This paper reports evidence from two studies conducted in nine British universities into individual academic and institutional perspectives on research impact. We analyse our findings in the context of global developments in performance measurement. Mechanisms for assessing the quality of research and associated knowledge exchange serve a dual purpose: used retrospectively, they enable public funding agencies to hold universities to account for the monies they have received and, looking forward, they allow those same agencies to incentivise desired activities or outcomes. Whilst existing mechanisms offer seemingly attractive, albeit contested, ways of pursuing the former, we particularly question their effectiveness in achieving the latter goal. We observe among our respondents a wide variety of intended impacts and mechanisms for pursuing them, and argue that this renders any monitoring and reward system based on achieved outcomes prone to complexity and lack of comprehensiveness. By contrast, a high level of consistency in motivationsacross institutions and disciplinespoints to a focus on the process of knowledge exchange as a far more effective driver. We identify a key role for university managers in fostering academic engagement in knowledge exchange. Ultimately, however, we conclude that effective incentivisation is likely to depend on the replacement of impact-based evaluations with a new, process-based approach.

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While the ascendancy of market behaviours in public research universities is well documented, the extent to which universities have transformed themselves into industry-like organisations has been called into question. So to what extent are universities displaying transformation in their core values? The concept of institutional logics, with its focus on the relationship between organisational design and underlying beliefs and values, shows potential to address this question. Yet study of institutional logics at the campus level has to date been limited. This paper presents an empirical analysis of three US research universities' organising principles as expressed in key mission and planning documents over a 15-year period. Of the multiple strategies at play in the universities' responses to potentially competing values, the creation of new, hybrid logics is of particular interest. The concept of hybrid logics suggests a promising framework for understanding how universities can and do manage tensions in their mission.

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