Research Productivity for Augmenting the Innovation Potential of Higher Education Institutions: An Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach and MICMAC Analysis

Abstract

Current literature merely identifies the driving factors of research productivity in higher education institutions without directly examining their interrelationships that would offer some fundamental insights into the nature of these factors. Thus, this work intends to identify those driving factors and establish their structural relationships to determine those factors with crucial roles in advancing research productivity. Due to the subjectivity of the identified driving factors and the notion that the evaluation of their relationships reflects an expert judgment, an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach and the Matrice d’impacts croisés multiplication appliquée á un classment (MICMAC) analysis were adopted. Results show that institutional support, reward system, research funding, mentoring, and electronic information resources are the most crucial factors influencing research productivity. When addressed, these driving factors would motivate other driving factors, contributing to higher research productivity. In particular, these findings encourage higher education institutions to (1) efficiently allocate research funds and design mentoring programs, (2) offer efficient research incentive schemes, (3) develop initiatives that would support promising research proposals beneficial to the institution, and (4) collaborate with external organizations to grant funding for research proposals. These results contribute significantly to the literature as it provides meaningful insights that aid decision-makers in higher education institutions in resource allocation decisions, policy-making, and the design of efficient initiatives for augmenting their innovation potential.

The influence of openness to change on academics' research publication in public higher education institutions in Tanzania

“…Regrettably, to the best of researchers' knowledge, this relationship is unexplored in developing countries such as Tanzania. Given the fact that research as an activity is considered inherently creative and innovative (Ocampo et al, 2022;Callaghan, 2014), it demands one to be more creative and innovative in bringing up new ideas and developing them into a form that can be disseminated to others. Thus, it can be assumed that, academics with higher levels of openness to change are more likely to be productive in research publication.…”

“…Worldwide, research publication has a significant role to both academics as well as higher education institutions (HEI) (Ocampo et al, 2022). For academics, publication outputs affect their advancement and reputation in academia (Zhang, 2022).…”

“…Worldwide, research publication has a significant role to both academics as well as higher education institutions (HEI) (Ocampo et al. , 2022).…”

Research self-efficacy and research productivity: evidence from academics in Tanzanian public higher education institutions

“…Furthermore, despite having studies that explored RSE and research productivity (RPR) in higher education, a number of these studies have been conducted in developed countries, there is dearth of research in the context of developing countries, in particular Tanzania. Besides, previous studies, however, have produced inconsistent results, leading to the conclusion that RSE and RPR relationship is inconclusive (Ocampo et al, 2022;Zhang, 2022;Hemmings and Kay, 2009;Pasupathy and Siwatu, 2014). However, given the fact that self-efficacy results from a relationship between personal characteristics, behavior patterns and environmental factors (Wood and Bandura, 1989) the differences in institutional working environments may limit the relevance of the results obtained.…”

“…Prior research demonstrated a positive influence of RSE on research related outcomes in higher education (Adekunle, 2022;Gaoat, 2022;Ocampo et al, 2022;Zhang, 2022;Garnasih et al, 2017;Hemmings and Kay, 2009). Academics with higher levels of RSE are more likely to produce more, whereas those with low RSE tend to produce less research output (Livinƫi et al, 2021;Nazari et al, 2021).…”