José Luis Ávila-Valdez, Manuel Alejandro Gutiérrez González
Universities are caught up in a trend toward the commodification of knowledge and the growing corporatization of their structures. In response, UNESCO has promoted the common good approach with the aim of reorienting the core functions of universities toward the transfer and co-creation of knowledge. This paper proposes a common good model based on five normative drivers: agency, stability, governance, justice, and humanity. Using a metric (76 items) administered to students (n = 240, 41.96 %), faculty (n = 118, 20.63 %), and administrative staff (n = 214, 37.41 %) at the Popular Autonomous University of the State of Puebla, two common goods were evaluated: the educational relationship (ER) and the research relationship (RR). For data analysis, the covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was applied. The CB-SEM analysis yielded the following goodness-of-fit indices for the proposed model: χ2/gl = 2.260, RMSEA = 0.032, SRMR = 0.050, GFI = 0.976, CFI = 0.976, TLI = 0.975, and PNFI = 0.924. The findings confirms the validity of the common good model at a private university, particularly in the dimensions of ER, where agency, governance, justice, and stability show positive relationships. However, a critical gap is observed in the RR, whose dimensions do not significantly impact institutional stability or the university ethos (humanity).