The impact of institutional and peer support on faculty research productivity: A comparative analysis of research vs. non-research institutions.

摘要

Across the landscape of American higher education, research has gradually established its dominant role in faculty work since the end of WWII—a paradigm shift yet to be fully studied and understood. Situated on their traditional locales on the spectrum stretching from pure teaching to heavy research, contemporary institutions all attempt to be involved in research activities. Research productivity, an essential contributor to the improvement of society and mankind, becomes the iconic indicator for institutional prestige, one of the vital resources any higher education institution requires for maintaining operation and facilitating development and growth. Responsively, an institutionalized recruitment and reward system unanimously sets the requirement for research productivity to allow faculty members to move through the academic pipeline. This study is aimed at identifying influential factors that may lead to higher research productivity at research and non-research institutions respectively by analyzing the data collected from the CAP (Changing Academic Profession) survey.;The logistic regression models have revealed four major findings. First, at research and non-research institutions, faculty collaboration with either domestic or international colleagues is essential for research productivity. Second, faculty collaboration with international colleagues is the best predictor of research productivity among all the factors included in the study (faculty professional characteristics, administration support research, peer support research). Third, faculty preferences in research lead to higher research productivity at research institutions, but not apparently at non-research institutions. Fourth, administration generally plays no role in improving research productivity; nonetheless, it may play a marginal role at non-research institutions if peer collaboration is neither counted nor present.