Is it possible that there is an organization, institution, or system, without an underlying epistemic structure? This may (or may not) be true for some organizations or institutions; however, for a whole system or sector this appears to be unlikely and improbable. Particularly in the case of universities, higher education institutions, and higher education systems, it is evident that these rely, operate and behave on the basis of an underlying epistemic structure. “Knowledge paradigms” refer to the conceptual understanding of knowledge production (research) and knowledge application (innovation) in the higher education system (universities) or the economy (firms). For describing and explaining, how knowledge production is functioning within the higher education sector or a university-type system, the concepts of “Mode 1” and “Mode 2” of knowledge production were introduced more recently (Gibbons et al. 1994; see also Nowotny et al. 2001, 2003, 2006). University research in a traditional understanding of Mode 1 concentrates on basic research, mostly organized within the matrix of academic disciplines, and not formulating a particular interest for the practical use of knowledge and innovation. Mode 1 is being challenged by Mode 2. Mode 2 expresses a greater interest for knowledge application and a knowledge-based problem-solving by referring to the following principles: “knowledge produced in the context of application”; “transdisciplinarity”; “heterogeneity and organizational diversity”; “social accountability and reflexivity”; and “quality control” (Gibbons et al. 1994, pp. 3–8, 167). Success and quality are being approached and defined differently in the analytical architecture of Mode 1 and the Mode 2. For Mode 1, the answer is: “academic excellence, which is a comprehensive explanation of the world (and of society) on the basis of ‘basic principles’ or ‘first principles,’ as is being judged by knowledge producer communities (academic communities structured according to a disciplinary framed peer review system).” For Mode 2, success and quality are: a “problem-solving, which is a useful (efficient, effective) problem-solving for the world (and for society), as is being judged by knowledge producer and knowledge user communities” (Campbell and Carayannis 2013a, p. 32). Mode 3 knowledge production represents the conceptual and organizational attempt of trying to combine Mode 1 with Mode 2 (Carayannis and Campbell, 2006, 2009, 2012). A Mode 3 university, higher education institution, or higher education system is a type of organization or system that explores ways and approaches of integrating different principles of knowledge production and knowledge application (such as Mode 1 and Mode 2), thus not only promoting diversity and heterogeneity, but also creating creative and innovative organizational contexts for research, teaching (education) and innovation. Therefore, Mode 1, Mode 2, and Mode 3 qualify as examples for “knowledge paradigms” in higher education.
Quality management (QM) within universities or other higher education institutions refers not only to quality assurance, but increasingly also to quality enhancement. Advances in the quality of a university and support of university development represent objectives of QM. Therefore, also QM should be designed, implemented, processed, and developed in accordance with the principles of epistemic governance: “This emphasizes our understanding that all forms of comprehensive and sustainable QM in higher education must also refer to the underlying epistemic structure of higher education (at least implicitly)” (Campbell and Carayannis 2013a, p. 27). For example, it makes a difference, whether a university or university unit operates according to Mode 1 or Mode 2 or a combination of both in Mode 3. This must be reflected by the specifically applied approaches in governance and QM. For that purpose, it appears also to be necessary, to connect and to link the underlying epistemic structure and the knowledge paradigms to concrete “quality dimensions,” so that governance and QM can refer to knowledge paradigms as well as quality dimensions. Possible quality dimensions are quality, efficiency, relevance, viability (sustainability), and effectiveness (Campbell 2003, p. 111; Campbell and Carayannis 2013a, p. 52). When knowledge paradigms are being translated into quality dimensions, this may make it then for governance and QM easier, to address epistemic issues in relation not only to knowledge production, but also knowledge application. According to Ferlie et al. (2008, 2009), there exist currently two main narratives of and for governance in higher education: New Public Management (NPM) governance and network governance. While NPM already appears to be more conventionally established, network governance represents a more radical frontier for contemporary governance, with not so clear implications, fostering perhaps a demand for creating also new types of organizational manifestation in higher education. “Cross-employment” (Campbell 2011; Campbell and Carayannis 2013a) may serve here as one possible example, where one and the same person is being simultaneously employed by more than one organization (by at least two organizations), either within higher education or trans-sectorally connecting higher education with organizations outside of higher education. Cross-employment qualifies as a form of multi-employment.
Ramifications of epistemic governance should also be-thought-about in a wider context. Principles of epistemic governance apply to innovation and innovation policy as well, and the concept of “epistemic innovation policy.” Innovation policy should address the underlying epistemic structure and knowledge paradigms of the innovation and type of innovation to be governed. Two examples for knowledge paradigms in context of innovation are linear innovation and non-linear innovation. The more traditional model of linear innovation is being frequently referred to the concepts of Bush (1945). The core understanding here is that the linear model of innovation underscores that first there is basic research in a university context. Gradually and step-by-step, this university research diffuses out into society and the economy. Firms and the economy as a whole pick up these lines of university research, and develop them further into knowledge application and innovation, with the goal and interest of creating economic and commercial success and success stories in markets outside of higher education. Within the model of linear innovation, there operates a sequential first-then relationship between basic research (knowledge production) and innovation (knowledge application). Non-linear innovation follows a different logic (Campbell and Carayannis 2012). The model of non-linear innovation expresses an interest in drawing more direct connections between knowledge production and knowledge application. Here, basic research and innovation are being coupled together not in a first-then, but within the structural design of an “as well as” and “parallel” (parallelized) relationship (Campbell and Carayannis 2012). Networks for non-linear innovation operate differently than networks of linear innovation, but may overlap substantially. Examples for non-linear innovation are either firms or other types of organizations operating across a variety or ensemble of technology life cycles with differing degrees of technology maturity on the one hand, or specific constellations of cross-employment on the other hand, where persons work (at the same time) concurrently at organizations, where in one case the organization (organizational unit) focuses on knowledge production, but in the other case on knowledge application. Non-linear innovation also cross-connects to Mode 3 knowledge production. One key interest of Mode 3 is to encourage and to promote “basic research in the context of application” (Campbell and Carayannis 2013a, b, p. 34). Furthermore, also Mode 2 appears to be compatible with a more non-linear logic of innovation (see Fig. 1).