| dc.description.abstract | I sought to establish whether boundary-spanning offices in US Universities are effectively aligned with institutional strategy. I further sought to move beyond the focus on valorization activity that is typical of US researchers studying interactions in the triple helix by focusing on the uniquely US enterprise of philanthropic corporate relations. Finally, I also sought to better align US-based university business cooperation research to contemporary global approaches, specifically in the European Union and Australia, while also challenging those perspectives through the introduction of conditional process analysis approaches. To this end, using Galán-Muros and Davey’s (2017) University Business Cooperation (UBC) Ecosystem Framework (framework) and data from 174 universities, I explored the relationships between Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (classification), National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development reported expenditures (R&D), and Corporate Voluntary Support of Education (philanthropy) as moderated by variability in office type. Recognizing that the relationship between classification and philanthropy is underexplored and likely indirect, I further examined the mediating mechanisms through which institutional capacity (i.e., its ability to conduct its mission) is derived. Study results, based in ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses and bootstrapped estimates, were consistent with the hypothesized conceptual scheme of mediation, in that R&D and philanthropy were found to have an indirect effect on classification and future philanthropic returns. However, results also suggest that prevailing approaches to corporate relations have no measureable effect on financial returns when controlling for classification. These findings broaden the focus on UBC research theory by incorporation of prevailing organization theory, establishing a temporal relationship among elements of the UBC ecosystem, and establishing a basis for converging functions, refocusing boundary-spanning offices toward more | en_US |
