No margin, no mission : entrepreneurial activities at three Benedictine institutions / Allan Dural Gozum.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Gozum, Allan Dural.

Contributor:

Moneta, Larry, advisor.

Naughton, Blake A., committee member.

Plympton, Margaret, committee member.

University of Pennsylvania. Higher Education Management.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Higher Education Management.

Higher Education Management--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Higher Education Management.

Higher Education Management--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

ix, 222 pages ; 29 cm

Production:

2013.

Summary:

This research adds to the body of scholarly work by addressing the study's primary research question: What are the different organizational arrangements that enable entrepreneurial activities to thrive at Catholic Benedictine colleges and universities where teaching is the primary mission? The research examined: (1) what these institutions were actually doing in the form of entrepreneurial activities, (2) how institutional members believed these activities affect mission and identity, (3) how institutional members believed these activities affect academic quality, (4) what institutional structures, policies and practices were present to facilitate these activities, and (5) how institutional members evaluated these entrepreneurial activities.

The three Catholic Benedictine institutions engaged in entrepreneurial activities in the 1990s because of dire circumstances on main campuses that lacked adequate enrollments. When the institutions' financial circumstances became more favorable, the motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activity for the most part evolved from desperation to finding special opportunities and using unique competitive advantage. The study illustrates examples after the crises years when the institutions were innovators that identified and pursued special opportunities in the market or used some unique competitive advantage.

Cultural fit between the entrepreneurial activity and the main campus mattered a great deal to these institutions. The three schools used various means to ensure that academic quality and mission/values were consistent at the margins. However, the extent to which mission and values guided market pursuits was sometimes difficult to disentangle from the profit motive that attached to these activities.

Greater independence at the margins created an environment for entrepreneurial activities to thrive. However, the nature of the activity (educational), the presence of permanent full time faculty (guardians of academic integrity), and the mission and values (faith-based) created boundaries around that independence.

A common factor among the presidents in the study was their attitude concerning revenue diversification (sought it out and welcomed it from others) and their experience with desperate main campuses. Finally, complacency can set in with years of successful growth and large surpluses. Complacency can creep in as the memory of the desperation years is forgotten.

Notes:

Adviser: Larry Moneta.

Thesis (Ed.D. in Education) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references.

OCLC:

866087806