Strategic steering of research by new public management in German universities: A looming state-science conflict?

This article investigates whether the recently established new public management reforms in Germany are coherent, that is, do they confront the individual researchers with unambiguously expressed expectations about their task profile? Using a large micro-dataset from four different disciplines, we show that an institutionalised state science conflict may exist, where the state authorities use their powers to push the researchers in a transfer-oriented direction, while the science managers (e.g. deans) urge them instead to cut down transfer and increase publication activities, measured by bibliometric data.