Structural and strategic changes: a multi-case study from the neo institutional perspective

Abstract

Changes that took place in 31 colleges, university centers and private universities were viewed from the neo institutional perspective. A cross-sectional approach, supported by longitudinal interviews during eight years, identified structural and strategic changes. A history of the institutional changes that have taken place in the model of the Brazilian state was presented. An analysis was then made of changes in higher education in Brazil and concluded with quantitative methods related to strategic changes in these schools. The conclusion was, that even as an empirically sustained hypothesis, the isomorphic mimetic, normative and coercive mechanisms are factors of structural homogeneity as well as generators of change producing diversity in an organizational domain.