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4.2.5.2. Far From Equilibrium Spaces
According to the research of organisational scientists applying the complexity sciences paradigm, heterogeneity is generally advantageous (Mitleton-Kelly, 2005). This is also true for physical environments regarding education and research.
While there are hefty differences between the physical spaces provided by the researched universities, we find lecture halls, smaller tutorial rooms, computer rooms, faculty’s offices, as well as research centres with working islands and the library (including group study rooms) as professional working areas, in all investigated universities. The mix of lectures, tutorials, and personal consultations with the professor, as well as individual and group study is assessed to provide the adequate stimuli for the performance demanded of higher education students.
In the case of the UOC, efforts are made to provide for a similar stimulating environment by providing different areas on the website and offering room for study in the regional centres. However, the situations of the IT based learner always dominates the scenario (except for the time studying the printed material) and little effort is made to encourage students to network and collaborate.
For research another distinction can be made. While the natural science scholars at the FU and UPC are observed to work extensively in teams, their peers in the social-sciences work individualistically with the only point of reference being collaboration on journals or conferences. In this case the UOC’s practice is very similar with the other universities as most research happens individualistically.
4.2.5.3. Informality
The water cooler has been recognized as important organisational institution for a long time now and it is a long known secret that the coffee breaks during, and drinks after a conference or meeting are very important venues for networking, information exchange, coordination and the initiation of new projects. The MIT professor Van Hippel even considers informality one of the most important factors for creating an innovative milieu (Hippel, 2006). In the following paragraphs the universities’ provision in this regard are reviewed.
At the LSE (see chapter 3 LSE section 3.1.3.2.) it is common culture for the students and young researchers to meet and network in one of the three campus based pubs. The comparatively cheap venues are the central meeting spot and melting pot for the many cultures present at the school (LSE 54).
For the faculty, the senior dining room fulfils this function. Once again the small size of the school plays out in its favour. Because the number in each stakeholder group is small and because the campus is not dispersed, many informal events are trans-disciplinary. Additionally, the LSE has a very large number of mostly vibrant student associations which complement the informal environment.
The FU and the UPC (see chapter 3 FU section 3.2.2.2.; UPC section 3.3.3.2.) can be dealt with simultaneously in this regard, as both have a highly polycentric setup, which hinders informal meetings, and have to provide space for rather big numbers of students and faculty. As a result, more or less each unit has developed its own informal culture with some cross-cutting events like Erasmus parties or political engagement. Generally the provision of these universities with regards to informal spaces is assessed as positive because both seem to provide sufficient student places and promote an atmosphere of liberty where new spaces emerge whenever needed. In the case of faculty, once again the situation varies widely, but here institutional action might be considered as faculty clubs and other strategic institutions might be useful to improve inter-departmental, policy discourse and general morale.
Again, UOC’s students suffer in this case an intrinsic disadvantage of its virtuality. Informal forums are provided within the virtual campus platform but comparatively little leisure time is spent there and usage is mostly centred around virtual billboard listings. More ‘privately’ UOC students gather on external forums and websites to discuss courses and exchange critiques. Also, the regional centres are used by some to gather but, due to the library setting, meetings are rather course oriented.
UOC staff and researchers are also hindered from holding informal meetings because of the dispersion of the locations.
4.2.5.4. Resources
Even though bootstrapping – the ability to kick-off and implement a project with minimal resources – is one of the quite interesting entrepreneurial abilities, there can be no doubt that the availability of resources has a decisive influence on the viability and outcome of all entrepreneurial activity. The following paragraphs consider mainly the institutional perspective, but the same resources are relevant for individual knowledge entrepreneurship as well. Even if in the case of purely theoretic or meta-physical ‘knowledge entrepreneurship opportunity realization’ only minimal monetary resources are needed while human capital is always absolutely indispensable. Furthermore, political capital, the connections to market the knowledge products are essential. Lastly, monetary capital may or may not be necessary for the individual knowledge entrepreneurship project as such, but it is almost fundamental for ensuring the basic standard of living.
In the following paragraphs the situation of the investigated universities is set in contrast.
