Two lines of research focus on this chapter: University Social Responsibility and entrepreneurship. Once Univesrities are aware of the importance of introducing socially responsible actions, we refer to the need of Universities to foster the creation of new business, establishing the best conditions for entrepreneurs. In this sense, we study what entrepreneurship means and how it is initiated. At the same time, we set the education on entrepreneurship and how gender differences condition the new creation of firms. Some examples of promoting entrepreneurship are discussed, from the initial actions until the maintaining and growing a company already created. Later, chapter concentrates on the particular case of Spanish Universities, offering a lot of actions for the promotion of entrepreneurship, like projects, awards, chairs, masters, conferences and meeting. It is also important to consider the support of public administration and the role of cluster. The chapter finishes with some considerations about spin off, as the result of entrepreneurship from the University.
TopIntroduction
This chapter is focused on two important lines of research today: University Social Responsibility (USR) and entrepreneurship. This way, we are going to refer these two concepts, in order to dip into them in the following pages. First, it is necessary to introduce Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a strategy assumed by organizations overall. In this sense, the European Union (EU, 2001) published the report called “Green Book. Promoting a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility”. This is the first document which clearly establishes the content of the CSR, defining it as “the voluntary integration by companies of social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders” (EU, 2001, p. 20). The same document states the motive of adopting this CSR program by corporations, “contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment” (EU, 2001, p. 5). The definition of CSR has been treated by different sources and it is not exiting a unique idea of what the concept says. Going to the same source, the EU has renewed the previous definitions, pointing, “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” and making explicit reference to the need for collaboration with stakeholders to “integrate social, environmental and ethical concerns, respect for the human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy” (EU, 2011, p. 7). This last definition offers the two most important ideas for working in: the responsibility of enterprises and the collaboration with stakeholders. We know that enterprises have the responsibility to create employment for improving the economy and it is possible if the collaboration between different agents exists. More definitions have offered a similar sense, highlighting the relationships with partners (De la Cuesta, Valor, Sanmartín, & Botija, 2002; Bell, 2002; Hemming, Pugh, Williams, & Blackburn, 2004).
It is assumed that CSR involves the integration of socially responsible practices in defining organizational strategy (Anderson & Bieniaszewska, 2005; Oskarsson & von Malmborg, 2005; Secchi, 2006). This way, today, as part of its strategy, every organization will provide voluntarily social responsibility information to offer a socially responsible behavior (Gallardo & Castilla, 2007). The adoption of CSR strategy is linked with the culture of the organization and the relationship with stakeholders. In this sense, Lyon (2004, p. 136) indicates that the culture of the organization, oriented to CSR, should be directed to the communication to all stakeholders of what that considers important.