Key Stakeholders, Material Issues, and SDGs in University Integrated Reporting: A Hybrid AHP–TOPSIS Model and a Turkish Case Study

OpenAlex İngilizce

Universities are increasingly required to demonstrate how their governance, stakeholder relationships, and institutional priorities contribute to long-term value creation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet higher education institutions lack operational methodologies to address three interrelated questions: (RQ1) How should key stakeholder groups be determined for university integrated reporting (IR)? (RQ2) How should material issues be prioritised? (RQ3) How should university-related SDGs be mapped against these issues? This study proposes an evidence-based, multi-stage framework. To address RQ1, a hybrid Analytic Hierarchy Process–Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (AHP–TOPSIS) model is applied: expert evaluations by the Executive Board of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (Türkiye) weight five AA1000SES-derived criteria through AHP—revealing “Materiality” and “Impact” as most critical—after which TOPSIS ranks 23 stakeholder groups and identifies 13 key stakeholders, led by academics, students, administrative staff, and alumni. For RQ2, material issues are prioritised through a survey-based descriptive analysis of 320 respondents from these groups. For RQ3, the prioritised issues are mapped against the SDGs via a transparent procedure, with SDG 4 and SDG 17 emerging as dominant, followed by SDG 10 and SDG 9. The framework offers a replicable, practical basis for higher education governance, IR, and strategic sustainability management.