Environmental responsibility: millennial values and cultural dimensions
Journal of Global Responsibility
ISSN: 2041-2568
Article publication date: 3 January 2018
Issue publication date: 12 February 2018
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how students in business colleges across three countries, the United States, India and China, interpret environmental sustainability. This study also explores where students from different cultures believe responsibility lies in caring for the environment and how these beliefs represent their cultural and millennial values. The purpose of this study, then, is to investigate millennial business students’ perspectives toward the environment across the three countries holding the largest ecological footprint.
Design/methodology/approach
College of business students from the United States, India and China were surveyed. Student responses regarding environmental sustainability were compared to values of the millennial generation and placement of responsibility compared to national culture dimensions.
Findings
An average of 66.3 per cent of the coded responses reflect the optimism of the generation. Concern for future generations was a frequent theme. Most responses assigned responsibility for environmental sustainability to “all”. Results support the work of Husted (2005) and Park et al. (2007) as well as the expectations of the millennial generation’s values related to environmental sustainability.
Originality/value
The authors connect national cultural research to environmental sustainability. This study explores where students from different cultures believe responsibility lies in caring for the environment and how these beliefs represent their cultural and millennial values. National cultural combined with millennial opinion is an important area of research for understanding the assignment of responsibility related to environmental sustainability.
Keywords
Citation
Hanson-Rasmussen, N.J. and Lauver, K.J. (2018), "Environmental responsibility: millennial values and cultural dimensions", Journal of Global Responsibility, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 6-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGR-06-2017-0039
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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