The role of promoters in effecting innovation in higher education institutions

AbstractThis paper examines two cases of higher education innovation in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the public University of Regensburg in Germany. The introduction of the Honours-program, a program to promote the best students in business and economics, as well as the change from the German Diploma to the Bachelor degree are analyzed and evaluated using a cross-case study methodology. Sources of change were analyzed; the processes categorized emerging barriers and key factors to overcome resistance and implementation of these fundamental changes identified. Our findings indicate that fundamental changes in the public space — independent of their early-mover reactive and top-down or anticipatory and bottom-up characteristics — might face a similar kind of implementation challenges and solutions in the higher education sector. The success of these change processes mainly resulted from the commitment of the identified promoters which support the validity and applicability of change concepts and approaches that are transferred from the private sector to the public sector. However, the case findings also indicate that the government could facilitate bottom-up innovation initiatives by supplementary support to overcome system barriers due to resource shortages.