Building the research culture in an African business school

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to report the efforts to reverse a dire research output trend at a Ghanaian Business School, following a similar effort at a business school in New Zealand in the 1990s. African universities are often challenged by resource constraints, ageing faculty and low compensation regimes. The consequences of these challenges are particularly felt in the area of the research output of faculty members in the business and management area. The problem of low research output has been written about by management scholars who lament the weak showing of African management faculty in reputable journals and top-notch conference presentations. Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative and phenomenological study of an applied intervention. Using a combination of open-ended questionnaires as well as open forums attended by faculty members of the business school, views, perceptions and opinions on factors mitigating research and issues on research culture were collected and analysed. Descriptive analyses were used to collate the dominant views and frequency of mention of such views. Findings – Using the descriptive accounts of faculty of the Business School, the research finds that a research-oriented culture expressed through factors such as leadership, institutional support, articulation or otherwise of relevant values have significant impacts on research output. Research limitations/implications – Based on the impacts reported here, this paper advances an intervention model to assist efforts towards improving the research culture and scholarly outputs in business schools in Africa. The paper also proposes a conceptual and research framework for examining and influencing the organisational and research culture of universities in Africa. Originality/value – This paper is perhaps the only attempt to examine research culture in an African business school. It suggests that the research culture in a business school or faculty can be developed, reinvented or influenced and that research in African universities will not “just happen”, it has to be carefully planned for, nurtured and built into the fabric of university culture. This has significant implications for the growing effort to bring African scholarship in the management areas up to the point where it can more directly impact management thinking.

The role of leaders in building research cultures in sub-Saharan African universities: A six-nation study

“…The findings reported in this paper add to the growing body of literature that tackles the problem of weak research productivity of African universities. While Puplampu (2015) proposes an intervention model, our research goes further to address the building of research cultures.…”

Tackling the behavioural antecedents of knowledge production: research culture, behavioural intentionality and proactive agenda setting by scholars in Africa

“…Writers are beginning to argue that the conversation should shift to or urgently include questions about the human, psychological, behavioural, and intentional factors that make it possible to describe a university as research intensive or describe academics as research oriented. From an institutional as well as psychological standpoint, research by Pratt et al (1999) and more recently by Puplampu (2015) suggests that the behavioural and the intentional underscore the probability of academics carrying out research or engaging in knowledge producing activities. In other words, institutional facilitation and resource allocation per se may not achieve the research impetus that would lead to the sustained research through which knowledge may be created.…”

Combating Corruption in Africa through Institutional Entrepreneurship: Peering in from Business-government Relations

“…It is also highly unlikely that African universities and business schools will cover related expenses, considering their own financial constraints (Darley & Luethge, 2016). Furthermore, poor research culture in African universities (Puplampu, 2015;Sawyerr, 2004) could render action research, as suggested by MM, very difficult to conduct.…”