This chapter is based on the premise that the stakeholder groups involved in sustainability transformation at higher education institutions (HEIs) are not necessarily homogeneous. This applies not only to the meso level where different categories of HEI stakeholders, such as students, faculty, staff, companies, and community partners, are identified, but also at the micro level. Within each of these stakeholder groups, heterogeneity is to be expected, for instance, in terms of sustainability commitment, values, interests, or socio-demographic characteristics. By identifying stakeholder segments or subsegments, HEIs can develop targeted engagement strategies that are tailored to the specific needs and expectations of each group. Such an approach can enhance the effectiveness of institutional measures aimed at fostering sustainability commitment and ultimately contributing to the accomplishment of sustainability goals at the societal or planetary (macro) level. Drawing on a survey of business students in two countries with differing cultural orientations, this chapter presents various approaches for forming student subsegments based on their intentions to engage in sustainability. It demonstrates how mapping various descriptive factors such as students’ sustainability expectations, sustainability interests, and value orientations can inform the development of targeted engagement strategies to support HEIs’ sustainability transformation. These segmentation strategies are grounded in the SHIFT framework, a widely recognized model in sustainability marketing. This framework, an acronym for Social influence (S), Habit formation (H), Individual self (I), Feelings and cognition (F), and Tangibility (T), suggests that individuals are more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors when the messaging or contextual factors incorporate the five elements of the framework.

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Segmenting Stakeholders for Higher Education Institutions’ Sustainability Transformations

  • Guido Grunwald,
  • Ali Kara,
  • Paul Shrivastava

摘要

This chapter is based on the premise that the stakeholder groups involved in sustainability transformation at higher education institutions (HEIs) are not necessarily homogeneous. This applies not only to the meso level where different categories of HEI stakeholders, such as students, faculty, staff, companies, and community partners, are identified, but also at the micro level. Within each of these stakeholder groups, heterogeneity is to be expected, for instance, in terms of sustainability commitment, values, interests, or socio-demographic characteristics. By identifying stakeholder segments or subsegments, HEIs can develop targeted engagement strategies that are tailored to the specific needs and expectations of each group. Such an approach can enhance the effectiveness of institutional measures aimed at fostering sustainability commitment and ultimately contributing to the accomplishment of sustainability goals at the societal or planetary (macro) level. Drawing on a survey of business students in two countries with differing cultural orientations, this chapter presents various approaches for forming student subsegments based on their intentions to engage in sustainability. It demonstrates how mapping various descriptive factors such as students’ sustainability expectations, sustainability interests, and value orientations can inform the development of targeted engagement strategies to support HEIs’ sustainability transformation. These segmentation strategies are grounded in the SHIFT framework, a widely recognized model in sustainability marketing. This framework, an acronym for Social influence (S), Habit formation (H), Individual self (I), Feelings and cognition (F), and Tangibility (T), suggests that individuals are more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors when the messaging or contextual factors incorporate the five elements of the framework.