Organizational differences among universities in Switzerland were identified through study of budgeting, professor appointment, and planning. University or state authorities intervening in the decisionmaking process are classified in four groups corresponding to four levels of organizational authority. Universities are subdivided into three groups according to the kind of authority involved in the different steps of the budgeting procedure. Activity undertaken for the appointment of professors is relatively concentrated at the sectorial level. The main differences among universities in the appointment of professors concern the degree of formalization of the decision structure and the existence and intensity of control by central and state authority. Several cases in different systems were studied to determine the impact of the different management systems on teaching and research activities. A case study is presented concerning a public college science professor's actions to create a laboratory for reorienting his research. The most important means the academic entrepreneur uses to achieve his goals in university affairs are described. The institutional entrepreneurs take initiatives favoring university interests and reputation and defend it against public authorities. Although entrepreneurial activity at the institutional level contributed largely in some universities to the development of a teaching and research policy, it seems insufficient. Case studies showed that the formal organizational systems are not able to control and orient entrepreneurial activity if they do not have a pre-established policy. (SW)