Development and validation of a college organisational sustainability scale
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 12 August 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Given that the current sustainability assessment in higher education institutions primarily relies on qualitative methods with relatively limited quantitative tools, the purpose of this study is to design a tool that could be used to comprehensively assess the overall state of higher education institutions’ sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors based the “Model to Assess the Sustainability of Higher Education Institutions” on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework of economic, environmental and social factors, and established its primary dimensions as educational level, research capacity, community outreach, campus operations, campus experience and assessment reports. They designed the College Organisational Sustainability Scale (CO-SS) based on this research model, drawing their inspiration from the qualitative research tool, the Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire, and taking the following validation steps: expert review (n = 10), pilot testing (n = 150) and formal experiments (n = 1108). These steps were taken to optimise the scale items, test the model’s validity and assess its reliability.
Findings
After undergoing rigorous scientific validation, CO-SS was unequivocally confirmed as an effective and reliable tool, demonstrating its accurate reflection of the level of sustainability in higher education institutions.
Originality/value
The authors took an industry-specific approach by relying on the TBL and the Sustainability Assessment Questionnaire to construct and validate the CO-SS. Furthermore, the CO-SS has the potential to evolve into a self-assessment tool for higher education institutions, and a reliable foundation for data-driven decision-making in the realm of organisational sustainability at universities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research team first and foremost extends its sincere gratitude to Binzhou Polytechnic, Dhurakij Pundit University, and Jiangsu College of Safety Technology for providing the academic platforms essential for this study. Secondly, we wish to thank all participants for their objective and unbiased data contributions. Lastly, our appreciation goes to the reviewers and staff whose efforts have significantly enhanced the quality of this paper and ensured its successful publication.
Disclosure statement:The author reported no potential conflict of interest.
Geolocation information:The sample data collected in this study all originate from China.
Citation
Zhang, G., Chen, P. and Xu, S. (2024), "Development and validation of a college organisational sustainability scale", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-10-2023-0493
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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