An Enhanced Data-Analyses Method for the Graphical …
567
2 The Graphical Assessment of Universities’ Sustainability
Image (GAUSI) Instrument
The GAUSI instrument is a quantitative research tool to collect primary data. It is a
marketing research tool designed to assess a university’s perceived commitment to
sustainability practices, illustrating its image as a sustainable institution. The GAUSI
instrument has a particular data-analyzes method, constructed to create a prioritization criterion for the sustainability initiatives which the University should engage,
based on the improvement of the institution’s attractiveness for the interviewed stakeholder groups (Nicolino 2016).
Once the stakeholder group for the research is defined, the GAUSI interviewing
method involves three steps: to assess which sustainability initiatives are perceived as
(1) the initiatives more important for sustainability; (2) the initiatives more relevant
in deciding which university to attend/work; and (3) the initiatives their university
is more committed to. The results obtained through these three steps denotes what
constructs the ideal image of a sustainable university; plus, what represents a competitive advantage in the higher education environment; finally compared to how the
institution’s commitment to sustainability is perceived. This method of comparing
different answers to a single questionnaire list was inspired by the work of Terkla
and Pagano (1993), who proposed a list of semantic differential response options for
assessing universities’ characteristics.
2.1 The GAUSI Questionnaire
The questionnaire (Table 2) is composed by a list of sustainability practices, sided
by a classic five-point Likert scale: strongly disagree (SD), disagree (D), neutral (N),
agree (A) and strongly agree (SA). On the questionnaire, respondents assess their
level of agreement to three different stem statements:
(1) Sustainable universities should be strongly committed to:
(2) When deciding at what university to attend, I find these initiatives important:
(3) I feel my university is strongly committed to:
The questionnaire’s list is composed of 23 sustainability initiatives, specifically designed to concern universities’ management. The items are categorized
into Assessment and Reporting (A&R), Education and Research (E&R), Campus
Operations (COp), and Community Outreach (COr), complying with the principles
proposed by the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Declaration (UNESCO
2012). This list was inspired in Nejati and Nejati’s (2013) instrument to assess universities’ perceived engagement with sustainability initiatives. The list was adapted
and reordered to fit the purpose of the GAUSI instrument.
567
2 The Graphical Assessment of Universities’ Sustainability
Image (GAUSI) Instrument
The GAUSI instrument is a quantitative research tool to collect primary data. It is a
marketing research tool designed to assess a university’s perceived commitment to
sustainability practices, illustrating its image as a sustainable institution. The GAUSI
instrument has a particular data-analyzes method, constructed to create a prioritization criterion for the sustainability initiatives which the University should engage,
based on the improvement of the institution’s attractiveness for the interviewed stakeholder groups (Nicolino 2016).
Once the stakeholder group for the research is defined, the GAUSI interviewing
method involves three steps: to assess which sustainability initiatives are perceived as
(1) the initiatives more important for sustainability; (2) the initiatives more relevant
in deciding which university to attend/work; and (3) the initiatives their university
is more committed to. The results obtained through these three steps denotes what
constructs the ideal image of a sustainable university; plus, what represents a competitive advantage in the higher education environment; finally compared to how the
institution’s commitment to sustainability is perceived. This method of comparing
different answers to a single questionnaire list was inspired by the work of Terkla
and Pagano (1993), who proposed a list of semantic differential response options for
assessing universities’ characteristics.
2.1 The GAUSI Questionnaire
The questionnaire (Table 2) is composed by a list of sustainability practices, sided
by a classic five-point Likert scale: strongly disagree (SD), disagree (D), neutral (N),
agree (A) and strongly agree (SA). On the questionnaire, respondents assess their
level of agreement to three different stem statements:
(1) Sustainable universities should be strongly committed to:
(2) When deciding at what university to attend, I find these initiatives important:
(3) I feel my university is strongly committed to:
The questionnaire’s list is composed of 23 sustainability initiatives, specifically designed to concern universities’ management. The items are categorized
into Assessment and Reporting (A&R), Education and Research (E&R), Campus
Operations (COp), and Community Outreach (COr), complying with the principles
proposed by the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Declaration (UNESCO
2012). This list was inspired in Nejati and Nejati’s (2013) instrument to assess universities’ perceived engagement with sustainability initiatives. The list was adapted
and reordered to fit the purpose of the GAUSI instrument.