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The purpose of this paper is to review and explore the primary characteristics of the best papers, which have been selected by the Toulon-Verona Conference (TVC) Excellence in Services scientific committee for the period 2008-2016.

The study includes a review of the best papers (n = 51) selected by the TVC’s scientific committee from 2008 to 2016 and obtained through the TVC’s archives. The primary highlights of each paper include number of authors, authorship profile (i.e. lead author affiliation, gender, and geographic location), co-authors’ geographic locations, classification of the papers, research topics, varieties of research methods used, number of electronic downloads (as of June 2017), number of citations, and subject keywords. Coding sheet developed to ensure standardization, consistency and to ensure the relevant data were collected for the content analysis. Mixed methods analysis (analyze quantitative data qualitative and and vice versa) was used to provide descriptive statistics.

In total, 51 best papers have been selected by the TVC scientific committee and reflected 145 authors. Lead authors were from a total of 50 HEIs worldwide and one consultant (private sector). Six papers were self-authored while the 45 were multi-authored. The majority of the papers written by Italian authors (58.8 percent); followed by France, Greece, and Sweden (5.9 percent each); Australia, Portugal, Spain, and UK (4 percent each); Austria, Norway, Slovenia, and Vietnam (1.9 percent each). In total, 37 papers were classified as a research paper, 10 case studies, and 4 theoretical.

The analysis for the first time define methodological trends for the TVC’s best papers and suggest possible future research topic and methodological approach for research in the management field.

The findings are unique for the TVC conference, for the TQM’s special issue, which provide practical implications for researchers and conference organizers and contribute to the literature of analyzing published papers.

This study aimed to find possible answers to whether U.S. universities are merely looking good or doing good regarding their third mission using elements of the triple bottom line (people, planet, prosperity) and the 2030 Agenda.

Qualitative exploratory empirical study based on an in-depth analysis of publicly available documents (i.e. mission statements and strategic planning) and information from the Impact Rankings 2020 edition (webpages). The study uses a multilevel analysis to capture the parameters “looking good” and “doing good.” The sample consists of 15 U.S. universities.

The findings demonstrate that universities are looking good in terms of their effort to support their third mission. Data show that all universities covered themes related to people and prosperity in their mission statements and strategic planning. However, when the authors dived into the managerial metrics, KPIs, benchmarks and other evidence to characterize them as doing good, the authors encountered some challenges in identifying evidence. The data suggest that universities most likely participated in the Impact Ranking act as “cherry pickers” and might participate in unproblematic goals for their organization.

The 3Ps and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals used in this study to examine the university public mission never used in other studies. The goal in this study was not to evaluate those universities in terms of looking good and doing good but rather to contribute to the gap in the literature and provide suggestions to university C-suite.

In this chapter, the authors discuss challenges and decision-making in the process of conducting quality mixed methods research in higher education, and offer the lessons learned from their experiences. The chapter begins with a discussion of quality and the ways of establishing quality in mixed methods studies. Two examples of studies are used to illustrate the issues involved in addressing quality in conducting mixed methods studies in different higher education settings. The first example discusses the challenges associated with establishing the quality of meta-inferences in a mixed methods (quantitative to qualitative) design that was used in two studies of students’ engagement and persistence in pursuing graduate degrees online in the United States. The second example presents the methodological steps and criteria for evaluating the quality of a multilevel mixed design study to explain quality management in Greek higher education. The authors also reflect on how researchers can become active participants in the co-construction of quality in mixed methods research.

Quality management in Greek higher education at least until 2006 was in an early and debated stage. The intent of this paper is to present the extent of use of the ISO standards in Greek universities till 2006 and simultaneously to evaluate whether adoption of ISO‐oriented quality management tools is consistent with DiMaggio and Powell's notions of isomorphism (coercive, normative, and mimetic).

The authors employed a mixed‐methods approach with sequential data collection with several alternations between quantitative and qualitative methods.

It is found that ISO‐oriented quality management system is fruitfully adopted in units only if all three types of neo‐institutional pressures (coercive, normative and mimetic) are present. These results and the high response rate suggest that there is a quality movement at the micro level in Greek higher education.

Quality management (QM) research within the relatively uncharted Greek universities poses multiple challenges, e.g. in handling politically sensitive subjects, which may benefit readers in overcoming theirs.

The significance of the paper lies in the fact that no existing studies have investigated the adoption of ISO‐oriented quality management system in Greek universities, utilizing neo‐institutional theory and a mixed method research design. Especially relevant is that the study focuses on quality management at the micro level of units within higher education institutions. The study demonstrates how to distinguish different isomorphic pressures empirically.

There is currently limited knowledge of the strategic organizational routines such as strategic planning and benchmarking of universities in the Western Balkans (WB). Thus the purpose of this paper is to map perceptions and concerns of institutional leadership about these routines within the public and private universities in the region.

An online survey targeting all public and private universities in the WB was sent to the rector's and president's office. The survey data were analyzed with descriptive statistical methods, calculating frequencies, and means.

Data revealed that the majority of both public and private universities have implemented strategic planning. Analysis of strategic planning between private and public universities indicated that averages scores were slightly higher in the private rather than the public universities. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis was among the statements that received higher scores (perceptions about implementation) from both types of universities. The relatively low scores from both types of institutions concerning perceived implementation and importance of benchmarking might imply that WB universities achieve their goals in a less competitive environment.

The significance of the paper lies in the fact that no existing studies have investigated strategic planning and benchmarking in the WB universities. To be able to build a potential baseline for further research, including the possibility for more comparative research both within and beyond the region, the selection of routines was taken from the US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence in Education. This study contributes to the body of research for literature about strategic organizational routines and strategy-as-practice.