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Accounting
Investigating the environmental university
behavior of business and students

accounting university students

Grigorios Kyriakopoulos 819
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of
Athens, Zografou, Greece, and Received 13 November 2019
Revised 24 February 2020
17 April 2020
Stamatios Ntanos and Sofia Asonitou 22 April 2020
Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Social Accepted 22 April 2020

Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the underlying dimensions of environmental behavior
(EB) and examine how environmental education (EE) and ecological sensitivity (ES) motivate the EB of
Business Administration and Accounting students (BAS).
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted and a sample of 190 BAS was
randomly selected from the departments of Business Administration and Accounting and Finance at the
University of West Attica (UNIWA), Greece.
Findings – The analysis was structured upon four underlying components under the EB of the sample:
information seeking, recycling, green consuming and active participation. A positive relationship between EB
and EE was revealed, while EB and ES were moderately interrelated. An important result was the hesitation
of students to convert EE and ES to active participation and green consuming behavior, thus reaffirming
similar results from other studies.
Research limitations/implications – The findings should be further developed using larger samples
among other higher education institutions. Future research could be extended to students who reside at sub-
urban or rural regions or students who are educated upon diverse academic disciplines. The basket of
questions can be enriched with issues of immediate concern among future business executives such as the
“ethical” role of accountants or the value creation for local societies.
Originality/value – The significance of this study lies on associating students’ EB with formal EE with
personality characteristics such as ES. Educational policy-makers can enrich the curricula of BAS with
environmentally oriented courses and teaching methods that can increase the active participation of students.
Keywords Higher education, Sustainability, Environmental behavior, Business and accounting stu-
dents, Ecological sensitivity, New ecological paradigm (NEP) scale
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Nowadays, to produce useful knowledge and technical skills, higher education (HE) is
mostly determined by corporate and market demands. Unavoidably, knowledge is
“practical” and “rational” only if it translates into financial success at the individual level, as
well as the economic growth and profit maximization at the national dimension of the
system (Zuk and Zuk, 2018). However, severe global environmental problems led United International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education
Nations to the creation of 17 sustainable development goals, which are starting to be Vol. 21 No. 4, 2020
pp. 819-839
adopted into the individual firms’ strategies in the context of the ethical responsibility of © Emerald Publishing Limited
1467-6370
business (United Nations, 2019). In a similar managerial context, Law et al. (2017) denoted DOI 10.1108/IJSHE-11-2019-0338
IJSHE that employees begin to establish a connection to the natural environment with essential
21,4 knowledge and information of specific environmental issues when they first receive training
experience about nature through nature-based environmental education (EE) and awareness
training.
From an educational viewpoint, children can cope with the lack of experience of the
natural world through EE (White et al., 2018). Note that there is a high demand in
820 universities to promote and enhance the undergraduates’ ES by strengthening the
knowledge and practices of green finance and environmental protection (Zhu et al., 2017).
Therefore, the curriculum of HE attracts considerable attention because of its contribution to
the EB of future employees and firms’ leaders.
The problem setting of this study originates from the fact of continuing inability to
sufficiently adapt social and economic systems to the ecological context (Ferrer-Balas et al.,
2010). Although universities may not be the cause of many of current problems, one could
argue that they contribute to them by disseminating and re-producing dominant knowledge
and education. Moreover, note that universities are the places where the future leaders,
entrepreneurs, decision-makers and scholars are being prepared (Ferrer-Balas et al., 2010).
Theoretical–empirical research that considers the incorporation of environmental
management and ecological issues in the set of main business school activities within
university teaching is a relatively recent topic. Business schools must assume a position of
leadership in this field with significant changes in how administrators and Business
Administration and Accounting students (BAS) are currently educated by changing
courses, as well as the Business School as a whole (Jabbour et al., 2013).
In the Greek HE context, there is no similar research to investigate the EB of
undergraduate BAA students. Considering that these students will be the future employees
and managers responsible for taking “environmentally sensitive decisions” within their
firms, it becomes imperative to investigate their current EB. Other disciplines in the
business curriculum to enhance EB, in addition to EE, are grounded on corporate social
responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental accounting (SEA), which can contribute
to a holistic EE and ethical professional development (Gray et al., 1994; Coulson and
Thomson, 2006; Asonitou and Hassall, 2019). To the best of authors’ knowledge, despite the
sporadic inclusion of CSR in the curriculum of HEIs, SEA education and EE are not included
in any accounting and business curriculum in Greek HEIs, thus leaving a gap to students’
environmental training. To provide an open, integrated and holistic business and
accounting curriculum in the Greek HEIs, time constraints and systems’ structure are
included in the barriers (Asonitou, 2015).
This paper aims to explore the underlying dimensions of EB and examine how EE and
ES motivate EB using a sample of BAS from the University of West Attica (UNIWA),
Greece. The structure of the paper is as follows. The background of EE, ES and EB are
discussed in Section 2. Section 3 provides information on the background of the study.
Section 4 develops the methodological approach while the research outcomes are deployed
in Section 5. Section 6 presents the discussion while the conclusions and future research
orientations are outlined in Section 7.

