The higher education (HE) sector has witnessed escalating competition, resulting in an increase in scholarly interest. Despite this, a comprehensive review of the existing literature in this domain remains absent. Thus, based on Tranfield et al.'s (2003) methodology, we systematically review 80 articles published between 2012 and 2022, extracted…

Universities are specific local entities, and as such are in competition with one another for resources and prestige. The general tone of the literature--which sees universities mainly as specific organizations--is quite negative, with competition leading to destructive market and political forces. The tone is surprising, given the extraordinary…

Initiatives to build research universities to have world-class universities, the creator and the disseminator of scientific knowledge in knowledge-based economies, are among the most important policy reactions in higher education systems. With an increase in demands on greater accountability, transparency, and efficiency, studies investigating the…

Competition in higher education is intensifying worldwide and gaining increasing scholarly attention. However, it is not always easy to observe how competition actually takes place. Our research focuses on one example where competition becomes not only visible but also analyzable: State-led funding contests exemplified by the Excellence Initiative…

Competition today has become a central policy imperative in higher education. Connected to resource efficiency and scarcity, it remains closely attached to the idea of the market but reaches beyond when related to positional or status orders. In the higher education literature such varieties of competition -- as distinct social processes -- are…

Seeing that the culture and governance of competition determines relations among social actors, we turn to the concept of referentiality to investigate the institutional order of competition in higher education. Defining referentiality as the description of a model standard for comparison, this study explores how higher education organizations…

This study analyses the effect of a change of focus in a traditional mission (teaching) of higher education institutions (HEIs) on the variety and intensity of knowledge exchange (KE) activities. In doing so, it bridges two partially disconnected streams of the literature in science and innovation focusing on HEI missions and heterogeneity in HEI…

This article explores the strategic external funding goals and plans of action of Finnish universities of applied sciences (UASs) as articulated in their institutional strategies using the ecology-of-games metaphor. UASs are pressured to expand external funding sources compared to their previous student number-based funding history. The UASs'…

This conceptual study explores the dominant ideologies influencing the economic governance of higher education (HE) and shaping competition within the sector and among universities. It delineates and contrasts four key ideological positions -- neoliberalism, managerialism, shareholderism, and stakeholderism -- and outlines four corresponding types…

For two centuries, academics and their universities have competed for prominence and vied to demonstrate that their institutions are at the center of the scholarly world. Scientific advances in particular fields, reciprocal academic visits and conferences, impressive physical architecture, and publishing in shared venues and a "lingua…

University rankings envision a level playing field between competing universities, particularly in higher education (HE) systems regulated along market lines. Drawing on social stratification theory, we argue that rankings exacerbate, rather than alleviate, resource inequalities between universities with historically consolidated reputations…

The Finnish financial autonomy reform pushed university leaders and academics to a juncture where they must navigate through increasing competition dynamics. Enabling the two types of organisational players -- foundation-run universities and universities under public law -- to become more autonomous and competitive was the major element of…

Late entry into a market is an institution strategy that has been little researched in the context of higher education. The purpose of this research was to identify and analyse the different positioning and differentiation strategies adopted by late entry institutions to gain a competitive advantage. The sample consisted of seven campuses…

Since 1990 there has been remarkable growth and diversification of worldwide capacity and output in science, and a distinctive global science system has emerged, primarily grounded in research universities, fostered by Internet-mediated communication and publication in English, cross-border authorship and researcher mobility. While global science…

Although academics are increasingly expected to share their research data and materials with other academics, many appear reluctant to do so. While extant research emphasises commercial involvement and peer influence as determinants of withholding behaviour, we hypothesise that the volume of competing commitments plays an important role in…