IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v47y2018i1p98-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do university mergers create academic synergy? Evidence from China and the Nordic Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Qiaochu
  • Patton, Donald
  • Kenney, Martin

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, mergers have been pursued by a large number of national university systems. The mergers have been justified as a way of increasing research performance. This paper examines the impact of mergers on one vital measure of university research performance, the production of publications, for 29 Chinese university mergers and 8 Nordic university mergers. Using Web of Science counts of research articles before and after a merger while controlling for the university inputs of R&D funding and research personnel, it was found that Chinese universities exhibited a small but significant increase in the rate of growth of articles following a merger. The Nordic performance was less clear cut. Our findings support the belief that mergers of similarly sized institutions usually have little impact on research performance. In contrast, mergers between a large comprehensive university and much smaller universities have a positive impact on overall publications. We also show that cases in which the merger was between a comprehensive university and a medical school resulted in significantly improved performance in terms of scholarly publications. We attribute the improvement to synergies between the basic biological research in the comprehensive university and the more practical research undertaken in medical schools. We conclude with suggestions for policy-makers aiming to create synergies through mergers.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Qiaochu & Patton, Donald & Kenney, Martin, 2018. "Do university mergers create academic synergy? Evidence from China and the Nordic Countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 98-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:47:y:2018:i:1:p:98-107
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2017.10.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733317301634
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2017.10.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jill Johnes, 2014. "Efficiency and Mergers in English Higher Education 1996/97 to 2008/9: Parametric and Non-parametric Estimation of the Multi-input Multi-output Distance Function," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 82(4), pages 465-487, July.
    2. Ali, Ayfer & Gittelman, Michelle, 2016. "Research paradigms and useful inventions in medicine: Patents and licensing by teams of clinical and basic scientists in Academic Medical Centers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1499-1511.
    3. Johnes, Jill & Yu, Li, 2008. "Measuring the research performance of Chinese higher education institutions using data envelopment analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 679-696, December.
    4. Jamil Salmi, 2009. "The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2600.
    5. Cloodt, Myriam & Hagedoorn, John & Van Kranenburg, Hans, 2006. "Mergers and acquisitions: Their effect on the innovative performance of companies in high-tech industries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 642-654, June.
    6. Johan P. Olsen & Peter Maassen, 2007. "European Debates on the Knowledge Institution:The Modernization of the University at the European Level," ARENA Working Papers 17, ARENA.
    7. Geraint Johnes & Jill Johnes, 2016. "Costs, efficiency, and economies of scale and scope in the English higher education sector," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 32(4), pages 596-614.
    8. D. Docampo & D. Egret & L. Cram, 2015. "The effect of university mergers on the Shanghai ranking," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(1), pages 175-191, July.
    9. Cohn, Elchanan & Rhine, Sherrie L W & Santos, Maria C, 1989. "Institutions of Higher Education as Multi-product Firms: Economies of Scale and Scope," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(2), pages 284-290, May.
    10. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Cinzia Daraio, 2005. "Exploring size and agglomeration effects on public research productivity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(1), pages 87-120, March.
    11. Gillian Rowley, 1997. "Strategic Alliances: United We Stand: A Strategic Analysis of Mergers in Higher Education," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 7-12, October.
    12. de Groot, Hans & McMahon, Walter W & Volkwein, J Fredericks, 1991. "The Cost Structure of American Research Universities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 424-431, August.
    13. Nelson, Richard R. & Buterbaugh, Kristin & Perl, Marcel & Gelijns, Annetine, 2011. "How medical know-how progresses," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1339-1344.
    14. Zhang, Han & Patton, Donald & Kenney, Martin, 2013. "Building global-class universities: Assessing the impact of the 985 Project," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 765-775.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yu, Nannan & Dong, Yueyan & de Jong, Martin & Yue, Jinxing, 2024. "How do new university presidents affect research performance? Measuring the impact of pervious career paths in China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    2. Török, Ádám & Nagy, Andrea Magda, 2021. "A "nagy ugrás" a felsőoktatásban - Kína a nemzetközi verseny élmezőnyében? [The big leap" in higher education - Has China moved into the lead?]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(4), pages 375-398.
