Environmental Citizenship Profile of Accounting and Finance Students and Their Experience of an Immersive, Challenge-Based Sustainability Session

Business and accounting curricula build environmental awareness but rarely develop environmental citizenship: the competences and willingness to act for sustainability. This study describes the environmental citizenship profile of final-semester accounting and finance students in Mexico and examines their experience of a multimodal, virtual reality (VR)-supported session embedded in a ten-week challenge-based course with an industry partner. A convergent mixed-methods design combined a single administration of an adapted Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ; n = 123), an exploratory comparison of conceptually parallel pre- and post-session self-reports (n = 102), and thematic analysis of 103 open-ended reflections. The adapted ECQ was internally consistent (alpha = 0.956), but convergent validity was uneven, and two blocks repeating the same activities were merged, so its nine-factor structure is provisional. The profile showed a disposition–action gap: values (M = 3.54 of 4) and intentions to act as agents of change (M = 3.49) were high, whereas past environmental action was limited (42% had ever taken part in an environmental activity and 24% in any listed activity in the past six months). Self-reported knowledge and confidence did not change measurably, which high baselines, non-equivalent items, and a single session could each explain. In the reflections, the two authors coded engagement as predominant (83%), 12% referred to professional or sustainability-performance content, and expressions of intention to act were rare (2%). Without a control group, the findings describe this instructional package rather than an effect of VR.