Personas responsables

The concern for financing appeared to be related to the overall concern for resources which led to an examination of the extent to which regional resources within Green University are shared. There was a distinct lack of regional co-operation between the campuses of the University, including the business schools of each campus. This influenced the resources available to Gerran and the competitiveness of Green University. Co-operation between the campuses of Green University across the region was encouraged by the University administration, but this goal remained an elusive commitment of the University hierarchy.

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Three related variables in the context appeared to create the need for a search for resources outside the country – the smallness of the country and the declining population due to migration in the overall context of economic constraints experienced by all sectors of the economy reduced the possibility of generating financing from local sources. Despite these challenges, it appeared that the “…strong sense of self-identity” (BBC, 2009), together with the tradition of income from remittances favoured the search for resources among the members of the Gerrantown diaspora and alumni of Green University more so than from other regional university partners. Respondents’ concerns regarding resource constraints, regionalism and strategic actions at the business schools are presented in Table 12.

Table 12: Respondents’ Views on Resource Constraints and Loss of Regionality

Public “One of the issues …I don’t think there is enough concern about is regionalism and regional co-operation among the business schools.” (#2 Pub Director, Gerran)

Public- private

“To the question of governance we have seen a public-private governance internal to Gerrantown and a public -private governance internal to Arden, and to Rotterdam. The very fact that we are in a sense independent ought to have made it easy for us to come together, but for funding issues, for ‘we’re the best issues,’ … you get this kind of noise.” (#1 Pub/

Priv Director, Gerran)

Private “So raising funds whether through alumni endowments, opportunities for large corporate, rich individuals to, naming opportunities to give huge monies is something that we had to embark on… (#1 Priv KOA, Gerran)

The optimism with regard to the possibility of drawing resources from the campuses of Green University across the region was not shared by actor groups. The private sector focused on the models of university endowments as demonstrated in larger universities in more developed countries. Strategies suggested by the public-private actors to search for resources within the region contrasted with the strategic posturing of private actors. The next sub-section examines the contrast between the ‘resources’ of a university and the influence of the country context on the use of those resources. This further explains the contrast between academic and instrumental resources – “social sense” versus “commercial sense” (Ghobadian et al., 2004a, p.298).

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6.2.3 ‘Town and Gown’ Effect

The history of management studies at the University influenced the perceptions of the business sector and propelled the “town and gown” relationship between academia and business (McWilliam et al., 1997, p.307; Bruning et al., 2006). It appeared that the general problems of disseminating research results (Crosswaite and Curtice, 1994; Wandersman et al., 2008) and building community-university relationships was further exacerbated by factors unique to the small, developing country context. Communication is influenced by socially and culturally constructed conceptions and values (Schieffelin and Ochs, 1986; Gumperz and Hymes, 1972). In the case of Gerrantown, discourse generally used for public education via the media appeared to be negatively viewed within the university community suggesting that the power distance between academia and the lay population was wide (Fairclough, 2001). This point is emphasised in the language of two University respondents, who used lay language in emphasising areas for better communication with the private sector and included statements such as “boy, this is a possibility” (#3 Pub Director, Gerran) or “well boy,

come and meet our new graduates, we think this batch is a good group” (#2 Pub

Director, Gerran). This is an area for further research to examine the influence of the developing context on the dissemination of research for public education (Wandersman et al., 2008) and the relationship between business research and practice (Wandersman et al., 2008). Respondents’ comments on the ‘town and gown’ effect are included in Table 13.

Table 13: Respondents’ Comments on the “Town and Gown” Effect

Public “When I was in school going in university, academics frowned on the idea of making their work public… putting something in the newspaper or going to a rotary club and make a speech …and to some degree the university culture has not changed enough…. because you’re a talk show host, you would suffer. Most of them suffer, you can’t become a professor!” (#3 Pub/Director, Gerran)

“So we’re coming back many of us in my age group and older, from the days when the businessman was sort of unlettered, crude, uncultured, whatever and he went into business because he had no real scholarly potential in getting to alternatives like lawyers, doctors and Indian chief academia, and there was an aloofness of academia from business.” (#3 Pub

Director, Gerran). Public-

private

“The whole business of management training at the university was something that was pushed in a sense, certainly in Gerrantown, more by the private sector than by the university, because our university’s traditions were such that the teaching of management wasn’t seen as something integral to a university and management studies…” (#1 Pub/Priv Director,

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The university actors acknowledged the “town and gown” effect openly and, as such, this may have positively influenced their interactions and relationship with the private sector actors. The state of the private sector in Gerrantown did not inspire confidence in a wide sub-set of private actors with respect to the knowledge base of the private sector, and as such, also contributed positively to the public-private relationship. The open expression of this effect from the public-private and public actors could be attributed to two other variables. The interview process itself was more aligned with the competencies and professional space of these actors as it gave them the opportunity to reflect in an open and relaxed environment. Secondly, it is perhaps indicative of the non-threatening relationship between public and private actors. This point is further supported by the fact that private actors did not emphasise the town and gown effect.