**3. The inclusion of USR in university strategic management**

that a way to rethink the relationship between society and corporate performance is through "the creation of shared value." In this line, the authors reinforced the idea that organizations must create a greater understanding of social needs, remodeling capitalism with social rela‐

The development of the USR has been smaller than the development of CSR in private com‐ panies [21]. However, the USR studies are gaining attention and value for the necessary pro‐ motion and development of civil values and responsibilities [22]. Particularly, this attention is focused on the university capability to influence on the education of citizens in a globalized world [23], and on the university goal of building a fairer society [24]. According to these

Unlike the CSR, the USR arises from the concern of the educational sector to contribute to social development and the impacts of HEIs. This process must be taken into account through a partici‐ patory dialogue with society in order to promote sustainable development [25]. USR should be planned as a policy of continuous improvement of the university toward the effective fulfilment of its social mission through its different management areas: (1) the organizational scope, as an entity with its own structure that consumes, has staff employed and generates waste; (2) the edu‐ cational scope as an entity that is responsible for the students training; (3) the knowledge scope, as an entity that researches, producing know‐how and transmitting it; and (4) the social scope as an entity which interacts with others agents, communities and social subsystems [10, 11].

Thus, the importance of the university has been increasing, since these institutions have been pressured to act in a socially responsible way due to the important educational role that they play in the society. This process has been reflected in the third mission of the university based

From a theoretical perspective, the approaches which analyze the USR are diverse. According

**1.** Managerial approach, which analyzes the impact of university work, strengthens the rela‐

**2.** Transformational approach, which links the HEIs with the contribution to the debate and

**3.** Normative approach, which fosters and promotes the university values to society through

Furthermore, another interesting framework is developed in the corporate citizenship theory, which concerns about the duties of the company as part of society and the integrative theories that explain that the company works to satisfy the social demands of stakeholders [31]. In this case, universities as organizations operate within society and influence different stakeholders also have rights and obligations and must be managed, taking into consideration the needs of

The inclusion of USR into university strategic management is reviewed as follows.

on the transfer of knowledge to society, meeting also its social demands [26].

to Gaete, we identified three main approaches [27]:

reflection through research and training [30].

national and international networks.

different university stakeholders.

tions between universities and stakeholders [28, 29].

tionships [9]. This goes beyond the philanthropy and specific CSR actions.

202 Corporate Governance and Strategic Decision Making

facts, social responsibility justifies its application within universities.

In order to study the USR field within HEIs, it is necessary to understand how the work of the university and the inclusion of USR in strategic management are.

First, we determine how the university strategic management performs its functions. It has been suggested that in many educational institutions strategic planning is only a short‐term planning that seeks to solve specific problems and not necessarily seek the development of strategic projects [32]. Strategic planning allows HEIs to benefit from the opportunities, using resources strategically and also helping to future plans [33].

At this point, it should be wondered to know whether universities have benefited from the opportunities offered by strategic planning and whether they have taken into account their management of resources. Likewise, strategic planning also provides a sense of autonomy, facilitating decision‐making process and improving the communication [34]. Moreover, sev‐ eral studies that support the strategic management in HEIs are becoming more numerous and diverse, mainly because of a greater demand in economic efficiency, as well as the search for a higher quality of teaching and research [35–38].

Although strategic planning is a common process implemented among HEIs, it is difficult to find a method that indicates the degree of success [39]. In addition, the literature does not identify a standardized methodology that determines the effectiveness of strategic planning or institutional learning strategies [40], and unfortunately when the strategic plan is already established, many HEIs fail to execute it [41]. Hence, the degree to which strategic planning is used is important for institutional success [42]. However, to achieve this success, the support of academic departments is necessary [43]. Also, each HEI needs different strategies due to the fact that every university has different needs and resources of each particular environment, because each institution has diverse fields of action and multiple stakeholders.

Now, we should understand how the university work is. First, we have to state their public nature, assuming responsibilities toward society [44], as well as social, environmental and economic concerns [45]. The formulation of university strategies must take into account these needs [45], including them in the mission, goals, objectives, lines of action and other compo‐ nents that form the strategic plan [46]. In other words, university uses a strategic manage‐ ment process, being particularly important the definition of the strategy, as well as its design, implementation, evaluation and control. This process is shown in **Figure 1**.

Thus, the strategic plan, as a management tool [64], helps HEIs to establish a university mis‐ sion, to identify their goals and objectives and to seek actions that help achieve what is estab‐ lished. Such actions must be oriented toward social responsibility, due to their nature.

The place of the USR within this strategic management is reflected when the development of the mission, objectives and specific strategic actions are taking place. Academic authorities take into account and considerate the impacts of the university work to the stakeholders, as well as to evaluate and control such management. Consequently, the USR is inherent in the entire process of strategic management.

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

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‐ tegic activities oriented to social responsibility strategic actions:


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 formalization of the USR into the strategic management.