Human capital – Expertise
Human capital is what has been referred to traditionally as labour and means the stock of productive skills and technological knowledge present in the entity. Gary S. Becker elaborates on what human capital is: "expenditures on education, training, medical care, [...] produce human, not physical or financial, capital because you cannot separate a person from his or her knowledge, skills, health, or values the way it is possible to move financial and physical assets while the owner stays put" (Becker (1993, p. 16) in .(Schonewille, 2005)). Generally it is the time experience, knowledge and abilities of an entity which can be used to fulfil its mandate (amended from (Husz, 1998)). Human capital thereby includes emotional capital (as value from engagement and commitment).
The LSE is benefiting from the almost completely privatised market for professionals working in higher education found in Britain. Its elite position is of course based on the outstanding researchers that it employs and, as described in the case study (see chapter 3 LSE section 3.1.11.), a positive spiral regarding the excellence of faculty and quality of the students that has been observed. The British liberalisation of the system has also significant effects on the administrative staff.
The FU is still suffering from a long crisis where many good people preferred to leave and very few could be hired due to a wave of generational change (see chapter 3 FU section 3.2.2.3). On the other hand the university is now in a situation to be able to replace almost half of its professorships within the next few years. This naturally poses a great chance to re-energize the faculty with young, high-potential professors while on the other hand being a great administrative challenge to fill all these posts with adequate candidates. When it comes to administration is – according to a manager – they are still dragging 1/3 of the non-performing bureaucrats along.
Human capital at the UPC seems to be well furnished as it can attract and hold most good Catalan as well as a significant number of Spanish and Latin American researchers (see chapter 3 UPC section 1.2.1.). Most administrative posts have been switched to non-functionary contracts so that the typical bureaucrat is less and less common. In general, administrative staff as well as other faculty left a relatively dynamic and motivated impression.
The UOC is once again a special case among the universities researched (see chapter 3 UOC section 3.4.2.. and 2.4.3.1.). It was setup as a distance teaching university with the understanding that the vast majority of the actual teachers (consultants) are contracted as external staff, while the core staff consists mainly of administrators and ‘learning managers’. With this scenario as a legacy the UOC has embarked (for some years already) on the process to increase the number of PhDs among its employees responsible for the implementation of the educational programs. This is particularly pressing as the UOC is interested in developing research capacity (most notably through it Internet Interdisciplinary Instritute) in order to seize opportunities for research co-operations as partner in European Union projects. On the administrative side UOC’s employees are relatively young, well trained and motivated.
Political capital
Political capital is defined as “the individual powers to act politically that are generated through participation in interactive political processes” (Sørensen & Torfing, 2003). Political capital thereby includes social capital (as value from relationships) but only as strategic resource. In the case of universities, political capital refers to the relations developed with external stakeholders as well as the political capital each knowledge entrepreneur holds internally.
Firstly LSE is institutionally connected to the external environment through its board of trustees which is made up of eminent personalities (see chapter 3 LSE section 3.1.5.2.). Secondly it has the Enterprise LSE entity which connects its scholars to the media and consultancies (see chapter 3 LSE section 3.1.10.1). Thirdly the Corporate Relations Unit is constantly exploring possibilities for partnerships with other research institutions and the private sector. Overall the LSE is assessed to have a rather thorough connection to its external environment and uses it to develop its core practices as well as to stay informed.
The FU has a long tradition of partnerships with foreign universities and its Foreign Affairs department counts extensive cooperation agreements (see chapter 3 FU section 3.2.2.1. Footnote 2). Also, the new governance structure employs some eminent personalities from public life as well as one politician in its structure. And FU scholars have reached best in class rankings regarding the securing of external funds (see chapter 3 FU figure 3.2.1.). Lately these efforts have been joined by technology scouts whose task it is to facilitate the exploitation of FU researchers results either by themselves or through private sector partners. The president also has a name for being a networker and bringing the FU onto the agenda of various public settings (see chapter 3 FU section 3.2.5.1.). Nevertheless, compared to the LSE, the FU is in a much more difficult situation as it does not have the developed identity (brand) and lacks the professional expert service as well as the necessary paradigm in the development of external relations.
