The action researcher as tempered radical and strategic entrepreneur in higher education: a personal reflection.

This article describes the discovery of action research by a ‘conscious incompetent’ in higher education. The influences on the development of an action researcher’s individual philosophy are discussed. These shape a specific investigation into the implementation of international staff exchange in a post-1992 UK university from the position of an ‘outsider within’. Ontological and epistemological concepts of quasi-objectivity, subjectivity, participation and commitment are discussed in relation to entrepreneurship in the higher education context, concluding that the action researcher can play the role of tempered radical and strategic entrepreneur to research the execution of international faculty mobility in higher education.