Relevance and development of the “Business Sustainable Management” competence in the Business Management and Administrat

1. Relevance and development of the “Business Sustainable Management” competence in the Business Management and Administration Degree † J. Tejedor-Núñez*, P. Fernández-Ferrín, M. A. Peña-Cerezo, O. García-Alonso, I. Etxano, J.C. Pérez de Mendiguren-Castresana INTED 2013 7th International Technology, Education and Development Conference Valencia (Spain) – 4th–6th March, 2013 †Research financed within Educational Innovation Project 6400 (UPV / EHU) Corresponding author: jorge.tejedor@ehu.es

2. Summary • Introduction • Comparative analysis: Relevance of the “Business Sustainable Management” (BSM) competence in the Spanish BMA Degrees • Hypothesis approach, Population analyzed and Methodology used • Results obtained • Descriptive analysis • Hypothesis contrast • Conclusions

3. Introduction • At the Business School of Vitoria-Gasteiz (University of the Basque Country – UPV/EHU) we have faced the challenge of designing and developing a new degree: Degree in Business Management and Administration (BMA). • Management of the business social and environmental dimensions, herein identified as Business Sustainable Management (BSM), is one of the competences of the degree. • The objective of this paper: analyze student’s perceptions on the level of relevance and the level of development of the BSM competence in the BMA Degree by comparing: • First, the influence that the design of the new degree has had on these perceptions; • Second, the evolution of those perceptions from a longitudinal point of view, i.e. as the students progress on the course. • This piece of work is an in progress research; it is part of a larger research project looking at educational innovation.

4. Comparative Analysis – BSM competence in Spanish BMA Degrees • Competences which contents can be related to the BSM competence are the following 3, particularly the first two: • “Capacity to develop work ethic dimension (equal opportunities, fundamental rights, and so on)” • “Capacity to know and to understand the social responsibility derived from the managerial actions” • “Capacity to assume responsibility and commitment” • The integration of the BSM competence in the Spanish BMA Degrees is rather scant. • But the BSM competence has been set up as a central aspect when designing and developing the BMA Degree at the Vitoria-Gasteiz Business School (UPV/EHU).

5. Hypothesis approach, Population analyzed and Methodology used • Hypothesis approach: • Main purpose: Check the impact of the introduction of the BMA Degree on the perception of the students about the relevance and development of the BSM competence. • We believe that the existing gap between both variables (relevance and development of the competence) is a fundamental element to measure the divide between them. • Two work hypothesis group: • 1st work hypothesis group: deriving from the introduction of the BMA Degree. • 2nd work hypothesis group: deriving from the progress of the students throughout their study plan. • Methodology: • Distribution of variables has been studied: absence of normality. • Therefore, non-parametric statistical hypothesis test has been used: • Such as: Wilcoxon rank test for two related samples, Mann-Whitney U test for two non-related samples, etc.

6. Hypothesis approach, Population analyzed and Methodology used • Population studied: • Questionnaire: 418 students. BMA Degree at the Business School of Vitoria-Gasteiz (UPV/EHU). Table. Technical records.

7. Results – Descriptive Analysis Table. Descriptive statistics. • A clear gap in favour of the perceived relevance with respect to the level of development obtained. • Clearly lower among students in 2012 compared to the 2011 students. • Clearly lower for the Degree students (0.5) compared to the short-cycle students (1.1).

8. Results – Hypothesis contrast Table. Normal distribution test (K-S test). Note: Kolgomorov-Smirnov Z test and (in brackets) associated significance level. • Absence of normality in the distributions. • Non-parametric test to contrast the hypothesis.

9. Results – Comparative: Relevance vs. Development • The mean contrast tests: • Confirm the differences between the mean levels of perceived relevance and development showed by the descriptive analysis. • Hypothesis contrast concludes that: • Is rejected that the introduction of the BMA Degree increases the degree of perceived relevance associated to the BSM competence. • However, • The training, orientation and coordination actions associated to the new BMA Degree have helped to increase the development of the BSM competence; and • The introduction of the new BMA Degree has helped to reduce the gap existing between the degree of perceived relevance and development.

10. Conclusions • BSM competence in the syllabus of the Spanish BMA Degrees is rather scant. • The BMA Degree offered by the Vitoria-Gasteiz Business School (UPV/EHU) offsets this deficit. • Empirical results: • Level of development: significant increase as perceived by students on new degrees when compared to students on the short-cycles degrees. • Level of relevance: no significant differences between the students on the short-cycle and new degrees. Nevertheless, it increases importantly as the students advance in their specific degree. • The introduction of the new degree has contributed to reducing (approximately by a third) the gap between the perceived relevance and the level of development of the BMS competence.

11. Conclusions • However, those results can be improved taking advantage of the following factors: • The greater commitment of society towards sustainability; • The emphasis on sustainable management of the urban model of Vitoria-Gasteiz (European Green Capital 2012); • The strong commitment of a significant group of lecturers, which has conditioned: • The incorporation of the BSM in the framework of the Degree competences. • The design and implementation of a new minor: “Minor in Business Social Management” • The development of educational innovation and research projects in this area.