Diametric institutional forces constraining or progressing internationalisation: the case of Australian universities

This paper aims to use new institutional theory to explain changes in market commitment levels. Through four qualitative case studies of Australian universities, we find that institutional forces constrain or progress the internationalisation process. Exploratory in-depth interviews with university managers help draw out six paired propositions of diametrically opposed institutional forces. The three pillars of new institutional theory: coercive, normative and mimetic isomorphism, are seen to interactively impact market commitment in the empirical context of internationalising universities. For coercive pressures, host and home governments are shown to impact internationalisation positively and negatively. In terms of normative pressures, the pursuit of a particular external identity for each case appears to impact whether or not the universities internationalise further. For mimetic pressures, the success and failure of competing organisations’ internationalisation projects are proposed to influence levels of market commitment with knowledge of failed competitors shown to weigh heavily on the minds of decision-makers when considering new internationalisation projects. Despite the limited generalisability of this study, this approach may be useful in other studies of highly institutional fields where institutional forces oppose each other as constraints and enablers.