2. Literature review
2.1 Environmental education
EE is defined as follows:
a learning process in which individuals gain awareness of their environment, acquire knowledge,
skills, values and experiences, which will subsequently enable them to act – individually and
collectively – to solve environmental problems (UNESCO-UNEP, 1978; White et al., 2018, p. 2).
EE has been a part of the curriculum in Western educational systems for decades; however, Accounting
there seems to be a dominant social paradigm that tends to be anthropocentric or egocentric. university
Countries and governments are generally perceived to value consumerism, which is central
to their economic systems. However, consumerist societies, underpinned by egocentric
students
values, are not sustainable (Blackley and Sheffield (2016)).
Most students strongly agree that science and technology are essential for society;
however, their opinions differ about science and technology as problem-solvers for the
environment. Under the view that most environmental issues (and their solutions) are
821
science-related, there is clearly a role for school science education in such an engagement.
However, EE is not merely a matter for science educators. Such an education constitutes a
challenge to a conventional subject-based curriculum and pedagogy (Gough, 2008). EE is not
equally effective in preparing citizens for future environmental predicaments. Emiru and
Waktola (2018) stressed out that:

substantial different perceptions are unveiled between countries, gender, religiosity
and exposure to natural parks, museums and documentaries; and

the readiness of the younger generation to tackle the environmental challenges is
limited because of failure to develop and implement a practical organizational
framework upon climate policies and EE.

Addressing those barriers is essential within the HEIs’ academic settings (Jabbour et al.,
2013).
HEIs are engaging in efforts to contribute to sustainable development by recognizing
that they not only educate future business leaders, decision-makers and intellectuals, but
that they, themselves, should be learning organizations to practice sustainability in their
activities such as education, research, outreach and campus facilities management (Ferrer-
Balas et al., 2010). In general, HEIs obligations to society include improvements in the
planet’s environmental quality and should be accompanied by the greening of universities’
main activities, teaching, research, outreach services for society and their strategic and
operations management (Jabbour et al., 2013). Primarily, business schools’ commitment to
the environment should occur through their academic activities and in how the business
school can itself be an organization that generates less environmental impacts and operates
in a greener manner (Jabbour et al., 2013). Business schools can include environmental
management in their administrative actions – planning, organizing, directing and
controlling – through:

the direct adoption of environmental management initiatives, with or without a
formal environmental management system (commonly attained) by practices of
reuse, recycling and reducing consumption of inputs; and

the awareness of employees, teachers and BAS about the possibilities and
challenges of an environmentally proactive business school (Jabbour, 2010; Jabbour
et al., 2013).

Another vital aspect of environmental consideration of EE is related to strengthen the ethics

in education. Business is now perceived by the public as “ethically challenged” because of
ethical misconduct because business leaders responsible for these scandals are commonly
graduates of prestigious business programs, indicating that many of the most highly
regarded business schools have failed to instil ethics and social responsibility to their
graduates. Therefore, management scholars advocate that the accrediting bodies,
professional organizations and business schools’ teaching management courses need to
IJSHE rethink how business ethics can experience an immediate upgrade to influence future
21,4 business, suggesting ways to make teaching business ethics more effective. However,
meaningful changes of business ethics education could also face disappointing prospects
(Floyd et al., 2013).
Strengthening of EE enables individuals and communities to reflect on ways of
interpreting and engaging with the environment. Joint consideration of environmental,
822 social, cultural and economic systems, as well as their interdependence is required to enact
more sustainable patterns of living (Blackley and Sheffield, 2016). Thus, the research focus
on business schools is justifiable because it is an increasingly crucial topical subject and
because such schools are being criticized for not being appropriately sensitized regarding
the crises of the current society.

2.2 Ecological sensitivity

The interpretation of ecological sensitivity (ES) is not an easy task. Ecology is valued as a
science with competing paradigms, provisional theories, incommensurable worldviews and
extensive theoretical and methodological debates (Korfiatis, 2005). According to Kukkonen
et al. (2018), sensitivity towards nature is the basis for the enjoyment of nature. Moreover,
the enjoyment of nature is directly and positively related to the intention of supporting pro-
environmental activity, thus supporting sustainability.
It seems essential at this stage of increasing global environmental problems to be able to
balance between ecological appreciation and economic development. In the last two decades,
the conceptualization of ES under systemic socio-political environments has been of vivid
research interest. Under this context, community receptivity is a concept that associates the
physical and the social environment with the community readiness to enhance the
participation of educated persons, especially in developed economies (Bricout and Gray,
2006). Note that by providing explicit connections and skills in environmental programs –
through engaging students in environmental scientific investigations that stem from their
issues and questions – can increase students’ engagement, sensitivity and self-efficacy of
environmental issues (Hashimoto-Martell et al., 2012).
The methodological appreciation of ES was fully determined at the study of Dunlap et al.
(2000) by updating a scale that was used to estimate ES, known as the NEP Scale. The
authors denoted the appropriate selection and treatment of a new set of items, designed to
measure endorsement of an ecological worldview, thus constituting the “New Ecological
Paradigm Scale” (Dunlap et al., 2000).
Note that those managers who are graduates of business schools lacking environmental
management education may lack knowledge, increase distrust and lead to confusion and
doubt concerning these beneficial “win-win” projects (Jabbour et al., 2013). Managers with
low levels of knowledge about green issues tend to lack a commitment to environmental
management initiatives and do not make favorable decisions regarding environmental
management issues. This process may result in frustration, organizational inefficiency and
rework for proponents of green projects and improvements (Jabbour et al., 2013). However,
the main barriers to the creation, diffusion and adoption of sustainability principles in
universities reside to the facts that

“sustainability” is in itself an abstract concept, lacking relationship with the
academic routine;

universities do not engage sustainability skilled staff and experts to suitably deal
with the issue of “sustainability”;

it is possible that universities have not devoted financial resources in sustainability Accounting
issues; and university

“sustainability” is an issue studied by environmentalists, with no scientific value students
within classical areas of expertise (Jabbour, 2010).

