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Innovating Universities: Technocratic Reform and Beyond

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The Handbook of Service Innovation

Abstract

This chapter critically examines innovations and ‘reforms’ in university service provision and their management, focusing on Australia as illustrative of broader global trends associated with the integration of higher education (HE) into the international market economy. We argue that more than the usual economic, technocratic approaches to service innovation are required because of the complexity and unpredictability that characterize the entire field of knowledge-based services. Instead we establish an interdisciplinary social science-based approach drawing from critical organization studies and complexity perspectives. To apply our alternative framing of both the issues and the intellectual tools required for effective analysis, we examine three dimensions of innovation, those in the policy, governance and academic work processes through which Australian universities have been transformed over the last 25 years. Our contribution suggests that dominant approaches to university ‘reform’ risk diminishing the creativity and critical investigation skills required for these institutions to advance service innovation and emerging forms of society, not just a ‘knowledge-based’ and ‘service-oriented’ economy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences and Communications, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Kereen Reiger

  2. Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Toni Schofield

  3. Hawke Research Institute, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

    Margaret Peters

Authors
  1. Kereen Reiger
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  2. Toni Schofield
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  3. Margaret Peters
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Toni Schofield .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, Australia

    Renu Agarwal

  2. University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

    Willem Selen

  3. UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

    Göran Roos

  4. UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Roy Green

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Reiger, K., Schofield, T., Peters, M. (2015). Innovating Universities: Technocratic Reform and Beyond. In: Agarwal, R., Selen, W., Roos, G., Green, R. (eds) The Handbook of Service Innovation. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6590-3_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6590-3_33

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