Institutional Change and Peer Change in American Higher Education, 2004-2015

• In Event: 3564 - Measuring and Managing Organizations

Abstract

While the degree of similarity between organizations is theorized to have diverse consequences for organizations, the criteria that define organizations as similar vary by theoretical approach and are often assumed to remain constant over time. Researchers approaching organizations from a neo-institutional perspective suggest that institutional rules shape what features of organizations matter in defining similarity, and that when institutions change, the bases of similarity change. Higher education researchers argue that the imposition of third-party rankings on the higher-education space represents this kind of significant institutional change. I test the effect of this institutional change on higher education organizations’ nominations of peers over time. I find that organizations have become more likely to name as peers schools close to them in the rankings, and that they have moved away from traditional criteria such as institutional control (public or private) and enrollment. However, the overall effect of these changes is a decrease in consensus about the position of any school in the field. These findings suggest that institutional change leads to changes in how organizations understand similarity, and that the higher education space is increasingly defined by rankings.

Author

• Kevin Robert Kiley, Duke University