Choose Your Friends Wisely: How Organizational Identity Influences Behavior at U.S. Colleges and Universities

This study explores how organizational identity is linked with organizational behavior and change at U.S. colleges and universities. Using IPEDS data from 914 public and private not-for-profit four-year institutions, this study analyzes how institutions' identity claims through their self-identified comparison groups are associated with Carnegie Classification change between 2010 and 2015. Results indicate that institutions that identified a higher proportion of aspirational peers and a set of peers who changed over the study period were more likely to be re-classified in 2015. These findings suggest that identity is a key variable that influences how postsecondary institutions adapt to their environments.