Knowledge Management as a Critical Factor of an organization’s Sustainability
499
and creating and differentiating a new business model (imperative of sustainability)
(Lubin and Esty 2010).
Thus, sustainability has become a generating point for organizational and technological innovations that generate financial returns; which reduces costs as companies end up reducing the use of inputs; and that generates additional revenue from
better products or new business. The quest for sustainability is beginning to change
the competitive landscape, and the key to progress, especially in times of crisis, is
innovation (Nidumolu et al. 2009).
5 Universities
Universities, similar to what has been happening to for-profit organizations, have
come under intense pressure from society at large (Barlett and Chase 2013) because
for legislators, society, the labor market, and others, a transformation is needed.
higher education to ensure that more students graduate with the skills and abilities
needed to meet 21st-century challenges (Brandli et al. 2015).
Together with the pressures suffered, universities have been undergoing organizational changes in recent years that seek to make them more competitive and even
moving towards a concept of “entrepreneurial university”, in which interaction with
other institutions and economic agents is paramount (Secundo et al. 2016; Brusca
et al. 2018). This interaction between university and other agents of society was also
worked through the approach of the so-called “Sábato Triangle”, in which universities, in their role of scientific-technological infrastructure, participate together with
governments and productive structures, the insertion of science and technology in
the development of societies (Figueiredo 1993).
Still concerning the organizational changes that universities have been going
through, some strongly addressed questions concern sustainability, where sustainable values are becoming fundamental (Brusca et al. 2018), which can be understood
given the great responsibility that universities have a role in transforming societies
in particular by contributing to a more sustainable humanity (Barth and Rieckmann
2012), playing an important role in sustainable development from two perspectives:
promoting education for sustainable development and introducing active policies
to achieve this objective (Brusca et al. 2018), adopting concepts and practices in
different domains such as education and curricula, research, facility/campus operations, organization of management/institutional structure, among others (Veiga Ávila
et al. 2019).
499
and creating and differentiating a new business model (imperative of sustainability)
(Lubin and Esty 2010).
Thus, sustainability has become a generating point for organizational and technological innovations that generate financial returns; which reduces costs as companies end up reducing the use of inputs; and that generates additional revenue from
better products or new business. The quest for sustainability is beginning to change
the competitive landscape, and the key to progress, especially in times of crisis, is
innovation (Nidumolu et al. 2009).
5 Universities
Universities, similar to what has been happening to for-profit organizations, have
come under intense pressure from society at large (Barlett and Chase 2013) because
for legislators, society, the labor market, and others, a transformation is needed.
higher education to ensure that more students graduate with the skills and abilities
needed to meet 21st-century challenges (Brandli et al. 2015).
Together with the pressures suffered, universities have been undergoing organizational changes in recent years that seek to make them more competitive and even
moving towards a concept of “entrepreneurial university”, in which interaction with
other institutions and economic agents is paramount (Secundo et al. 2016; Brusca
et al. 2018). This interaction between university and other agents of society was also
worked through the approach of the so-called “Sábato Triangle”, in which universities, in their role of scientific-technological infrastructure, participate together with
governments and productive structures, the insertion of science and technology in
the development of societies (Figueiredo 1993).
Still concerning the organizational changes that universities have been going
through, some strongly addressed questions concern sustainability, where sustainable values are becoming fundamental (Brusca et al. 2018), which can be understood
given the great responsibility that universities have a role in transforming societies
in particular by contributing to a more sustainable humanity (Barth and Rieckmann
2012), playing an important role in sustainable development from two perspectives:
promoting education for sustainable development and introducing active policies
to achieve this objective (Brusca et al. 2018), adopting concepts and practices in
different domains such as education and curricula, research, facility/campus operations, organization of management/institutional structure, among others (Veiga Ávila
et al. 2019).