An Academy in Transition: Organizational Success and Failure in the Process of German Unification

Abstract

This paper analyzes the transformation of East Germany's R&D system in the unification period after 1989. East Germany's transformation process was more profound and rapid than those in the other formerly communist countries: the difference lay in the fact that it moved alongside a complete institutional model (the West German) which gave the process a clear direction. This paper briefly describes the transformation at an institutional level, but then focuses on a set of individual research organizations: the institutes of the old DDR Academy of Sciences. A constrained-choice model is used to explain the wide variety of transformation outcomes (dissolution or preservation). This analysis shows that the Academy's institutes were threatened to varying degrees by the turbulent changes in their environment; that various opportunities for strategic action were open to them; that they used these opportunities in different ways; and that these factors together can plausibly explain the outcomes of the transformation.