Towards achieving university sustainability! Linking social responsibility with knowledge sharing in Saudi universities

Corporate social responsibility is a developing approach that any organization can implement for sustainability. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are implementing this strategy in the current climate to improve their quality of education and sustainability, which aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Agenda for 2023. The current research examines the critical role of university social responsibility (USR) in sustainable knowledge sharing via the mediation effects of collaborative climate and entrepreneurial orientation. We obtained our dataset from 456 Saudi public and 605 private university students. SmartPLS4 findings showed that USR significantly affects collaborative climate, entrepreneurial orientation, and sustainable knowledge sharing. The multi-group analysis results show that collaborative climate and entrepreneurial orientation partially mediated the USR-knowledge-sharing linkage in favor of private university students. This paper provides useful information for policymakers within HEIs. •Social exchange theory was employed in the proposed model.•Nexus between university social responsibility and knowledge sharing has been investigated.•Collaborative climate and entrepreneurial orientation partially mediated.•Findings provide emerging trends to develop knowledge sharing strategies.