Corporate social responsibility in higher education

Abstract Internationally, higher education establishments have faced strong institutional pressures to embrace socially responsible practices. The body of literature, which has offered the theoretical and conceptual guidance in this space, has been the work on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Taking an organisation‐centric perspective, this study aims to empirically examine the institutionalisation of CSR in six Malaysian universities. An in‐depth case study approach was utilised using the data from two external sources (an external measure of university research performance and university self‐reporting) as well as collecting data on side (interviews). Using qualitative and configurational analyses, a set of propositions about the institutionalisation of CSR in universities is formulated. The analysis depicts the pathways that lead to CSR outcomes.