2.3 Environmental behavior of business students 823

As people are in continuous interaction with their environment, nearly all human behavior
could be called environmental behavior (EB). This term would include all activities
regardless of the fact how insignificant their impact on the environment is. In a period where
the society registers changes of the environment, ecosystems, biosphere and climate in
connection with human activity, the attention of professionals is focused on such EB that is
conceptualized under the usage of energy, raw materials, waste production and pollution.
Therefore, the entities of environmental and pro-EB are denominated as follows:
Environmental behavior therefore is [. . .] such a behavior which has a significant impact on the
environment [. . .]. Environmental behavior of an individual may be unintentional and not
reflected; in such case, the person does not realize the impact of his/her behavior (Krajhanzl, 2010,
p. 252).

Pro-environmental behavior is such behavior which is generally (or according to the knowledge of
environmental science) judged in the context of the considered society as a protective way of
environmental behavior or a tribute to the healthy environment (Krajhanzl, 2010, p. 252).
Kukkonen et al. (2018) denoted that ecological knowledge is leading to global concerns;
therefore, it should be promoted through scientific education. Students are a significant
entity in sustainability because they are major consumers of resources including paper,
water and energy with severe repercussions for university budgets and environment. In the
study of Thondhlana and Hlatshwayo (2018) for university students, a high level of
heterogeneity in reported pro-EB, attributed to a suite of internal and external factors.
Primarily, internal factors seemed to constrain students from acting pro-environmentally.
The authors reported that personal attributes such as negligence, discomfort and preference
were barriers to pro-EB. Furthermore, the respondents considered the lack of knowledge as
a significant barrier to such behavior. Thus, universities can encourage students towards
the sustainability concept by focusing on the campus settings and using situational strength
sources (Meyer et al., 2010) such as recycle bins, use of solar panels or wind turbines, energy-
saving devices and conferences on energy and the environment (Thondhlana and
Hlatshwayo, 2018).
In relevant studies, it is implied that environmental knowledge provided through formal
education by itself cannot directly lead to change in EB (Janmaimool and Khajohnmanee,
2019). In terms of “active participation,” situational factors beyond the control of
participants were cited as barriers to pro-environmental actions (Mtutu and Thondhlana,
2016). Actually, the “active participation” supports educational makers to improvise and
incorporate environmental practices into the habits of the students by aligning their goals
and university dimensions, including curriculum, campus operations, research and outreach
activities. The aim is the achievement of an essential contribution in establishing a
sustained green culture by offering university paradigms (Chakraborty et al., 2017).
Bozoglu et al. (2016) researched the awareness, the attitudes and the EB of HE students in
Turkey. The socio-demographic and economic variables tested in the study included gender,
age, parental education, residence and family income. Household size, university and other
IJSHE institutions as primary information sources and membership to environmental clubs or
21,4 organization had no statistical influence on the environmental attitude. The differences
between the environmental attitudes and behaviors of students in different faculties were
investigated by Muderrisoglu and Altanlar (2011). The authors found that, although the
students of the Faculty of Forestry had the highest number of environmental courses, this
had “no effect on their environmental attitude and behaviour on graduation time.” Moreover,
824 male students’ environmental awareness was unusually low compared to that of females.
The study concluded that “environmental awareness of the students was not enough to put
this awareness into practice in their daily life” (Bozoglu et al., 2016).
According to the previous literature, while knowledge, environmental attitudes,
environmental awareness and EB are associated (Kukkonen et al., 2018), they are not
predictors of behaviors that are socially normed. In a theoretical context, the process of
behavioral change includes covert and overt activities that people need to apply, or be
engaged in, to move through several stages, from ignorance to involvement (Bennett, 1975;
Velicer et al., 1998). Those stages are summarized as follows:

Precontemplation: At this stage, people just do not yet see themselves as having a
problem.

Contemplation: At this stage, they are more aware of the personal consequences and
are able to think about the problem.

Preparation/Determination: At this stage, people start to make a (lifestyle) change
and are trying to gather information.

Action/Willpower/Implementation: At this stage, people are determined to change
their behavior and they are actively involved in taking steps to change their
attitude.

Maintenance: At this stage, the main challenge is not to be tempted in returning to
indifference (Bennett, 1975; Velicer et al., 1998).

