Can viewing universities as social enterprises enable ethical and socially responsible marketing to be pursued in the face of financial pressure?

Public universities worldwide have been faced with funding challenges that have been exaggerated by the global financial crises. Governments have required university management to become more enterprising in dealing with... [ view full abstract ]

Public universities worldwide have been faced with funding challenges that have been exaggerated by the global financial crises. Governments have required university management to become more enterprising in dealing with declining public funding. Against this background this paper explores the challenges for Australian universities as they balance a tripartite mission of teaching, research and service with economic sustainability. The discussion is then broadened to ask if universities can be viewed as social enterprises, with their particular ethical and social obligations? Laczniak and Murphy's (2006) normative framework for ethical and socially responsible marketing is used to evaluate university management actions. The discussion concludes with the key policy implication that while universities move from being public institutions to social enterprises they must be ethically and socially responsible in their marketing. Failure to do so would severely undermine a sense of institutional legitimacy.