The effects of sustainability orientation on research and teaching efficiency in German universities
Schubert, Torben LU ; Kroll, Henning and Chavez, Cecilia Garcia LU
(2023)
In Socio-Economic Planning Sciences
88.
- Abstract
Academic research increasingly focuses on environmental sustainability as a specific societal mission to be addressed. However, the effects of the increasing sustainability orientation on output generation in public research organizations are largely unexplored. In this paper, we analyse the effects of the increasing importance of sustainability-oriented research topics on research and teaching efficiency in German universities in 2018. Our results are mixed. On the one hand, we find that a higher share of publications related to sustainability increases research efficiency. On the other hand, it decreases teaching efficiency. The latter negative effect seems to relate primarily to a notion of teaching efficiency associated with... (More)
Academic research increasingly focuses on environmental sustainability as a specific societal mission to be addressed. However, the effects of the increasing sustainability orientation on output generation in public research organizations are largely unexplored. In this paper, we analyse the effects of the increasing importance of sustainability-oriented research topics on research and teaching efficiency in German universities in 2018. Our results are mixed. On the one hand, we find that a higher share of publications related to sustainability increases research efficiency. On the other hand, it decreases teaching efficiency. The latter negative effect seems to relate primarily to a notion of teaching efficiency associated with quantity rather than the quality of teaching output. We conclude that the tendency to focus academic research on challenge-driven sustainability orientation can have non-trivial effects on the efficiency of output generation and therefore needs to be considered ex-ante by policy-makers, administrators and university managers.
(Less)
- author
- Schubert, Torben
LU
; Kroll, Henning
and Chavez, Cecilia Garcia
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- DEA, Efficiency, Mission-orientation, Sustainability, Universities
- in
- Socio-Economic Planning Sciences
- volume
- 88
- article number
- 101676
- pages
- 8 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85164332891
- ISSN
- 0038-0121
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.seps.2023.101676
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: The authors acknowledge funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF ) under grant number 16PH20010 .
- id
- 334ba770-8c67-4973-bdef-4c813aa82430
- date added to LUP
- 2023-07-22 16:18:26
- date last changed
- 2024-01-20 00:28:31
@article{334ba770-8c67-4973-bdef-4c813aa82430,
abstract = {{<p>Academic research increasingly focuses on environmental sustainability as a specific societal mission to be addressed. However, the effects of the increasing sustainability orientation on output generation in public research organizations are largely unexplored. In this paper, we analyse the effects of the increasing importance of sustainability-oriented research topics on research and teaching efficiency in German universities in 2018. Our results are mixed. On the one hand, we find that a higher share of publications related to sustainability increases research efficiency. On the other hand, it decreases teaching efficiency. The latter negative effect seems to relate primarily to a notion of teaching efficiency associated with quantity rather than the quality of teaching output. We conclude that the tendency to focus academic research on challenge-driven sustainability orientation can have non-trivial effects on the efficiency of output generation and therefore needs to be considered ex-ante by policy-makers, administrators and university managers.</p>}},
author = {{Schubert, Torben and Kroll, Henning and Chavez, Cecilia Garcia}},
issn = {{0038-0121}},
keywords = {{DEA; Efficiency; Mission-orientation; Sustainability; Universities}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Socio-Economic Planning Sciences}},
title = {{The effects of sustainability orientation on research and teaching efficiency in German universities}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2023.101676}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.seps.2023.101676}},
volume = {{88}},
year = {{2023}},
}