The impact of a university’s quality is highly significant as it will have positive or negative externalities on the future trajectories of its students. Therefore, exploring the development processes that allow an institution to overcome the “valley of death” and achieve consolidation is key to guiding the emerging independent private universities that have arisen to meet the massification of higher education.
Hence, it is pertinent to inquire about the decisions made by some independent private universities in Chile that, in the face of environmental complexities, manage to become high-performing institutions. This means having efficient governance to achieve institutional goals, implementing concrete actions to fulfill their academic purposes, and having a financially sustainable business model. All of this translates into recognition from regulators (accreditation) and social status (high rankings in national and international rankings).
To answer this question, the theories that form the conceptual basis for this research are analyzed, which are approached from three theoretical perspectives: the Political Economy of Higher Education, Organizational Development, and University Governance and Agency Theory.
The Political Economy of Higher Education reflects on our tertiary education system and its political economy foundations under different incentive schemes. On the other hand, from the theoretical perspective of Organizational Development, the different evolutionary stages of institutions are presented from their inception to either their demise or consolidation.
Furthermore, University Governance (UG) and Agency Theory (AT) are explored based on their theoretical assumptions. UG is seen as one of the key factors for achieving institutional consolidation, while AT is used as an analytical tool to identify good practices of internal governance.
