Universities have long been an interesting setting to study some relevant management issues. A large body of research has shed light on processes including technology commercialization, academic entrepreneurship and university-industry collaboration. While much of the existing work has focused on documenting empirical relationships and phenomena, this workshop centers on different theoretical lenses that may be useful in examining such phenomena and addresses how research on universities may yield more general theoretical contributions to the management literature. We provide an opportunity for participants to learn about recent work that draws on and extends theories in areas such as entrepreneurship, teamwork, creativity, decision making, institutional change and strategy. The workshop also aims to continue the discussions from previous AOM Annual Meetings, centering on universities as settings that are in themselves of high interest to management scholars, but also as settings to generate and test more general management theories publishable in top journals. This PDW will be useful to both early career and more experienced faculty to learn about recent theoretical developments and future challenges in this area.