Entrepreneurship in Higher Education - The Impact of Competition-Based Policy Programs Exemplified by the German Excellence Initiative
Forthcoming, Higher Education Quarterly
26 Pages Posted: 18 Aug 2018
Date Written: June 2018
Abstract
Competition-based policy programs are an external steering mechanism to create beneficial outcomes for societies that are also entering the Continental European higher education landscape. The Excellence Initiative in Germany was aiming to enhance research quality, international visibility and supporting peak performing universities. We want to study if a side effect occurred that the Initiative had on academic entrepreneurial activity and if so, whether it is a system-wide and/or a “winners” effect. We measure entrepreneurial activity by the patenting activity and industry collaboration of a university. Our analysis is based on 73 German universities observed from 2004-2011. Employing a difference-in-differences estimation, we find that the Initiative created an advantage for whole Germany while being an Excellence University does not have an impact on academic entrepreneurship in terms of patenting activity. However, we find a Matthew effect in terms of rewards in industry collaboration. We conclude that the Initiative had positive side effects for the system and partly also for the winners of the competition.
Keywords: Higher Education, Excellence Initiative, Difference-in-Differences, Academic Entrepreneurship, Policy Impact
JEL Classification: H52, I22, I23, I25, I28
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