Building organizational capacity around the research enterprise:: a case study on organizational model and successful growth

Decreasing levels of state funding and increased competition for students and tuition dollars have forced institutions of higher education to become more entrepreneurial and seek other means of increasing their resources. One of the ways in which institutions attempt to secure additional resources is by expanding their research enterprise and growing their sponsored research portfolio. In doing so, institutions often find that they must change their organizational model to build the capacity for this pursuit. This study examined the forces which influence the choice in organizational model when an institution restructures to build capacity to grow their research enterprise. I expected to see isomorphic forces at work on the organizational structure of Georgia State Universitys capacity building process, and potentially the use of merger strategies by the institution to gain financial autonomy. What I further sought to understand was if other forces specific to institutional environment and culture were at work in their restructuring process as well. These expected influences and forces were found at Georgia State, but not always in the ways initially anticipated.