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Seeing What Sticks! Revenue Diversification and New Venturing in the Business Schools of the California State University

<p> With changing funding models and increased competition, academic institutions are increasingly looking for new ways to finance their missions. Business schools are turning to revenue diversification through new venturing to offset declining MBA enrollment, high business faculty salaries, and changes in accreditation standards that require more engagement with industry. Diversifying revenue streams is an important challenge for business schools in California, which has experienced significant cuts in public funding since 2000. With thousands of business students across 23 campuses representing the largest concentration of future business professionals in the country, the California State University (CSU) is on the frontlines of needing to innovate for new revenue and funding sources. Despite not having the expertise or infrastructure needed to successfully launch new ventures, CSU business schools recognize the need for revenue diversification strategies and are finding ways to implement these initiatives. The purpose of this study was to examine how business schools in the CSU system diversify revenue streams. Qualitative methods were used for this study in order to uncover the stories behind the success or failure of revenue diversification strategies intended to lead to new sources of revenue and increased investment for these institutions. The research questions addressed by this study included examining what CSU business schools have done to diversify revenue streams, who were the entrepreneurs in this context (i.e., who were the drivers and implementers of these initiatives), what organizational and financial structures were used for launching these ventures, how have these schools measured success, and what have they learned. The study findings are presented as descriptive case studies of four CSU business schools that represent new venturing lessons learned that ideally could be extended to other contexts and other institutions. These institutions are finding ways to be entrepreneurial despite the lack of resources, infrastructure, or support. They are launching new initiatives designed to generate revenue; throwing mud at the walls, and seeing what sticks!</p><p>

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10286696
Date24 October 2017
CreatorsOubre, Linda Seiffert
PublisherUniversity of Pennsylvania
Source SetsProQuest.com
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis

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