Digitalization as a major transformation process has affected universities worldwide. In this paper, we investigate how Swiss universities address digitalization as a matter of strategic management and positioning, and the constellations of actors, interests, and institutional arrangements that produce specific organizational responses. Focusing on the role of educational entrepreneurship (Mitchell & Stevens 2021), strategic alliances, and institutional resources in the construction of universities’ organizational actorhood (Krücken and Meier 2006; Thoenig and Paradeise 2018; Bloch 2021), a qualitative case study design was employed to examine four public research universities in Switzerland (Baschung et al. 2009). Our research empirically shows how actor constellations, strategic action, and institutional resource allocation led to the establishment of new research centers, faculty positions, and degree programs as part of these universities’ digital strategies. The analysis reveals that digital strategies open spaces of opportunities where strategically minded educational entrepreneurs can build alliances across disciplines, university management, and professional groups to pursue their interests. However, the outcome of their efforts varies significantly depending on the situational resources and institutional power relations affecting the maneuvering space of those who can sense and seize the arising opportunities. Universities primarily use digital strategies to strengthen their identities and refine existing position-taking (Tratschin et al. 2023) within nested organizational fields (Hüther & Krücken 2016). The widespread diffusion of digital strategies among Swiss universities reflects the internalization of digital transformation in universities’ governance mechanisms and the role of educational entrepreneurs therein. Our findings point to the differentiated role of educational entrepreneurship. While it can drive organizational actorhood, its effects depend on its interaction with university governance and resources. Educational entrepreneurship appears particularly consequential where formal leadership is weak or resources are limited. In contrast, in resource-rich and strongly steered contexts, its importance diminishes.

This research examines how digital tools are reshaping the processes and practices of academic staff appraisal. It addresses the following question: What is the impact of digital technologies on academic staff appraisal systems?

The study builds upon Bouckaert and Halligan's (2008) performance management model, which, while acknowledging the role of information systems, has not yet been fully developed to account for the specific mediating role of contemporary digital tools. This framework is combined with neo-institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) to analyze adaptation within German research-intensive universities. The empirical research employs a qualitative multiple-case study design (Yin, 2018) , based on semi-structured interviews with academics, administrators, and HR professionals and a systematic analysis of institutional documents and digital performance dashboards.

Preliminary findings indicate that digital technologies, such as performance dashboards and benchmarking platforms, significantly reconfigure appraisal processes. They intensify the focus on quantifiable outputs, creating a system of academic management that aligns with what Leišytė (2022) identifies as the logics of "surveillance capitalism," where data extraction and metricization standardize evaluation and increase visibility into academic work.

By providing empirical evidence on how digital tools re-shape core academic processes, this research addresses directly to the normative tensions highlighted by the conference theme. It demonstrates that the integration of digital technologies is not a neutral, technical update but a value-laden process that recalibrates the balance between accountability and professional autonomy, forcing a critical confrontation between managerial and academic logics in the university.

We use Germany’s 2007 parental benefit reform to investigate how extensions of child-related employment interruptions affect career trajectories of highly educated women up to ten years after first childbirth. To this, we consider employment and earnings, but also job quality and leadership. Based on linked administrative and bibliometric data covering doctoral students and doctorate holders who became first-time mothers between 2004 and 2009, we apply a difference-in-difference inspired event study design with dynamic treatment effects depending on first child’s age. We find that the introduction of earnings-related parental benefits without eligibility criteria foster short-term employment interruptions without negative consequences for regular employment in the medium- and long-term. For achieving a high income, we observe a similar pattern with even partly positive reform effects in later years. However, when it comes to jobs in a leadership position, longer employment interruptions after childbirth seem to hamper career progress. This overall negative pattern is not driven by timing of first birth relative to doctorate completion or different work contexts proxied by scientific fields or pre-birth employment in the academic sector.