Public and private universities tasked with incorporating principles of social responsibility (SR) into their activities face the multiple challenges of addressing expectations of diverse stakeholders, establishing mechanisms for dialogue, and achieving greater information transparency. This article has two goals: first, to analyze whether SR has become an essential element in activities associated with university accountability, information transparency, and the use of the Internet; second, to analyze whether SR is used by universities as a differentiating factor in relation to their status. A comparative study of public and private US universities shows that neither is strongly committed to the online disclosure of SR information, including in relation to sustainability-related activities. Moreover, there is a uniformity in the accountability activities of both university types, suggesting that the challenges are not being faced, and SR is not being used as a differentiating factor in the pursuit of positional or competitive advantage.

In recent years, significant changes have produced in the organisational culture of the public sector, bringing accountability and sustainability to the foreground and highlighting the definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in public administrations. In this respect, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are well placed to provide an important example to other companies and society and could be of crucial importance in the promotion and development of socially responsible policies. With these considerations in mind, we analyse the state of research into the practice of CSR within SOEs, seeking to identify the main theoretical and empirical contributions made in this respect, that it will be a useful base for studies in the future. Our results show that research attention has been paid to this issue but significantly less than the large body of work carried out in this respect in the private sector. Most of the studies we identify are descriptive, although a growing body of explanatory research is now appearing. Few studies have been made of the impact of CSR practices on users and this constitutes a possible area for research in the future. Our review shows that research into CSR in SOEs is particularly significant in countries where the state has a strong presence in these companies.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its disclosure in the university environment is a topic of current relevance, as it makes the entities’ commitments visible and provides indicators that enable them to improve the institution management and communication with stakeholders. The goal of this study is to determine to what extent the structure and mechanisms for governance and the demands of stakeholders influence policy for disclosing CSR information, both in general (more related to a strategic perspective) and specifically (more focused on specific social, environmental, economic, and educational issues). The results of our analysis of a sample of the top 200 universities in the Shanghai Ranking show no association of the profile and gender of the university’s rector and frequency of board meetings with CSR disclosure policy, but leadership team, the size of governance board, committees in the governance board and stakeholder participation are factors determining disclosure of information on matters of CSR. The results show that proximity to the day-to-day, diversification of functions, and communication with interest groups are crucial to transparency and disclosure of CSR information.