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1. Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have become popular in various sectors and enable organizations to enhance competitive advantage and reputation and obtain sustainability (Javed et al., 2020). In terms of the university context, CSR has transformed into university social responsibility (USR) and is not a requirement compared to the compliance of corporate enterprises. However, due to the positive impact of CSR on various organizational performances, in particular the influence on the image and reputation of organizations (Kouatli, 2019a; Rodrigues de Sousa et al., 2021). USR has been used as an excellent tool for universities to obtain sustainability (Ahmad et al., 2020; Geryk, 2020). In fact, with the development of CSR theory literature and increasing legal barriers related to social and environmental causes, CSR disclosure is almost considered a compulsory responsibility or at least a soft condition, which helps businesses to reach consumers as well (Huang et al., 2019).
Evidence from numerous previous empirical studies sheds light on the role of CSR activities in enhancing financial performance (Javed et al., 2020). However, unlike profit-oriented organizations, higher educational institutions (HEIs) carry out social responsibility by their willingness to benefit the community. Furthermore, in the current globalization processes context, universities have been encouraged to pay more attention to different aspects of a university's sustainability topic (Geryk, 2020). Regarding the corporate entity, customer issues are considered, as are the stakeholders interests, to determine which has the most significant impact on the business blueprint setup of corporations (Huang et al., 2019). Meanwhile, students have the greatest influence on the sustainability of universities; Dagiliute et al. (2018) stated that students would have a better impact in terms of attitude and assessment of a HEIs' social responsibility to the environment (Dagiliūtė et al., 2018). Today the responsibility of modern universities is not limited merely to education and research disciplines, but also must make a contribution to the environment as well as to local communities. The integration of social responsibility content into educational programs can create an environment for superior performance based on promoting the image of universities (Vázquez et al., 2014).
Previous research findings illustrated the differences between how to apply CSR in corporate enterprises vs universities to achieve sustainability. Nevertheless, it...