The UPC makes quite an effort to attract foreign students and scholars and connections to foreign universities through vehicles like the Erasmus Program. However, the international alliances are not as strong as in the former two cases but the UPC is a member of several relevant European associations. On a local level the university seems to be much more integrated and connected. It hosts a chair for higher education management which has a good name and influence within the local administration. Furthermore and most notably, it has undertaken very successful efforts to foster connections with the local industry (see chapter 3 UPC section 3.3.6.). On the one hand the Innova program facilitates entrepreneurial business creations based on UPC research, and on the other the UPC technology parks are meant to connect local business with their research. Yet more projects such as the UPC’s internet 2 project I2CAT or the knowledge 2 market K2M initiative are cooking up future opportunities for university industry co-operations. As such, the UPC confirms its technocratic position with a strong focus on developing ties to industry, while nurturing limited but good connections with local policy makers.
The UOC has traditionally had very good top level connections to local politics and industry (see chapter 3 UOC section 3.4.2. and 3.4.5.2). These are naturally intended to be maintained by the new leadership (UOC web) even though this seems difficult in the eye of different political alignment and the slow evolving nature of trust relationships. In the early years many collaborations with local businesses were setup and some of them endure even today. During the heated growth phase around 2000 efforts were made to expand UOCs reach to Latin American countries, but they were revoked after encountering extensive difficulties. Today the International Relations Unit is in principal responsible for connections with other universities, and collaboration agreements are developed. The UOC is intrinsically well connected through its wide stakeholder base (consultants and adult working Student), but as far as could be assessed it is not exploiting this coverage as no programme for private sector relations is currently maintained [i].
On a research level UOC managed to contract a very high profile team of international experts, which serve as consultants to the in-house research teams and advise on opportunities and conduct of projects. Overall the UOC is doing well regarding its connection to the external environment; it could arguably do much more given its virtuality and the connected possibilities.
Financial capital
Financial capital is defined as the current availability of monetary resources especially in aspect of what money is available for (intra-)entrepreneurs in order to implement new ventures.
The LSE is the wealthiest of the universities researched (see chapter 3 LSE section 3.1.3.5.). Even though in real terms the FU and the UPC have a higher budget, the LSE’s specialisation on social sciences does not make investments in costly technology and laboratories maintenance. Its business model permits it to keep the inventory at a high standard and even to maintain the department of learning technology to constantly monitor and experiment with relevant innovations.
The FU in contrast is the one suffering worst from financial hardship (see chapter 3 FU section 3.2.3.5). Given that in the still quite regulated German higher education sector most administrative staff as well as professors are paid according to predetermined and egalitarian salary schemes, the flexibility of hiring or dismissing any staff is virtually non-existent. The unwritten rule is that one can engage in everything that does not involve a cost but investments are only made if a clear return can be estimated. However, there are no official guidelines and processes are hand-steered by the decision makers.
The UPC’s budget had been continuously expanding until some years ago and has now been more or less stable for the last years (see chapter 3 UPC section 3.3.4.3.). Neither complaints nor praise has been observed during the investigation, generally faculty seems to be content with the possibilities offered. As most IT services are outsourced to UPCnet a good price-effectiveness ratio could be established.
At the UOC the financial balance has been re-established (see chapter 3 UOC section 3.4.3.5.) after some rather difficult financial years before the leadership change (UOC management 38). The semi-private entrepreneurial ventures and co-operations UOC had engaged in turned out to be mostly non profitable and have undergone several rounds of re-structuring, until they are now believed to be in competitive shape. As elaborated in the case study, UOC’s business model works best when offerings are scaled to a high quantity of students. Given the relatively small amount of employees UOC’s financial fitting can be considered quite good.
Due to the overall negative outcome of some of the economic entrepreneurial ventures UOC’s former management invested in, there was a need to strategically assign the budgets to invest in. The management did not consider ICT investments to be absolutely necessary and the technology managers did not convince them of the opposite. Hence technological development of UOC’s platform virtually stopped in 2002 due to under-financing (UOC management & faculty 16).
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