The impact of higher education on students' and young managers' perception of companies and CSR: an exploratory analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of higher education on students' and young managers' perception of companies and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on an electronic questionnaire for students and alumni of different institutions of higher education in Nantes (France). The textual analysis software ALCESTE enabled interpretion of the answers to the open‐ended questions. Concerning the closed questions, analyses by simple sort and the cross sort subject to chi2‐tests were used. Findings – The main result of this exploratory study is the impact of the different types of academic institutions on the respondents' perception of companies and their attitude towards CSR concepts and tools. Research limitations/implications – The questionnaire should be submitted to a group of older managers and engineers in order to check whether and to what extent the impact of the academic institution is confirmed after several years of experience as managers. Furthermore, this exploratory research should be complemented by a qualitative approach to explain the link between the corporate vision and educational background. Practical implications – Higher educational institutions have to integrate CSR in their culture, as this culture seems to have an impact on the perception of companies and CSR that is as important as the content of the education. Originality/value – This research has been designed by a French business school and the white collar trade union CFDT‐Cadres.