3. Background information
In the Greek formal educational system, the EE concept was introduced into the official
teaching curricula in 1990 (Law 1892/31–7-90) for primary and secondary education schools.
Despite the legal intervention, the application of EE programs at schools is not considered to
be satisfactory regarding their content and effectiveness because it is mainly based on the
initiatives and the personal efforts of the educators who do not always have the necessary
administrative support. The content of the EE programs often comprises fragmented
knowledge on environmental issues or it is focused on aesthetic or civilization issues
(Sklavani and Sakelari, 2002). Other barriers to EE effectiveness are the encyclopaedic
character and the lack of action and participation of pupils. EE programs constitute an
activity outside the official curriculum and therefore are considered less significant
pedagogical factors that are occasionally replaced by other activities (Sklavani and Sakelari,
2002).
The University of West Attica (UNIWA) was created by the merging of two former
Technological Educational Institutions (TEI of Athens and Piraeus University of Applied
Sciences), according to the National Law 4521, in March 2018. In 2019, UNIWA embraced
the National School of Public Health and became the third-largest HEI in Greece. The
university covers many disciplines such as Public Health, Management, Economics and
Social Sciences, Food Sciences, Health and Welfare Sciences, Applied Arts and Culture and
Engineering. UNIWA operates on three campuses: one campus is located in Central Athens,
and the other two are located in the Western suburbs. The School of Administrative, Accounting
Economic and Social Science comprises six departments, including the Department of university
Business Administration and the Department of Accounting and Financial Economics from
which the students for this research were selected. The participants of this study come from
students
the campus of Ancient Olive Grove, situated in the area of ancient Lyceum of Plato
philosopher. Within the curriculum of the two participating departments in this study, the
following courses are indirectly related to EE. For the Business Administration students,
during the seventh semester of their studies, the course of Business Ethics is a mandatory 825
course and that of corporate social responsibility is an optional course. For the Accounting
and Financial Economics students, both Business ethics and Corporate Governance are
optional courses in the eighth semester. To the best of authors’ knowledge, there are no
specific EE courses in any Business or Accounting department in Greek Universities.
Furthermore, the authors of this study are not aware of any research undertaken in Greek
HEIs to explore the EB and its relationship with the EE. However, in a research on the
awareness on renewable energy systems (RES) of Greek university students and staff,
results confirmed that there is a demand for more environmental information on the
curricula; however, the main perceived obstacles for rapid RES expansion were those of
public indifference and lack of information (Ntanos et al., 2016).
The major challenge at business schools is to incorporate environmental management in
their sustainability system (Jabbour et al., 2013). One could notice a gap in UNIWA own
environmental management. However, this is rapidly changing through a set of specific
projects. The first project concerns the installation of big recycling baskets in a central
outdoor spot of the campus, only a month ago. This designates that UNIWA has not so far
devoted financial resources to invest in sustainability issues and possibly this has been an
additional barrier to the creation, diffusion and adoption of sustainability principles in the
university that would strengthen students’ EB (Jabbour, 2010). The second project that
deserves mentioning is the treatment of the surrounding space of UNIWA buildings, which
is full of olive oil trees. Until now, the olive fruits were not collected but left to rot in the
ground. According to a new initiative, the harvesting of the olives would be assigned to a
rehabilitation organization of young people who can use the profits to support their
organization. A third action is the use of an electric bus among the three campuses with zero
gas pollution. These three projects constitute an example of the “environmental
management,” which may presumably reinforce the EB of students through the active and
practical application of the environmental problem–resolution approach, acting as a
paradigm at their immediate social context (Jabbour, 2010; Chakraborty et al., 2017).

4. Methodology
This study aims to explore the ecological appreciation of BAS in a Greek business school.
Specifically, the study intends to explore whether EB is affected by EE and ES. For this
reason, two research hypotheses are formulated:

HA. How is EB related to EE for the respondents of BAA departments?

HB. How is EB related to ES for the respondents of BAA departments?

4.1 Sample and data collection

Data collection was performed by administering a questionnaire during the second semester
of 2019 to a sample of students coming from the departments of Business Administration
and Accounting and Finance at the University of West Attica, Greece. The target population
IJSHE (N) of this study is the total number of university students in the Departments of Business
21,4 Administration and Accounting and Finance. According to the students’ records, the
population of registered students is N = 2000. Simple random sampling was used to obtain a
representative sample out of the target population. Concerning sample size estimation (n),
the authors used equation (1) provided by Eng (2003), which is appropriate for descriptive
studies, where the main objective is the description of one or more characteristics of a
826 specific sample:

4 : s2 : ðZcritÞ2
n¼ (1)
D2

where s is the standard deviation, Zcrit is the critical value according to authors’ selected
level of confidence and D is the width of the confidence interval of the mean. According to
authors’ pilot study, using a sample of 30 students, the authors calculated the mean and
standard deviation for all the variables expressed in a five-point rating scale. The variable
with the highest standard deviation was a question concerning the preference of public
transport over private car use with s = 1.51. By deciding to use the 95% confidence level and
accepting a width of D = 0.5 for the confidence interval of the mean, the appropriate sample
size was calculated according to equation (2):

4 : ð1:51Þ2 : ð1:96Þ2
n¼ ¼ 140 (2)
0:512

The authors then requested from the Department administration services to provide them
with the email list of all the registered students, and the authors numbered the emails
starting from 1 to 2,000. By using the RANDBETWEEN function in MS Excel, the authors
randomly picked up 400 numbers that corresponded to students’ emails, and then the
authors forwarded the questionnaire via email to students and asked them to return it to
authors in a completed form. The authors received 190 completed questionnaires, i.e. a
response rate of 47.5%, exceeding authors’ minimum calculated sample size.

4.2 Measures and survey instrument design

The questionnaire consisted of four sections regarding EB (section A), EE (section B), ES
(section C) and the Demographics (section D). Concerning content validity, all the questions
stem from the following relevant literature:
Questions regarding students’ EB were adopted from relevant reviewed studies about
university students’ attitudes and behavior towards the environment (Muderrisoglu and
Altanlar, 2011; Bozoglu et al., 2016). Questions regarding EE were adapted to the specific
sampling population, being based on the following works of Gough and Sharpley (2005),
Hassan and Ismail (2011), Zhu et al. (2017) and White et al. (2018). Questions regarding ES
included the 15 items of the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale (Dunlap et al., 2000).
The questions on all three sections were measured in a 1 to 5 rating scale anchored at 1
(strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree). All three sections comprise 15 questions each.
Before the distribution, the questionnaire was given to the University Research Ethics
Committee, which provided authors with the necessary permission to conduct the survey.
The face validity of the research instrument was performed through a pilot study using a
sample of 30 students to ensure that the questions were comprehensive and complete. The
student’s comments were considered and appropriate practices were followed (Krosnick and
Presser, 2010), which are listed below:

All questions concern variables that are directly related to the central purpose of the Accounting
research. university

All questions are closed type to ensure the uniformity of the data collected. students

Negative content questions are avoided or paraphrased to reduce the risk of
misunderstanding the question or confusing respondents.

