The purpose of this study is to analyse co-creation approach as a strategy at HE as a prerequisite for a successful implementation of sustainable development (HESD), while considering student collaboration in university processes. A questionnaire was handed in to 395 undergraduate environmental students from twelve Ecuadorian universities to test a structural equation model that included four variables—participation, co-creation, satisfaction, and trust. It is worth noting that these topics are increasingly relevant in competitive and innovative universities when promoting management in HESD. The results verify that student participation, as one of the key ESD skills, has a significant and positive influence on co-creation as a generator of student satisfaction and trust, especially in this context. Co-creation, from a higher education perspective, from the premise that students are the centre of the learning process, reinforces the education quality principles in an innovative way, and promotes the HESD perspectives.

Co-creation is a new trend in business context aimed at fusing all the stakeholders, specially customers in different phase of creation and production of products and services (Ramaswamy & Gouillart, 2010; Bowonder et al.; Muñiz & Schau, 2011; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). Within this paper, the effects of co-creaction approach at the university context are analyzed through a literature review. The objective is to examine the existing relationship among different variables which are present at co-creation process in higher education institutions. The studied variables are communicative participation, co-creation and satisfaction. The results show a positive impact of students’ collaborations (as customers) on value co-creation; in addition of a high impact of co-creation on students’ satisfaction. Finally, as a future research, it is suggested to carry out, using quantitative techniques, to bolster co-creation implications on scholar behavior