The paper departs from the work of Davydd Greenwood and Morten Levin on the transformation of universities through action research to raise the question of how action research can be the engine of change in an organisational setting where conditions are inimical to its practice. It shares some theoretical contributions that frame this challenge and proposes insider action research as a potential method to face it. The paper then presents the case of Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and its impact in changing the University of Deusto. The case focuses mainly on how this institute has developed insider action research. The case, connected to the previously presented theoretical framework, is used for discussion purposes and to pose what the author terms the dilemma of scope of action research in pluralistic university environments.
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