New paradigm, old paradox: Using organizational economics to model governance and strategic response in the universit

Organizational economics is a relatively new interdisciplinary approach to the study of organizations and governance which incorporates theoretical constructs from economics, law, and the behavioral sciences. The purpose of the study was to explore the utility of organizational economics for analyzing governance and strategic issues in the research university. The focus of the dissertation was primarily theoretical with the intent to formulate a preliminary organizational economic framework for use in policy analysis in higher education.;Drawing upon and integrating existing organizational economic theory, an economic governance model of the university was developed in static and dynamic forms. Using the governance typology developed by William Ouchi (1980) and the cultural typology of Gareth Jones (1983) in developing the static governance model, the study found that the strength of organizational economic theory in modeling the research university lay in its ability to integrate the bureaucratic governance processes and norms of the administration, the professional norms and collegial processes of the faculty, the production orientation and close supervision of the support staff, and the contractual relationships across markets found in the university into a seamless economic governance model.;Similarly, by incorporating the constructs and propositions of the static model into a costs/benefits equilibrium model patterned on the work of Jones and Hill (1988), it was possible to describe and predict shifts in the governance dynamics of each of the governance domains of the university as a result of shifts in both the strategic environment and the strategic agenda of the institution.;The conclusion of this study is that organizational economics can make important contributions to analyzing both governance and policy issues in the research university and that further theoretical development and research is warranted to realize its potential.