Doctoral Dissertation Research: Market Logic in Higher Education

在过去的十年里，营利性大学的市场行为受到了极大的关注。本项目考虑哪些组织选择遵循这一逻辑。这项研究提出了组织和个人层面的问题。首先，宏观问题是“特定组织如何以及为什么更加重视以市场为基础的高等教育战略？”是被考虑的。然后，在个人层面上，“关注市场压力的变化对组织内的个人有什么影响或后果，他们是如何驾驭组织变化的？”本论文在学术上做出了重大贡献。高等教育研究人员主要关注大型州立大学或精英大学可以获得的收入来源，这些大学通过研究或慈善手段获得市场类型的资金。相比之下，这项研究考察了拥有一个主要收入来源的学院或大学：学生入学。更具体地说，该项目将大学研究的重点从信仰系统转移到行为上，并强调了信仰的制度逻辑如何与其他组织逻辑相互作用，如市场、国家或职业。为了回答这些问题，本研究采用了比较案例研究设计，检查了八所大学的数据。该项目依赖于公开的数据，如课程目录、校友杂志和IPEDS财务数据，以及员工访谈。这个项目关注的是美国教育和美国社会中继续展开的重要发展--市场逻辑的迅速扩展。它有助于理解组织对市场压力的反应，这一现象几乎适用于所有组织。鉴于这项研究的重点是广泛入学学校的依赖及其对学费收入的依赖，它将为高等教育的融资提供重要的见解，包括个人资源的投资以及财政援助计划。

In the past decade, significant attention has been afforded to the market-based behavior of for-profit universities. This project considers which organizations choose to pursue this logic. This study poses questions at both the organizational and individual level. First, the macro query of "How and why did particular organizations give greater attention to a market-based strategy of higher education?" is considered. Then, at the individual level, "What effects or consequences did changes in attention to market pressures have on individuals within the organizations and how did they navigate the organizational change?" This dissertation makes significant intellectual contributions. Higher education researchers have primarily given attention to revenue streams available to large state or elite universities with the research or philanthropic means to secure market types of funding. In contrast, this study examines the college or university that has one dominant source of revenue: student enrollments. More specifically, the project shifts the focus of the study of colleges from belief systems to behavior and highlights how the institutional logic of belief interacts with other organizational logics, such as the market, state, or professions.To answer these questions, this research employs a comparative case study design that examines data across eight institutions. This project relies on publicly available data such as course catalogs, alumni magazines, and IPEDS financial data, as well as employee interviews. This project focuses on important developments that continue to unfold in American education and American society - the rapid expansion of market logic. It contributes to the understanding of organizational responses to market pressures, a phenomenon that applies to almost every organization. Given that this study focuses on the dependence of broad access schools and their reliance on tuition revenue, it will offer important insights into financing of higher education, including investment of individual resources as well as the financial aid programs.