Factors affecting OHS practices in private universities: An empirical study from Bangladesh

•We studied occupational health and safety issues in private universities.•External pressure, management commitment, social factors are vital for OHS adoption.•External pressure consist regulatory, mimetic, and competitive pressure.•Top management commitment is reflected by formal policy, training, and encouragement.

Both production and service industries believe that occupational health and safety (OHS) practices are important for quality assurance of products/services. Unlike many other industries where production process and service receivers remain isolated, the production and consumption of university services are directly concomitant; quality of education is affected by OHS measures. An incident, due to lack of safety practices, in a university would have an adverse effect on nation’s present and future. However, although have been examined in various industries, OHS research in academic institutes is comparatively limited. More specifically, the overall OHS status of the universities in developing countries is sufficient to shock any parent; similarly, research in this domain is rare. Reducing this literature gap, the current study takes an initiative that investigates the antecedents of OHS adoption in private universities in Bangladesh. Applying quantitative research method we used PLS-based structural equation modeling (SEM). The empirical results find that regulatory pressure, top management commitment, and social factors directly and positively influence university’s intention to adopt OHS measures. Going further, top management commitment is reflected by formal policy, formal training, and encouragement. This research contributes significant knowledge to OHS literature while develop guidelines for the practitioners including government agencies, university management, and opinion leaders. We concluded with the limitation of the current study and promising a future research in this context.