The examination of institutional positioning in Turkish higher education based on organizational actorhood

This study, which aims to make sense of the differentiation mechanisms adopted in the field of Turkish higher education, was designed in accordance with the descriptive case study, one of the qualitative research approaches. A two-stage data collection procedure was carried out within the scope of the study. The first stage problematizes how public universities attempt to position themselves in the field of Turkish higher education. In this regard, the sections entitled 'differentiation strategy' of the current strategic plans of the relevant institutions have been identified as multiple data sources that best explain the situation, and comparable findings have been obtained for different public universities. The second stage has examined how a public higher education institution, known for its open and distance learning activities in the field of national higher education, developed organizational capabilities that allows her to be positioned in a certain niche. In this regard, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were held with faculty members from different academic units. Thematic analysis was used in the data analysis procedure, which combined deductive and inductive processes. According to the research results, public universities in Türkiye have a common future projection based on the research mission of higher education despite certain problems in specifying their differentiation initiatives. It has been understood that Turkish public higher education institutions widely base their legitimacy on their theoretical education mission, attempt to differentiate with research support units, consider their intellectual capital as the dominant collective resource, tend to organize their academic structures in accordance with environmental conditions, prioritize creating an identity based on academic productivity, interact with a great many institutions and organizations to raise resources, use various mechanisms to rationalize their outputs and services, and support their image of contributing to development with campus experience and branding activities. The emergent eight-themed positioning framework of the research was the source of creating an organizational actorhood framework for a Turkish public university under investigation. Some suggestions are given based on the obtained results.