After proper amendments, the instrument was distributed to the final student
sample. 827
The questionnaires’ reliability was examined by applying the Alpha Cronbach Index in all
three sections of the questionnaire. The sections on EB and EE resulted in a high alpha of
0.868 and 0.804 respectively, meaning that the variables are measuring the same dimension.
The section about ES (NEP scale) had a lower though acceptable reliability of 0.680. This
was expected because, in similar research concerning the consistency of NEP scale in 14
different countries, the alpha coefficient varied between 0.47 and 0.81 while the mean
reliability of the scale was 0.70 (Schultz and Zelezny, 1999). Furthermore, a value of 0.60 can
be accepted in social research studies (Hair et al., 2006).

4.3 Data analysis method

The authors performed factor analysis in the sections of EB and EE to identify the
underlying structures. They also calculated the ES score by following the method of Dunlap
et al. (2000). The new quantitative variables that were calculated by the factor analysis
procedure were included in the hypothesis’s tests under one-way ANOVA and Pearson’s
correlation coefficient. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v17 and Microsoft
Excel.

5. Results
5.1 Sample profile
The average age of the respondents lies between 21 and 23 years, while around 78% of them
had their permanent residence in an urban area. In around 70% of the respondents, the
monthly household income was lower than 1500 euros. Most of the respondents (60%) were
registered in the Department of Business Administration, while the others were in the
Department of Accounting and Finance.

5.2 Environmentally responsible behavior (questionnaire section A)

Most of the respondents recycle paper and aluminum (60%) and sort their wastes to
recyclable and non-recyclable material (50%). A proportion of 43% limits car use by
preferring public transportation and 38% of them are disseminating information about
environmental issues. However, 45% do not use ecological detergents and 53% do not read
the product label nor change a brand because of environmental concerns. Moreover, 70% do
not donate money to environmental organizations or participate in municipal programs.
For accessing the main dimensions that constitute the concept of EB, the authors
performed factor analysis, on questionnaire section A concerning the EB of the respondents.
The KMO measured at 0.843, and the Bartlett test was statistically significant at the 95%
level. The analysis returned four factors, explaining 68% of the total variance, a result
which is considered high, especially in social sciences, according to Hair et al. (2006). The
final rotated factor matrix is presented below (Table 1).
According to the nature of the assigned questions to each of the factors, the main factors
behind the ecological behavior of the respondents are described as follows:
IJSHE Factors
21,4 Questions 1 2 3 4

1. Do you read publications focusing on environmental issues? 0.832

2. Are you talking to others about environmental issues? 0.809
3. Are you trying to get information on what you can do to help solve
environmental issues? 0.730
828 4. Are you watching TV programs about environmental problems? 0.687
5. Do you recycle papers and newspapers? 0.916
6. Do you recycle glass bottles or jars or aluminum containers? 0.862
7. Sort your waste to separate non-recyclable from recyclable
materials? 0.860
8. Do you choose to change a product brand because of your
environmental concern? 0.833
9. Do you use ecological detergents? 0.786
10. Do you read labels on products to see if their content is safe for the
environment? 0.780
11. Do you stop buying from a company because you believe it is
burdening the environment? 0.585
12. Do you participate in municipal/community initiatives to clean or
improve the environment? 0.799
13. Do you report of environmental crimes or crimes on animals to the
Table 1.
competent authorities? 0.738
Factor analysis of the 14. Do you donate money or subscribe to organizations protecting the
EB section environment? 0.687

Factor 1: Active Information Seeking (items 1,2,3 and 4),

Factor 2: Recycling (items 5,6 and 7),

Factor 3: Green Consuming (items 8,9,10 and 11),

Factor 4: Active Participation (items 12,13 and 14).

The data above indicated that the first factor of “Active Information seeking” included four
questions that are concentrated on students’ information collection and information
dissemination concerning environmental issues. It can also be stressed out that most
respondents were in favor of Active Information seeking.
The second factor of “Recycling” included three questions representing the recycling
behavior of the respondents. Most of them were active in recycling as can be seen from the
positive answers.
The third factor was “Green Consuming,” and it depicted the buying behavior towards
environmental products. This factor included four questions. Upon the answers given at
those specific questions, it is noteworthy that most of the respondents are not active towards
“Green Consuming” because most of them were not willing to change a brand because of
environmental concerns and they did not read the labels of the products nor used ecological
detergents.
Finally, the fourth factor was “Active Participation,” and it included three questions
about participation in environmental initiatives. The answers to those questions revealed a
low level of active involvement in environmental actions.
The aforementioned four factors that were estimated by the analysis were considered as
the variables of the analysis conducted.
5.3 Environmental education (questionnaire section B) Accounting
In a question concerning the self-reported level of EE that the respondents have received university
through their formal education up to now, most of the respondents (53% of Accounting and
finance and 43% of Business Administration) placed themselves in the “moderate EE” class.
students
By looking at Figure 1, the authors notice that the respondents of the Accounting and
Finance department self-reported to have a higher EE level than the students of Business
Administration.
Most of the respondents (82 %) considered the integration of more environmental 829
oriented courses to be highly or extremely important to them. The students of Business
Administration had a stronger desire to integrate more environmental courses into their
curricula than the Accounting and Finance students, although this difference was not
statistically significant. Furthermore, there was an intense desire among respondents to
enrich their knowledge on environmental issues and to further develop their environmental
awareness. Essential benefits of EE according to respondents are increasing their
knowledge on environmental issues (89%) and acquiring environmental awareness through
education (83.2%).
Concerning the appropriateness of EE methods, the most preferred method for teaching
EE courses is by solving real problems and through case studies; however, the least
preferred methods are role-playing and lectures. For accessing the dimensions that
constitute the concept of EE, the authors performed the factor analysis on the questionnaire
section B, concerning the self-reported EE benefits according to the respondents’ surveyed.
The KMO measured at 0.803, and the Bartlett test was statistically significant at the 95%
level. The analysis is presented in Table 2.
The factor analysis on the questions concerning the benefits of EE revealed that there is
only one construct under these questions; thus, the authors saved the factor as a new
variable that they used in the following sections.

