**4. Explanation of USR through stakeholder's theory**

The reason for existence of the USR is based on the fulfilment of the needs and expectations of the stakeholders, so it is crucial to study this theory and understand who are those groups and their influence on the university work. Stakeholder theory explains that there are groups that influence or are influenced by the objectives, actions, political decisions and goals of a given organization. Also, there are groups with legitimate interests that are allowed to interfere [3–7].

According to Reavill [49] in the case of universities, the main stakeholders are as follows:


In private companies, social responsibility actions are considered strategic if they carry on a benefit to the company, are closely related to the business activities and accomplish its mis‐ sion [12]. In the university case, the actions that involve the USR are also strategic when they support their social legitimacy. Burke and Logsdon [12] identified five characteristics of stra‐

**1.** Centrality, which refers to the proximity between CSR's activities with the mission and

**2.** Specificity, which is the capacity of CSR activities to benefit the organization, giving a dif‐

**3.** Proactivity, which provides the capacity of CSR activities to anticipate the expectations

**4.** Voluntarism, which is achieved when CSR activities have not been imposed by external

In the same way, USR activities can be strategic or not. The analysis of the previous authors has value for this chapter, because linking the university strategy with the USR leads to the

**5.** Visibility, capacity of CSR activities to be easily located by their stakeholders.

tegic activities oriented to social responsibility strategic actions:

**Figure 1.** Social responsibility into the strategic management process based on Refs. [47, 48].

formalization of the USR into the strategic management.

objectives.

standards.

ferential position.

and needs of stakeholders.

204 Corporate Governance and Strategic Decision Making


In order to correctly implement USR in HEIs, it is necessary to consider all university stake‐ holders in the management of different areas, being useful the basis of stakeholder theory to understand this phenomenon [50]. On the other hand, it is important to understand the influ‐ ence of these groups on the university.

Different authors have classified this influence in different terms:


As a result, the previous authors conclude that some groups are more important than others due to their influence of critical resources:


As it was mentioned before, the USR value is due to the benefits it brings to the stakehold‐ ers' community. In this perception, students and their legitimacy in university tasks deserve special attention, above all because they represent a significant consumer when obtaining the necessary training to perform professionally, benefiting from a better and responsible sys‐ tem of HEIs. Other stakeholders are benefited too, like academics and administrative staff by improving their training and management work. In the case of society, the achievement of graduates ready for facing the ethical challenges and values needed in the market is important, among others.

Once we have analyzed these groups, it is important to examine how HEIs can manage these relationships with their stakeholders, carrying out pro‐action strategies which include social responsibility [56, 61]. The third university mission in the knowledge‐based economy [2] involves reconsidering relationships with different stakeholders and then establishing working relation‐ ships with each group [59]. Based on the previous background, the strategic management and planning of USR must propose an efficient management as a result of a strategic fit between corporate strategy and social responsibility, able to meet the social and wide demands of society.

Thus, when a university seeks to be competitive, it needs to rethink whether its activities meet the needs of its stakeholders and perhaps need to build stronger strategic relationships with its stakeholders to respond to changes in the education sector [62].
