Does institutional governance of universities matter for innovation?
- Davide Donina, University of Bergamo
In this seminar Dr Donina states that since the 1990s, reforms of managerial practices in higher education settings have been significant and far-reaching. Among the policy instruments targeted by the global higher education reform agenda there has been the central governance structures of universities, which are pivotal in increasing universities’ social responsibility and in prompting their effective response to socio-economic challenges.
Many studies analysed and compared the policy changes to central university governance structure, but only few have sought to examine the efficacy of these changes. In addition, the available studies about board composition, size, and structure provide inconsistent empirical evidence regarding the impact of board structure on organizational performance in both public and private organisations.
Dr Donina work aims to fill into this literature stream and addresses this gap by investigating whether the characteristics of governing bodies influence innovation output measured as patent activity and spinoff creation. The research question addressed is therefore: Does the institutional governance model of the university affect innovation?
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Dr Davide Donina obtained a Ph.D. in Economic and Management of Technology at the University of Pavia on January 2017 with a thesis on Higher Education Reforms in Italy. During his Ph.D., he a was visiting scholar at: i) Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent (CHEGG), Department of Sociology, Faculty for Political and Social Sciences, Ghent University (Belgium) and ii) Centro de Investigação de Políticas do Ensino Superior (Center for Research in Higher Education Policies, CIPES), Matosinhos (Porto, Portugal).
