Towards Strategic Actorhood? The Execution of Institutional Positioning Strategies at Finnish Universities of Applied Science

Abstract

Given the emerging interest in institutional positioning and to augment the small number of empirical studies in this field, this paper presents discussion about how Finnish universities of applied sciences implement their profiling strategies. The analysis is based on an examination of documents recently submitted by these institutions when reapplying for operating licences. The paper discusses how institutions refer to their positioning statements when introducing or responding to changes in their internal or external environments and questions whether positioning paves the way to strategic actorhood. The results suggest that the universities of applied sciences that most often refer to profiling statements have built different kinds of networks to support their positioning activities. Moreover, they have made considerable structural changes to implement their positioning strategies. The restructuring of human resource capacity required to execute the positioning strategy is discussed in the reapplication documents, albeit with a lesser emphasis.