Strategic planning in higher education institutions: what are the stakeholders’ roles in the process? Júnia Maria Zandonade Falqueto 1 & Valmir Emil Hoffmann 1 & Ricardo Corrêa Gomes 1 & Silvia Satiko Onoyama Mori 1,2 # Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract This article classifies and assigns degrees of influence to the stakeholders involved in the implementation of strategic planning at a Brazilian higher education institution. In order to test the stakeholder influence theory, we carried out a case study of a Brazilian university based on qualitative methods. The models of Frooman (Academy of Management Review, 24(2), 191–205, 1999) and Mitchell et al. ( Academy of Management Review , 22(4), 853–886, 1997) served as the theoretical basis for assessing the stakeholders’ identification and management. Findings indicate that higher education institutions focus on the internal and external stakeholders that have the power to control them. In practice, this study provides insight into the stakeholder influences that have an effect on the implementation of strategic planning in a university. Based on the findings, university managers will be able to think more strategically about the institution’ s objectives, taking into account the degree of influence that stakeholders have on the institution’ s objectives. Keywords Stakeholders . Strategic planning . Stakeholder theory . University-stakeholder relationships Higher Education https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00455-8 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019- 00455-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Júnia Maria Zandonade Falqueto jufalqueto@gmail.com Valmir Emil Hoffmann ehoffmann@unb.br Ricardo Corrêa Gomes rgomes@unb.br Silvia Satiko Onoyama Mori silvia.onoyama@embrapa.br Extended author information available on the last page of the article