| The effective management of resources enables university leaders to underwrite strategies necessary to compete for outstanding faculty and students, while constantly advancing the institution's academic mission. To do so, however, institutions must be strategic, holistic, and less transactional in developing creative mechanisms to manage their resources in an effective manner.;This dissertation will evaluate the use of Central Banks1 as one such financial mechanism through which management and boards of trustees can advance mission-critical goals and attain financial flexibility to meet the needs of multiple constituents. Central Banks, however, may require a level of centralization that institutional actors may disfavor; thus, a cultural shift and high levels of trust across an institution may be required. Further, Central Banks often reserve resource control and decision making for a small group of leaders, which may raise concerns about risk, transparency, governance, and accountability. Central Banks also require managers, senior leaders, and board members to understand in much greater depth than ever before, and as a whole, their institution's balance sheet and operating statements.;The factors leading to the establishment of a Central Bank and the manner in which they are governed are the foci of this dissertation. Using governance principles borrowed from federalized Central Banks, I explore processes, outcomes, human factors, and culture in a complex research university. To better understand the phenomena, I applied several conceptual frameworks by noted scholars from industry and academe. Taken together, these frameworks provide a conceptual landscape for the in-depth, comparative case study involving 10 institutions (with 1 primary case site). I examined: (1) the factors that cause an institution to form a bank, (2) whether institutions alter governance structures pre- or postformation, and (3) what lessons may be learned from the bank-implementation process.;During the course of this study, which was completed in Fall 2008, the United States suffered a major financial recession and all universities, even the wealthiest, were impacted (Ashburn et al., 2008; Blumenstyk, 2008a, 2008b; Blumenstyk & Field, 2008; Breneman, 2008; Field & Wiedeman, 2008). This crisis affected the data collection, research questions, and findings. Significant attention is directed to the impact of the recession in chapter 4.;1 For the purposes of this paper, the terms Internal and Central Bank are used interchangeably. |
