Competitive Positioning of Universities and their Members

Prof. Dr. Anna Kosmützky (LCSS, University of Hannover))

Tobias Bochmann (LCSS, University of Hannover)

Leonie Buschkamp (LCSS, University of Hannover)

Rasmus Bonde Schmid (student assistant;LCSS, University of Hannover))

The subproject investigates the competitive positioning of researchers in relation to the competitive positioning of their universities. The competitive positioning of universities includes differences in performance and status as well as competitive ambitions and strategies concerning reputation, resources and talent.  As strategic organizational actors universities may differ in their competitive ambitions and positional strategies in various fields of competition. The competitive positioning of university members are their self-descriptions that refer to the competition for reputation, resources, and positions and the behavior of competitors. The central hypothesis of the project is that the competitive positioning of researchers in the context of multiple competition varies not only depending on the respective scientific community but also depending on the competitive organizational positioning of their universities. The subproject examines this hypothesis in a qualitative research design. It analyses the competitive positioning of six German universities based on document analyses and interviews with university leadership and relates them to the competitive orientation of researchers, which are analyzed based on websites, CVs, and interviews. The second funding period of the research group will include international comparisons.