Figure 1.
Respondents self-
reported EE level
IJSHE 5.4 Ecological sensitivity (questionnaire section C)
21,4 The level of environmental awareness of BAS was accessed using the 15-faceted NEP
scale. The mean score in each of the scale’s facets with a maximum of 5 is presented
below (Table 3). The score on the even items (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14) is reversed to
represent a positive pro-environmental statement.
After reversing the even items of the NEP scale, the authors created a new variable,
830 representing the average ecological score of the respondents according to all the NEP scale
statements according to the method of Dunlap et al. (2000). This scoring of 3.51 out of 5
revealed that the respondents' surveyed were not fully committed to ecologic awareness.

5.5 Hypothesis tests

The following hypothesis were formulated and tested:

HA0. EB is not related to EE

HA1. EB is related to EE

Questions Factors

1. Acquiring environmental awareness 0.767

2. Gaining knowledge about environmental issues 0.810
3. Cultivation of critical thinking 0.802
4. Cultivation of environmental problem solving 0.829
5. Cultivation of initiative to undertake future actions 0.745
Table 2. 6. Forms environmentally conscious future managers 0.672
Factor analysis of the
EE section Notes: Extraction Method: Principal Factor Analysis. a1 factors extracted

Mean
NEP scale (Dunlap et al., 2000) Score Std. Deviation

1. We are approaching the limit of the number of people the Earth can support. 4.2 0.74
2. Humans have the right to modify the natural environment to suit their needs. 3.6 0.95
3. When humans interfere with nature, it often produces disastrous consequences. 4.4 0.69
4. Human ingenuity will ensure that we do not make the Earth unlivable. 4.0 0.69
5. Humans are seriously abusing the environment. 3.3 0.97
6. The Earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn how to develop them. 4.1 0.75
7. Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist. 2.6 0.96
8. The balance of nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts of modern
industrial nations. 3.6 1.00
9. Despite our special abilities, humans are still subject to the laws of nature. 2.8 0.99
10. The so-named “ecological crisis” facing humankind has been greatly
exaggerated. 3.4 1.17
11. The Earth is like a spaceship with very limited room and resources. 3.9 1.03
Table 3. 12. Humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature. 2.0 0.91
Environmental 13. The balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset. 3.4 0.99
awareness of 14. Humans will eventually learn enough about how nature works to be able to
control it. 3.8 1.11
respondents as
15. If things continue on their present course, we will soon experience a major
captured by the NEP ecological catastrophe. 3.6 0.94
scale AVERAGE SCALE SCORE 3.51
The one-way ANOVA analysis was performed between the variables of EE current status Accounting
and the four factors of the environmentally responsible behavior (Table 4). university
According to the results, the authors partially accept HA,1 because EE is related to Active
Information Seeking and Recycling, at the 95% level of confidence. It can be signified that as
students
EE level becomes higher, students are keener on information seeking on environmental
issues and are more active towards recycling. However, green consuming and active
participation are not related to EE self-reported level.
To further verify the previous findings, the authors used the variable concerning the 831
perceived benefits of EE that was calculated by factor analyzing the EE section; moreover,
the authors used the Pearson correlation coefficient to find its relationship with the
dimensions of EB. The results are presented in Table 5.
The results reveal a weak but statistically significant coefficient between EE and the
variables of active information seeking and recycling.
Continuing the analysis, the authors assessed the relation between EB and ES.
The following hypothesis was thus formulated and tested:

HB0. EB is not related to ES

HB1. EB is related to ES

One-Way ANOVA Sum of squares Df Mean square F Sig.

Active information seeking

Between groups 13.69 4 3.422 3.612 0.007
Within groups 175.31 185 0.948
Total 189.00 189
Recycling
Between groups 12.80 4 3.201 3.361 0.011
Within groups 176.20 185 0.952
Total 189.00 189
Green consuming
Between groups 8.31 4 2.078 2.127 0.079
Within groups 180.69 185 0.977 Table 4.
Total 189.00 189 Results of the one-
Active participation way ANOVA
Between groups 3.07 4 0.768 0.764 0.550 between EB and the
Within groups 185.93 185 1.005 self-reported level of
Total 189.00 189 EE

EE perceived Active information Active

Table 5.
benefits seeking Recycling Green consuming participation
Correlation between
Pearson correlation 1 0.209 0.202 0.08 0.005 the factors of EB and
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.004 0.005 0.275 0.947 EE perceived
N 190 190 190 190 190 benefits
IJSHE The Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for the variable of the NEP scale score
21,4 and each of the four factors of the environmentally responsible behavior (Table 6).
According to the results, the authors partially accept HB,1. ES was positively related with
Active Information seeking (factor 1) with a coefficient of 0.32, indicating a moderate
positive relationship; moreover, it was related to Green Consuming (factor 3), with a
correlation coefficient of 0.15, indicating a weak positive relationship. Both coefficients were
832 significant at 95% level of confidence. Furthermore, ES was weakly related to recycling,
with a coefficient of 0.13, significant at the 90% level of confidence; however, Active
Participation (factor 4) was not related to ES. So, as the NEP score becomes higher,
representing a stronger ES, the variables of active information seeking, green
consuming and recycling get higher scores. However, active participation seems not to
be related to the ES.
The findings of this study pointed out the importance of introducing EE into the
business and accounting curriculum because it helps shape the ES and the environmental
awareness of business and accounting students in UNIWA. Although students mostly
placed themselves in the “medium EE” class, they would welcome further related
knowledge.

