Educational Consortia in a Knowledge Economy: Collaboration, Competition, and Organizational Equilibrium

In today’s knowledge economy, collaboration and competition are critical in success. New postsecondary organizations have emerged in the higher education landscape, including consortiums and inter-institutional and interdisciplinary partnerships. One new organization is the Higher Education Center (HEC) in which multiple institutions partner to share resources while delivering separate academic programs. In many ways, the HEC can inform our knowledge of higher education as a whole since the HEC is comprised of public and private institutions that must compete and collaborate to ensure organizational survival. In this case study, the authors explored one such center’s internal dynamics.