ESG performance measures in universities’ strategic plans

Strategic planning has been one of the main pillars of public sector reform, yet it has often focused on a narrow set of concerns and proven unable to capture “what matters” for public sector organizations, such as public universities. This research explores whether current trends towards sustainability practices can contribute to help bring public values back in the strategic objectives of universities, since they lead them to focus on broader social and environmental impacts. The article focuses on the inclusion of environmental, social and governance issues in the strategic plans of 13 Italian public universities. Findings shows that universities mostly incorporate social performance measures, partly disregarding environmental and governance dimensions and that the degree of integration of sustainability measures is mostly influenced by public management policies, mediated by pre-existing arrangements and factors.