Abstract
This study is motivated by a theoretical deficiency in the research on internal resource allocation and functional differentiation of higher education institutions in relation with their prestige maximizing behaviors. Our finding, despite its purely theoretical nature, suggests that a prestige-maximizing college or university achieves the highest potential prestige by optimally allocating its limited resources and equalizing the prestige of the closely associated academic departments or disciplines. The result certainly indicates that the interdisciplinary activities and functional differentiation, which represent two major efforts found in the recent higher education community, have indeed counteractive effects on their separate objectives.
Highlights
Academic crossover as typified by interdisciplinary research and learning have contributed tremendously to the creation of new knowledge in nearly every aspect of today’s multifaceted human activities
The result certainly indicates that the interdisciplinary activities and functional differentiation, which represent two major efforts found in the recent higher education community, have counteractive effects on their separate objectives
The additive separability is an unattractive feature for the analysis, if different academic disciplines, e.g., economics, physics, and psychology, contribute non-negligibly through combined efforts to new knowledge production, which in turn leads to enhancement of academic strengths and eventually of overall institutional prestige
Summary
Academic crossover as typified by interdisciplinary research and learning have contributed tremendously to the creation of new knowledge in nearly every aspect of today’s multifaceted human activities. At large research universities in the US, internal resources are strategically allocated to encourage such cross-disciplinary activities to further enhance collaborative research and development. Another noteworthy trend found in an increasingly diverse higher education environment is the rising importance of differentiating institutions with regard to their missions or functions (Gumport and Bastedo [1]). A theoretical foundation laid by Abe and Watanabe [3, 4] provides a mechanism which helps us understand optimizing behaviors of colleges and universities with regard to internal resource allocation and maximization of institutional prestige. The result indicates that collaborative efforts involving multiple departments could impede functional differentiation of higher education institutions
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