Building the Innovative and Entrepreneurial University: An Institutional Case Study of Administrative Academic Capitalism

Although researchers have explored dimensions of academic capitalism among students and faculty members, knowledge of the roles of administrators at all levels is underdeveloped in the literature. This institutional case study of a public research-extensive university examines the roles of executive and managerial administrators in bringing a strategic priority of innovation and entrepreneurship to fruition. Using an analytical framework based upon administrative academic capitalism and extended managerial capacity, the study draws upon 31 interviews with administrators, faculty, and students at the institutional case to identify five roles fulfilled by executive and managerial administrators in the facilitation of academic capitalism: building infrastructure, creating new programs, cultivating donors and raising funds, setting a vision around entrepreneurship, and changing policies. The findings show that an institutional orientation to knowledge privatization and profit taking was largely an administrator-driven project. Efforts to promote innovation and entrepreneurship engendered some conflict with faculty members, demonstrating the possible consequences of extended managerial control over processes of production in the academy.