The article is based on a survey on the structuring of the sustainable development and social responsibility (SD-SR) approach in French universities. It draws on the structuration theory and Neo-Institutional Theory to construct a conceptual framework. This framework is confronted with institutional practice and leads to a typology based on the role of political involvement, the culture of management and isomorphisms. The debate on this typology, based on a statistic analysis shows the existence of homogenous groups of universities in terms of their structuring of a SD-SR approach. It makes it possible to refine the role of each of the factors in the conceptual model.