    3. Chu, Shuai & Wu, Mengfei, 2021. "Does the geographic clustering of universities promote their scientific research performance? Evidence from China," GLO Discussion Paper Series 963, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Kang, Yankun & Liu, Ruiming, 2021. "Does the merger of universities promote their scientific research performance? Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    5. Hana BOR & Avraham KETKO, 2019. "A University Reinvents Itself: A Case Study For Understanding Strategic Mergers And Integration Between Academic Institutions," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 20(3), pages 241-258, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barra, Cristian & Lagravinese, Raffaele & Zotti, Roberto, 2018. "Does econometric methodology matter to rank universities? An analysis of Italian higher education system," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-120.
    2. Agasisti, Tommaso & Barra, Cristian & Zotti, Roberto, 2016. "Evaluating the efficiency of Italian public universities (2008–2011) in presence of (unobserved) heterogeneity," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 47-58.
    3. Manuel Salas-Velasco, 2020. "Measuring and explaining the production efficiency of Spanish universities using a non-parametric approach and a bootstrapped-truncated regression," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 825-846, February.
    4. Mehdi Rhaiem, 2017. "Measurement and determinants of academic research efficiency: a systematic review of the evidence," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 581-615, February.
    5. Fu, Tsu-Tan & See, Kok Fong, 2022. "An integrated analysis of quality and productivity growth in China’s and Taiwan’s higher education institutions," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 234-249.
    6. George E. Halkos & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes & Stavros A. Kourtzidis, 2010. "An application of statistical interference in DEA models: An analysis of public owned university departments' efficiency," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2010_17, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    7. Liang-Cheng Zhang & Andrew C. Worthington, 2018. "Explaining Estimated Economies of Scale and Scope in Higher Education: A Meta-Regression Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(2), pages 156-173, March.
    8. Tzeremes, Nickolaos & Halkos, George, 2010. "A DEA approach for measuring university departments’ efficiency," MPRA Paper 24029, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Kerstin Pull & Birgit Pferdmenges & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2017. "Do Research Training Groups Operate at Optimal Size?," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 18(2), pages 129-145, May.
    10. Torben Schubert, 2014. "Are there scale economies in scientific production? On the topic of locally increasing returns to scale," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(2), pages 393-408, May.
    11. Barra, Cristian & Lagravinese, Raffaele & Zotti, Roberto, 2015. "Explaining (in)efficiency in higher education: a comparison of parametric and non-parametric analyses to rank universities," MPRA Paper 67119, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Liang Zhang & Wei Bao & Liang Sun, 2016. "Resources and Research Production in Higher Education: A Longitudinal Analysis of Chinese Universities, 2000–2010," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(7), pages 869-891, November.
    13. Tommaso Agasisti & Ekaterina Shibanova & Daria Platonova & Mikhail Lisyutkin, 2018. "The Russian Excellence Initiative For Higher Education: An Econometric Evaluation Of Short-Term Results," HSE Working papers WP BRP 201/EC/2018, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    14. Johnes, Geraint & Johnes, Jill & Virmani, Swati, 2022. "Performance and efficiency in Indian universities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Tommaso Agasisti & Guo-liang Yang & Yao-yao Song & Carolyn-Thi Thanh Dung Tran, 2021. "Evaluating the higher education productivity of Chinese and European “elite” universities using a meta-frontier approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 5819-5853, July.
    16. repec:lan:wpaper:4471 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Tirivayi, J.N. & Maasen van den Brink, H. & Groot, W.N.J., 2014. "Size and economies of scale in higher education and the implications for mergers," MERIT Working Papers 2014-066, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Tasso Brandt & Torben Schubert, 2014. "Is the university model an organizational necessity? Scale and agglomeration effects in science," Chapters, in: Andrea Bonaccorsi (ed.), Knowledge, Diversity and Performance in European Higher Education, chapter 8, pages iii-iii, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Daraio, Cinzia & Bonaccorsi, Andrea & Simar, Léopold, 2015. "Efficiency and economies of scale and specialization in European universities: A directional distance approach," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 430-448.
    20. Wang, Derek D., 2019. "Performance-based resource allocation for higher education institutions in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 66-75.
    21. Gralka, Sabine, 2018. "Stochastic frontier analysis in higher education: A systematic review," CEPIE Working Papers 05/18, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:47:y:2018:i:1:p:98-107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.