Increasing the sustainability level in agriculture and Natural Resources Universities of Iran through students’ engagement in the value Co-creation process

The scholars of sustainable development and education mostly believe that universities have an underlying role in explaining the movement of human societies towards sustainable development; but universities can play such a role, only if they themselves are sustainable as well. However, the subjects on sustainable development in Iran's higher education are still in their early stages and face many challenges. Some of these challenges are associated with the lack of engagement of university operators, especially students, in sustainability activities. Value Co-creation process in academic environments might be very effective in overcoming these challenges. Moreover, few studies have been conducted yet on what the relationship between Value Co-creation and sustainability level is and revealing the effective key factors in academic environments. In addition, the causal relationships between the factors influencing Value Co-creation in academic environments have not been taken into consideration by researchers. The overall aim of this study is to explore the effective factors in the engagement of universities and students in Value Co-creation process and to introduce a model for improving the level of Value Co-creation in academic environments. For this purpose, Mixed Method within a sequential-explanatory design was used. The results obtained from the content analysis showed that a total of eight factors affect the students' engagement in Value Co-creation process. The factors were classified into two general categories: (1) university-related factors (including university management support for sustainability-oriented activities, sustainability-oriented education, ICT infrastructures, and teaching quality of instructors); and (2) students-related factors (including Sustainability-oriented values, social capital, perceived self-efficacy, and trust in faculty members). The Structural Equation Model (SEM) of the study indicated that sustainability-oriented values, university management support for sustainability-oriented activities, trust in faculty members, social capital, and perceived self-efficacy have a direct and significant impact on the Value Co-creation process in the studied universities. There was also a positive and significant relationship between the engagement of students in Value Co-creation process and university sustainability.