What's for Sale at Canadian Universities? A Mixed‐Methods Analysis of Promotional Strategies

Abstract

The current fiscal environment has driven Canadian universities to become more entrepreneurial, seeking out and competing over new sources of funding. Despite such intensifying competition, little effort has been made to document the promotional tactics that Canadian universities are using to render themselves appealing to external audiences. This study examines the contents of the home pages of English‐speaking universities in Canada. It finds that, though there are some differences in the tactics that primarily undergraduate and research‐intensive universities employ, both generally strive to emulate the same institutional ‘template’. Moreover, the usage of more unorthodox promotional tactics, drawing on labour market rhetoric or discourses of inclusivity, is limited. These findings are theorised in relation to contemporary work within organisational sociology and strategic management.

Interdisciplinarity for sale: Logics of knowledge, labour markets and consumerism

“…However, the phrasing of this argument is clearly aimed at prospective students, those seeking a programme which will provide the best labour market outcomes, rather than an academic audience focused on pure knowledge. This sort of labour market rhetoric is typically avoided by all but the lowest status disciplinary programmes in a field (Pizarro Milian & McLaughlin, ), and traditionally perceived as illegitimate by many academics (Côté & Allahar, ; Kraatz & Zajac, ). It thus shows a level of ambidexterity among interdisciplinary programmes, and an openness to engage in innovative strategies even when they violate field norms.…”

“…As in previous PSE marketing studies (Pizarro Milian, , ; Pizarro Milian & Rizk, ; Puddephatt & Nelsen, ), qualitative analysis software (QDA Miner Lite) was employed to track trends in our textual data. We employed a hybrid coding scheme that incorporates both deductive and inductive strategies (see Fereday & Muir‐Cochrane, ).…”

“…A second assumption built into our analysis is that survival within this tumultuous environment, especially for new entrants who are not yet fully institutionalised components of the modern university (Pizarro Milian, ), requires a degree of agility or ambidexterity (see O’Reilly & Tushman, )—meaning the ability to adjust or reposition oneself in response to the dynamic demands placed upon them by a complex, multi‐stakeholder environment. Strategic positioning of this sort has been repeatedly examined in PSE research, but primarily at the organisational level (Branković, ; Fumasoli & Huisman, ; Mampaey, Huisman, & Seeber, ; Vuori, ).…”

The determinants of university strategic positioning: a reappraisal of the organisation

“…On the one hand, several studies show distinctive strategic processes in highly institutionalised contexts (Bonaccorsi and Daraio 2007;Rossi 2009b;Mahat 2015), where convergence processes are expected (see also Kraatz and Zajac (1996)). On the other hand, emulative and compliant behaviours are observed in increasing competitive contexts (James and Huisman 2009;Silander and Haake 2016;Pizarro Milian 2017). MacKay et al (1996) find a weak and unclear relationship between increasing managerialism and distinctive responses of UK universities towards external competition, whereas Erhardt and von Kotzebue (2016) depict a low level of horizontal differentiation in German higher education in spite of a ten-year growing competition.…”

What's in a name? The impact of reputation and rankings on the teaching income of English universities

“…Universities therefore strive to signal that they are highly desirable destinations. They may advertise their alignment with an institutional template characteristic of high‐status institutions (Pizarro Milian, ); or highlight specific attributes and create a specific brand (Chapleo, Duran, & Diaz, ). Market positioning is now seen as centrally important in the not‐for‐profit sector, as it has long been in the private sector, but there is little empirical research on impact (Hensley‐Brown & Oplatka, ).…”