6. Discussion
This study aimed to investigate the EB of BAS of UNIWA in relation to EE and ES.
Analysis of the EE scale indicated that there is a strong desire among UNIWA students to
enrich their knowledge on environmental issues and to develop their environmental
awareness further. UNIWA students referred to “solving real problems and use of case
studies” as the most appropriate methods to learn about environmental problems and
related issues. This result is in accordance with the study of Segalas et al. (2009) who
concluded that students achieve better cognitive learning outcomes of sustainability when
multi-methodological experiential and active learning education is used.
One-way ANOVA between self-reported EE level and EB showed that as the EE level
becomes higher, the EB becomes more positive, especially in the case of green consuming for
which the relation is almost linear. However, green consuming and active participation are
not related to EE, leading to partially accepting hypothesis HA, 1. These results are in
accordance with other studies about the positive influence of education on students’
behavior and awareness and their ability to reconnect and respect the natural world (Hassan
and Ismail, 2011; White et al., 2018). Blackley and Sheffield (2016) designated that
strengthening of EE enables individuals and communities to reflect on ways of engaging
with the environment, protecting the environment and creating a more ecologically and
socially just world through informed action.
Active Participation component of EB included three items:
(1) participation in municipal community initiatives to clean or improve the
environment;

Active information Green Active

Table 6.
NEP Score seeking Recycling consuming participation
Correlation between
the factors of EB and Pearson correlation 1 0.318 0.130 0.146 0.059
ecological sensitivity Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.073 0.044 0.417
(NEP) N 190 190 190 190 190
 (2) report of environmental crimes or crimes on animals to the competent authorities; Accounting
and university
(3) money donation or subscriptions to organizations protecting the environment. students
A close examination of the above three items could explain the low penetration of education
in affecting these behaviors because they pertain to cultural issues of Greeks that are not
easily reversed. It is well recognized that the “community culture” is not strong among
Greek citizens who are not willing to sacrifice their time and money for issues of community
833
concern (Chatzoglou and Vraimaki, 2009). Regarding animals’ protection only very recently
authorities have issued proper laws that are not yet fully disseminated and properly
respected (Keep Talking Greece, 2018). Even more, “whistleblowing” in Greece has a
negative meaning and is not yet “widely accepted” by citizens despite its positive intention
to protect animals. Among deep cultural issues that will need a holistic consideration is the
role of family; therefore, it should be a parallel effort in educating and informing both
students and families. The results of this study should be interpreted by considering the
financial crisis that Greece has suffered in the last decade, making it difficult to donate
money or subscribe into organizations to protect the environment.
Green Consuming component depicted the buying behavior of students towards
environmental products. A close examination of the four items that constitute green
consuming leads to the inference that students as consumers are deeply influenced by the
branding policy of certain products that would not let them change buying behaviors in
favor to the environment. Moreover, financial issues could explain the low use of ecological
detergents because usually they are more expensive than conventional products.
The above-recognized difficulty to convert EE and ES to active participation and
green consuming behavior is noticed in the studies of Bozoglu et al. (2016) who
confirmed the non-linear relationship between EE and EB of students. Moreover,
Muderrisoglu and Altanlar (2011) reported that, although the students of Faculty of
Forestry had the highest number of environmental courses, they sustained less
participation in environmentally responsible behaviors compared to the students of
other faculties. Similar results were obtained by the study of Janmaimool and
Khajohnmanee (2018, 2019) who concluded that diverse environmental knowledge
significantly correlated with pro-EBs. Moreover, they reported that environmental
knowledge provided through formal education might promote environmental attitudes,
but it may not contribute to students’ active engagement towards EB.
In assessing the relation between EB and ES, it was found that ES was positively related
to activeinformation seeking, recycling and green consuming while ES was not related to
active participation. This means that as the NEP score becomes higher, representing a
stronger ES, active participation of students is not affected. This outcome designates the
difficulty in raising the ecological engagement of students, and the complexity of related
components when investigating motivation and self-efficacy of environmental issues as
shown in the studies of Hashimoto-Martell et al. (2012) and Henderson and Zarger (2017).
Finally, UNIWA students reported having received so far “moderate EE.” In primary and
secondary formal education, EE effectiveness is doubted because of its encyclopaedic
character. In UNIWA, related courses such as Business Ethics and CSR, are offered in the
seventh and eighth semester. The participants of this survey are in the first and second
semester of their studies; therefore, it can be probably assumed that their EE perception
comes from family orientation, social media, school discussions, seminars or sporadic
lectures. This proves the importance of non-typical scholarly sources to instill
environmental attitude and to act complimentarily to formal educational programs (Hamid
IJSHE et al., 2017). Bozoglu et al. (2016) who reached the same conclusion proposed that because the
21,4 students are influenced by non-formal environments to a great extent, the environmental
awareness and attitudes of the parents should be raised by informing them about the
difficulties of environmental problems that they are not even aware of.
Considering the research outcomes of Bennett (1975) and Velicer et al. (1998) presented in
the literature review section, the main aspects of achieving environmental behaviour change
834 are as follows:

These five steps imply strategies’ planning, which involves time-demanding
processes that cannot be instantly accomplished, because in case of fast or careless
implementation, there is always a danger to think of returning to old behaviours
and resist the temptation to stay on the “changing” route.

