Interviews and Surveys

The study explores the perceptions of deans and academics associated with integrating sustainability education (SE) in business and accounting schools in Indian universities and management institutions. Using theories including Institutional Theory and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the study uses a mixed methods approach to understand these perceptions towards this approach. The first phase uses semi-structured interviews with business and accounting school deans from north Indian universities and management institutions; the thesis explores the issues and challenges associated with integrating sustainability education (SE) in accounting and business curricula in the Indian higher education sector. A qualitative research approach explores the differences in SE delivery between private and public institutions in India. An analysis of data from interviews with accounting deans from 22 public and 14 private institutions in northern India using an institutional theory perspective revealed that SE integration is nuanced, and market pressures determine the level of SE integration more than regulatory pressures. Public institutions lack the motivation and intent to integrate SE by designing updated curricula relevant to industry and the community. By contrast, market pressures generated by the profit-maximisation model have forced private institutions to integrate SE effectively. The findings emphasise the role of macro-level factors in integrating SE and offer theoretical, managerial and policy implications for improving the integration of SE in public sector universities at the macro and institutional levels. Specifically, the government needs to depoliticise appointments of senior academic leadership, and government funding bodies need to provide dedicated funds to promote SE integration in public institutions. In the second phase, the study examines how the direct and indirect factors of the extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) relate to academics' intentions and actual behaviour towards implementing SE in business and accounting schools in Indian universities and management institutions. A current study used a questionnaire survey to understand the academic perspective of implementing SE in business and accounting schools. The quantitative analysis using an extended TPB model tested direct variables such as attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC), environmental consciousness and ethical consciousness. Indirect variables such as outcome beliefs (OB), outcome evaluation (OE), normative beliefs (NB), motivation to comply (MC), self-belief (SB), perceived external barriers (PEB) determined academic, behavioural intentions (BI) and actual behaviour (AB) towards implementing SE in business and accounting schools in Indian universities and management institutions with faculty members chosen as the target respondents. Furthermore, the study strives to understand and investigate the academic perspectives regarding two additional variables: environmental and ethical consciousness. The data analysis results from the structured equational modelling method (SEM) for the present research study indicated that all five TPB constructs, such as ATT, SN, PBC, environmental consciousness, and ethical consciousness, positively influence academic intentions and actual behaviour. The study contributes to the academic literature in business and accounting education and, more specifically, integrates SE into mainstream education. The study has implications for academics, administrators in higher education institutions, and policymakers. The findings may guide various stakeholders such as India's Universities Grants Commission (UGC), the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), university administrations, government, industry, and others promoting SE in Indian universities. This is the first research study that applied institutional theory to understand the deans' perceptions and extended the TPB model to predict academic intentions and behaviour in integrating SE in developing Asian countries such as India.