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Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the effect various forms of institutional autonomy on higher education (HE) institutions success at three primary mission objectives of HE institutions (graduates, research, knowledge exchange). The central research question is whether increasing institutional autonomy leads to higher success of HE institutions in fulfilling their missions. The literature around institutional autonomy suggests a mostly positive effect, but also invokes some arguments to contrary effects. Design / Method: This paper uses multiple sets of OLS regression models, including multi-level hierarchical models, combining data from four sources for European HE institutions for the years 2011 and 2016 for secondary analysis. The four sources include the EUA Scorecard on HEI autonomy on country level, the ETER database for institution-level data about age, size and content orientation of HE institutions, additional macro-economic parameters on country level sourced from EUROSTAT and Centre for Science & Technology Studies of Leiden University (CWTS) data was used to as an indicator for the second HE institutional mission. The regression models are used to estimate the effect of HE institutional autonomy on its success in fulfilling its missions. Findings: Results indicate a good fit of a two-level modelling solution for the given data. The effects of increasing HE institutional autonomy on the mission objectives appear mostly minor and, in some cases, negative and therefore contrary to many statements in the literature. Originality : Quantitative evaluation approach for HE institutions in 15 European countries. Usage of the EUA Autonomy Scorecard as a multidimensional evaluation tool, combined with data from three other sources (ETER, EUROSTAT, CWTS) on HE institution level as well as on country level. Estimating effects on three different mission objectives of HE institutions. JEL Classification: C31, H41, H83, I23, I28, O57

While the ontogeny of prosociality during infancy, childhood, and adolescence has receivedsubstantial attention over the last decades, little is known about how prosocial preferences developbeyond emerging adulthood. Recent evidence suggests that the previously observed positive as-sociation between age and prosocial preferences is less robust than assumed. This study reportsresults on the association between social preferences, age, gender, and education from an Austrianrepresentative sample (N = 777, aged 16–94 years) in which incentivized social value orientations(SVO) were measured along with various other sociodemographic characteristics. The analysesconfirm that men are less prosocial than women, however, mainly during emerging adulthood (16–25years). At the same time, the decline of prosociality is stronger among women leading to a conver-gence of prosociality between men and women as they age. Overall, we find that a prosocial valueorientation is negatively correlated with people’s age. We suspect that the susceptibility of peoples’social preferences to the preferences of others in their social environment is a critical factor unifyingthese different observations in the development of prosociality. We hypothesize that the oppositeassociations between age and SVO observed in two previous studies using unincentivized measuresof social preferences are explained in parts by an age-related change in social desirability, measure-ment inaccuracy (continuous vs. categorical), and cross-cultural differences promoting competitivepreferences among emerging adults in Japan. Moreover, we find that political orientations towardsright-wing populists are consistently associated with less prosocial preferences, while educationseems to be positively associated with prosociality. Overall, our study highlights the importance ofconducting representative studies using incentivized measurements across cultures.

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-jcr-10.1177_0022002721994080 for On the Stability of Social Preferences in Inter-Group Conflict: A Lab-in-the-Field Panel Study by Robert Böhm, Jürgen Fleiß and Robert Rybnicek in Journal of Conflict Resolution

The commercialization of knowledge has become increasingly important for universities worldwide. Today, the acquisition of third-party funds, the filing of patents and the foundation of spin-offs are seen as similarly relevant to other academic activities such as conducting research and teaching. Research has examined how universities can be supported in their transformation into entrepreneurial institutions and shown that the business experience of scientists might foster the commercialization of knowledge. However, research into the role of academic leaders in this process is scant. In this study, we examine how far the business and scientific experience of the head of department impacts the entrepreneurial activities of an entire department team. Our results demonstrate that heads with business experiences positively influence the acquisition of third-party funds and the patent output of the whole department. However, we found that the foundation of spin-offs is negatively affected by these experiences. Our findings have important policy implications and suggest that business experiences should be considered in the assignment of new heads when reorienting universities into entrepreneurial institutions and restructuring university funding. Yet, the business experience of academic leaders is not a panacea and has its limitations.

Research has revealed that there is a positive correlation between entrepreneurship and economic growth. As a consequence, the European Commission is taking action on enhancing entrepreneurship and recommends appropriate entrepreneurship training in schools and higher education. Besides other factors, entrepreneurship education is often characterised by creativity, problem solving, interdisciplinarity and practice orientation. With respect to these aspects, universities might not be the right environment to launch an education for entrepreneurship and creativity. They are often inflexible institutions characterised by bureaucratic structures, laborious decision processes, and highly regulated procedures. Although they should teach entrepreneurship and creativity, they are caught up in bureaucracy and stagnancy themselves. Nevertheless, universities are obliged by government to contribute essentially to entrepreneurship education. In this case study, we examined the integration of entrepreneurship education under the challenging circumstances mentioned above. The university in this case study is home to more than 32,000 students and 4,000 employees, 6 faculties, 76 departments, and about 120 study programs. Due to cooperation with other institutions, about 60,000 students are allowed to participate. The program in this study provides basics in management, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship to increase general employability and to promote creativity, interdisciplinary thinking and entrepreneurial acting. The findings of our study indicate the importance of a setting that allows students to participate irrespective of their discipline or the progress in their studi es. Moreover, it seems advantageous that students can customise the program according to their specific needs. The importance of flexible integration into regular academic studies has to be emphasised. In this study, we provide an adequate solution to master this challenge in a bureaucratic environment.