Abstract

Universities play a crucial role in social, economic, and technological development. Over the last decades, higher education systems have experimented with multiple transformations due to social demands, socioeconomic paradigms, and external shakeouts. Even though teaching and research are still the core functions of universities, other activities are emerging within/beyond the universities’ scope and boundaries to configure the “third mission.” Despite the increasing importance of universities’ third mission, little is known about the role of dynamic capabilities underpinning the configuration of the third mission across higher education systems. Using a unique longitudinal dataset that captures the German higher education landscape from 2000 to 2016, we investigate the effect of dynamic teaching/research capabilities for achieving the third university mission (knowledge transfer and technology commercialization). Our results reveal tensions between complementary and substitution effects when pursuing universities’ three missions (teaching, research, and knowledge transfer and technology commercialization), requiring university managers’ and policymakers’ strategic decisions. We provide implications for university managers and the university community as well as policymakers during the re-configuration process of becoming more entrepreneurial and innovative, highlighting the relevance of effectively managing universities’ dynamic capabilities.

中文翻译：

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推动高等教育变革：动态能力在加强大学第三个使命中的作用

摘要

大学在社会、经济和技术发展中发挥着至关重要的作用。在过去的几十年里，由于社会需求、社会经济范式和外部冲击，高等教育系统经历了多次转型。尽管教学和研究仍然是大学的核心职能，但大学范围和边界之内/之外的其他活动正在兴起，以配置“第三使命”。尽管大学的第三个使命越来越重要，但人们对动态能力在整个高等教育系统中支撑第三个使命的配置的作用知之甚少。我们使用捕捉 2000 年至 2016 年德国高等教育格局的独特纵向数据集，研究了动态教学/研究能力对实现第三个大学使命（知识转移和技术商业化）的影响。我们的研究结果揭示了大学在履行三大使命（教学、研究、知识转移和技术商业化）时互补效应和替代效应之间的紧张关系，需要大学管理者和政策制定者做出战略决策。我们为大学管理者、大学社区以及政策制定者在变得更具创业性和创新性的重新配置过程中提供启示，强调有效管理大学动态能力的相关性。