The triple helix case: Creating intrapreneurial direction in a multi-rational higher education institution

This paper serves the investigation of how strategic initiatives in multi-rational environments unfold and develop. It contains two main contributions: Firstly, a methodological setup as foundation for the research on organizational multi-rationality is deduced from social systems theory and critical realism. Secondly, a detailed storyline of a four-year-period interdisciplinary university program is reconstructed, that was affected by diverse rationalities of different societal subsystems. This reconstruction contains the general description of the initiative and the rationality development that became visible and invisible at specific crystallization points. The case is finally interpreted and discussed from different perspectives, arguing the title of this paper. Our hypothesis is that a continuously shifting world with differentiating societal sub systems allows new spaces for creativity and innovations to emerge. These "in-between"-spaces can be systematically used for new initiatives, thus creating new meaning and intrapreneurial impulses.