Maintenance includes the consolidation of the behaviours initiated during the action
stage and its goal is to maintain the new status quo. People are conscious that they
exerted much progress to constantly reformulate the rules of their lives and are
acquiring new skills to deal with life and avoid relapse which could return to their
old behaviour.

Each one step is considered as the perquisite inflow to the next step in a looped
path; thus, it can be helpful BAS to re-evaluate their progress in moving up and
down through these stages. However, the overall process is accomplished only at
the maintenance step. This step is determining the environmental behaviour change
because former problem behaviours are no longer perceived as desirable and BAS
remain aware that what they are striving for is personally worthwhile and
meaningful.

7. Conclusions and future research

This study aimed to explore how EE and ES are related to EB of UNIWA Business and
Accounting Students. The results showed that students have a moderate EE level and a
moderate degree of self-reported ecological awareness. Both EE and ES are positively
related to EB of students.
The lack of active participation is assigned to an inherent characteristic of local culture and
perhaps to the authorities’ inertia on responding to citizens’ reports (Arabatzis and Malesios,
2013). Reinforcing EB and active participation is the result of various factors and takes multiple
stages to achieve (Bennett, 1975). Proper environmental management of students’ immediate
context and active involvement of students in creating “greener environments” may support
the adoption of sustainability principles by business and accounting students (Jabbour, 2010).
Moreover, active and experiential learning is positively related to EB of students. Therefore,
academics should reconsider how they can enrich their teaching methodology in various
disciplines to achieve the higher order learning outcomes such as analysing, evaluating and
creating (Sawin, 1957). These skills will be valuable to the business and accounting graduates
when they will be asked to analyse costs and various data and combine multidisciplinary
information to make critical valuations of environmentally related projects as future business
executives.
Business and accounting academics should provide students with more “transformative
learning” than “encyclopaedic learning.” Transformative learning is about enabling
students to reflect critically on their prior assumptions and stereotypes that have been
formed by the society, the family, the mass media and other sources (Mezirow, 2000; Dirkx
et al., 2006). Students when entering university are in the process of becoming adults, they
try to find their own identity and start their studies full of prior assumptions about their Accounting
future role as managers (Illeris, 2016). university
The limitations of this study reside firstly to the small sample surveyed within only
one HEI. The second limitation is the narrow geographic coverage. Future research
students
could be extended to BAS who live outside the urban context. Since this research is a
preliminary study in HE, it can be validated by using larger samples of students,
among other HEIs. Moreover, the instrumental tool of this study can be extended in
enriching the basket of questions and issues of immediate concern among future
835
business executives such as social and environmental accounting, green finance or
corporate responsibility. The generalization of research findings can be verified by
conducting a further investigation about the existence of differences between students
of diverse academic disciplines.
A holistic approach should be followed by preparing teachers on how to prepare
managers to value the ethical business and the economic development under their social and
environmental benefits. This is a challenge for HEIs, for HE academics and for policymakers
(Chen and Akilah, 2015). Finally, at an operational level of propositions, future research
focus should be driven on business schools, assuming great flexibility in fashioning
curricula to meet their missions and to fit with the specific circumstances of particular
programs. Each one business school should have the freedom to determine how to best
integrate teaching business principles and ethics to meet the needs of its mission and
learning goals for each degree program (Floyd et al., 2013).

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About the authors

Dr Grigorios Kyriakopoulos is a Teaching and Research Associate at the School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, NTUA, Greece. He has accomplished a solid education background by
completing 19 academic qualifications including Chemical Engineering (MEng, PhD and PostDoc),
Business and Management (BA and MA), Energy (MSc), Environmental Studies (BSc and 2 MSc),
Hellenic Culture (BA and MA), Education (PGCertEdu), Human Resource Management (CertHE) and
Psychology (HND and PGCert). Grigorios has over 20 years of academic teaching experience in
tertiary education institutions, including the Schools of Electrical Engineering (NTUA) and Chemical
Engineering (NTUA), Hellenic Naval Academy, Merchant Marine Academy of Greece, and the School
of Pedagogical and Technological Education of Athens (Greece). He serves as an editorial member for
16 journals and he is a reviewer for >234 international scientific journals, as well as a technical
committee member for 30 international scientific conferences. Grigorios is the (co)author of 50 papers
and the research fields of his specialization are that of Engineering, Environment, Energy, Renewable
Energy Sources, Waste Management, Circular Economy, Business Administration, Education,
Culture, Extroversion and Internationalization of SMEs, Development Economics and Behavioral
Ecology. Grigorios Kyriakopoulos is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: gregkyr@
chemeng.ntua.gr
 Dr Stamatios Ntanos is a Research and Laboratory Teaching Staff at the University of West Attica Accounting
(Former Technological Educational Institute of Piraeus), Greece. He has >18 years of academic
teaching experience in the Departments of Business Administration and Accounting. His research university
interests include renewable energy sources and the environment, sustainable development, social students
evaluation of environmental investments, statistical analysis, economics and finance and business
and management.
Dr Sofia Asonitou is an Assistant Professor of Accounting Education at the department of
Business Administration, University of West Attica, Greece. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in
Economics from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, an MBA from VUB-SOLVAY in
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Brussels and PhD in Accounting Education from Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Her research
interests are mainly in the accounting education area, in innovative teaching methods and in
continuing professional development and training. Her teaching interests are in management
accounting, financial statement analysis and auditing. She has also participated in many national and
international conferences and has published her studies in related scientific journals.

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