Performance Management and Governance in Public Universities: Challenges and Opportunities

The goal of this introductory chapter is to outline a set of problematic issues, challenges, and opportunities behind this topic, so to provide a key to the subsequent chapters. How can we frame sustainable performance, if referred to an organization (such as a public HEI) located in a given context? What binds governance with performance management in the field of HEIs? What challenges are associated with different governance perspectives in HEIs? Why linking performance management to governance is particularly crucial in the investigated field?