Uncovering the Impact of Developing a Sustainability Mindset on Business and Economics Students’ Motivation to Learn About the Sustainable Development Goals

This study aims to expand our understanding of the transformative outcomes of developing a sustainability mindset among business and economics students. Specifically, we aim to answer two research questions: (1) To what extent do business and economics students possess a sustainability mindset?, and (2) Does developing a sustainability mindset affect economics and business students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learn about the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)?. Empirically, we use a sample consisting of 283 business and economics students of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Almería (Spain) in the course 2022/2023. Our findings reveal that the level of sustainability mindset developed by business and economics students is still moderate. In addition, our results show evidence on how the level of development of a sustainability mindset affects business and economics students’ motivation to learn about the SDGs. Specifically, we find that systems thinking, and spiritual and emotional intelligence subdimensions of the sustainability mindset foster intrinsic motivation to learn about the SDGs, while ecological worldview, systems thinking, and spiritual intelligence promote extrinsic motivation for SDGs learning. Therefore, our results suggest the importance of integrating sustainability transformative learning methodologies that help develop a sustainability mindset as a means to foster students’ personal and professional motivations to learn and address SDGs.