Where to Go for a Change: The Impact of Authority Structures in Universities and Public Research Institutes on Changes of Research Practices

Abstract

In this article, we analyse how variations in organisational conditions for research affect researchers’ opportunities for changing individual-level or group-level research programmes. We contrast three innovations that were developed in universities and public research institutes in Germany and the Netherlands, which enables comparisons both between organisational settings and between properties of innovations. Comparing the development of three innovations in the two types of organisations enables the identification of links between patterns of authority sharing at these organisations and the opportunities to develop innovations. On this basis, the distribution of opportunities to change research practices among researchers in the two countries can be established.

Citation

Gläser, J., Aljets, E., Lettkemann, E. and Laudel, G. (2014), "Where to Go for a Change: The Impact of Authority Structures in Universities and Public Research Institutes on Changes of Research Practices", Organizational Transformation and Scientific Change: The Impact of Institutional Restructuring on Universities and Intellectual Innovation (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 42), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 297-329. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20140000042010