Trade-offs or Complements? : Balancing Diversified Stakeholder Expectations, Institutional Pressures, and Functional Demands in the Strategic Management of Business Schools

Abstract

While scholars and practitioners have warned that business schools are losing their edge in creating and disseminating relevant knowledge in the crosscurrent of environmental demands, the management and organization of higher education institutions (HEIs) have been described as “herding cats” and “organized anarchy”. The teaching–research nexus forms the cornerstone of academic organization and has a quintessential role in strategic management. However, despite the growing body of literature on HEIs’ teaching–research nexus, organization, and environmental changes, few studies have examined the interplay of the three. Therefore, this study combines two contingency-theory views to examine the effects of institutional pressures on the strategic latitude of business schools in balancing the nexus. How the interplay of institutional pressures and diversified stakeholder demands affect HEIs’ ability to manage the nexus plays a vital role in how effectively universities can fulfill their mission and how effective public policy interventions and reforms are.