL: Transformational leadership, IS:

Intellectual stimulation, IC: individualized

consideration, IM: Inspirational motivation, II:

respondents as well as the hypotheses testing of this

study.

4.1 Background of Respondents

A total of 319 respondents have participated and

answered the questionnaire of this study. The

respondents are majority males (81%) working as

academic staff (65%) and have experience in

teaching of more than 5 years (78%). The

respondents have participated at least one time in

Reliability (CR)) which are expected to be larger

than 0.70 for both. In addition, the convergent

validity which assessed using the average variance

extracted (AVE) is supposed to be greater than 0.50

[53], [54]. The first order and second order models

were assessed. As shown in Table 2, all the values

achieved the required level, and this is because

some items with low factor loading from CSR,

government support, and training were removed.

cross loading. In addition, CA and CR are greater than 0.70. the AVE is greater than 0.50.

4.3 Structural Model

Based on the suggestions of [53], the structural

model is assessed by examining the R-square, F-

square, Q-square, and path coefficient. Figure 2

shows the structural model of this study. It shows

the effect of TL on CSR as well as the mediating

government support.

square, the value is greater than zero as shown in

Table 3. Lastly, for the f-square (f2), the acceptable

(Std.), T-value (T), P-value (P), f-square (f2), Q-

square (Q2), and R-square (R2).

The findings in Table 3 shows that the effect of TL

on CSR is positive (B=0.288, P<0.05). Thus, H1 is

supported. For H2, it is rejected because the effect

of IC on CSR is positive, but the p-value is greater

than 0.05. H3, H4, and H5 are supported because

the effect of IS, IM, and II on CSR are positive at p-

value less than 0.05. Accordingly, H3, H4, and H5

are supported. For H6, the effect of training on CSR

supported, and training can explain part of the

relationship between TL and CSR. For the

moderating effect of GS, the findings in Table 3

shows that GS moderated the effect of TL on CSR

at value of B=0.066 and P-value less than 0.05.

Additionally, the findings showed that GS also has a

direct positive significant effect on CSR. Thus, H8

is supported.

business organizations such as universities. The

study combined the stakeholder theory with TL

theory and managed to explain large percentage

(63.1%) of the CSR. In addition, the study

contributed to the literature by examining the

mediating role of training and the moderating role of

GS in the context of higher education in developing

countries. The study also contributed to the

literature by examining the effect of TL and its

dimensions on the CSR in the context of public

universities.

The findings of the study showed that TL,

training, and GS are critical for the CSR. TL

affected positively the CSR, and this indicates that

universities in Saudi Arabia should practice this

type of leadership to improve the level of CSR

among the universities. The most important element

of TL is the intellectual stimulation (IS) followed by

and II are in line with the findings of previous

studies [33]–[37]. The study found that

individualized consideration is not significant, and

this could be due to the fact that number of those

who are under the dean or head of department is

high which makes it difficult to consider the need of

everyone.

Training has a direct and mediating role between

TL and CSR. This indicates that training is a critical

factor for CSR, and it can explain part of the

association between TL and CSR. This finding is in

recommended to enhance the GS because it will

lead to a better CSR by public universities in Saudi

Arabia.

Overall, it is recommended that head of

department, dean, and chancellor of universities to

implement TL style of leadership. It is also

recommended that effective training policy to focus

on developing the skills and capabilities of

academic staff in general and in CSR area in

particular. Further, the GS is critical for improving

6 Conclusion

This study was conducted in Saudi Arabia among

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