Influence of Institutional Characteristics on Academic Staff’s Research Productivity: The Case of a Vietnamese Research-oriented Higher Education Institution

Abstract

As research productivity (RP) can be an indicator of a university’s reputation, it is necessary to examine factors within a higher education institution that contribute to promoting RP. This article aims to examine the relationship between a university’s institutional characteristics and its academics’ RP within a research-oriented university, as regards publications in international and Vietnamese journals. The study was conducted with a survey questionnaire with 96 observations (96 participating academics among approximately 220 academics). The data was analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics including exploratory factor analysis and Poisson regression. The results showed that institutional climate was a significant predictor of both international and domestic journals; for every one unit increase on the predictor institutional climate, the count increased on the number of both international and domestic journals. In addition, the regression coefficients for coordinating goals and research culture were negative, suggesting that academics scoring higher on coordinating goals and research culture were more likely to exhibit a lower count for the number of international and domestic journals respectively than academics scoring lower on the measure. The findings suggested that greater attention should be paid to establishing appropriate research goals, communication, and improving aspects of a research culture within the university so as to enhance academics’ research productivity.

Keywords

• Research productivity
• institutional characteristics
• publications
• academics’ research