The university’s missions and its role in society have been an important discussion as stakeholder expectations rise and budgetary constraints tighten. In order to respond to these macro conditions, strategic planning has become increasingly integral to university operations with research universities developing each their own university strategy addressing internal matters and external opportunities. This inductive case study explores the process of formulating a strategy at the largest science research and education institution in Denmark, The Faculty of Science at the University of Copenhagen.
Results suggest that while having to respond to the overall university strategic goals and external pressures, each department of the Faculty attends to local context challenges by exploring the opportunities offered by the availability of multiple institutional logics. The strategic formulation process serves as the basis for addressing institutional contradictions related to maintaining research excellence and increasing collaboration with industry. Furthermore, the strategy formulation process of each department becomes a practice of combining top-down attentional perspectives and bottom-up environmental stimuli as a way to maintain openness and participation at the process itself.