IT Centralization and the Innovation Value Chain in Higher Education: A Study for Promoting Key Innovations Through Innovation Management and Organizational Design

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of organizational centralization in higher education technology support units on institutional innovativeness. The centralization tools used for the present study included measures developed by Hage & Aiken (1971), Kaluzny, et al. (1974), and Ferrell & Skinner (1988). The innovativeness measures were established by Hansen & Birkinshaw’s (2007) tool for evaluating innovation value chain activities in organizations. Data were gathered from a nation-wide sample (n = 303) of IT workers at 38 research one institutions in the United States. The results indicated that innovation value chain activities (idea generation, conversion, and diffusion) were negatively impacted as centralization increased. However, these findings varied significantly by the type of institution being measured, the phase of the innovation value chain being studied, and the type of reporting line for each participant.

本研究的目的是调查高等教育技术支持单位的组织集权化对机构创新性的影响。本研究使用的集权化工具包括由哈格和艾肯（1971年）、卡卢兹尼等人（1974年）以及费雷尔和斯金纳（1988年）所开发的测量方法。创新性的衡量标准是由汉森和伯金肖（2007年）用于评估组织中创新价值链活动的工具所确定的。数据是从美国38所研究型一类院校的全国性信息技术工作者样本（n = 303）中收集的。结果表明，随着集权化程度的提高，创新价值链活动（创意产生、转化和扩散）受到了负面影响。然而，这些发现因被测量的机构类型、所研究的创新价值链阶段以及每个参与者的汇报层级类型而有显著差异。