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This thesis investigates an ontology that there exists a Strategic Academic Leadership
(SAL) in higher education institutions (HEIs) context that can enhance students‟
intention to apply Strategic Innovative Behavior (SIB) at workplaces. SIB is defined in
this thesis as a combination of strategic, but ethical innovation virtues (as measured by
students‟ Affective Commitment) that enhances the society‟s welfare as time goes on.
In order to investigate the ontology of SAL and how it interacts in a given HEI context
with confounding generative mechanisms and mediations to enhance students‟
intention to apply SIB at workplaces, a critical realism research philosophy and the
exploratory sequential design (a design that explain more about qualitative findings by
employing quantitative methods) was taken to establish a SAL model in three phases:
the emergent phase, the theory construction phase, and the theory evaluation phase.
During the emergent phase, barriers that hinder students‟ intention to be innovative at
workplace were identified based on a focus group discussion of 12 students and a
Constant Comparison Analysis (CCA) of responses of 113 students on open-ended
question. Also, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was done on a structured
questionnaire from 65 respondents in order to extract rotated factors, and then
Exploratory Structural Equations Modeling (ESEM) approach was used to confirm
them. Factors which were extracted and confirmed are students‟ External Contacts
(EXC), Social Injunctive Structures (SIS), and students‟ Affective Commitment (AC)
to apply SIB, Perceived Social Trust (PST) and Perceived Ease to Apply (PETA) SIB
at workplaces. It was also confirmed that Strategic Technology Acceptance Model
(STAM) as theorized in this thesis, was able to measure students‟ intention to apply
SIB at workplaces using PST and PETA, where the explained variation of intention
was 81%.
During the theory construction phase, the mediation analysis technique was used with
ESEM approach to construct an initial plausible integrative causal model (the SAL
model) from which the hypothetico-deductive explanations about generative
mechanisms and mediations were stated. The hypothetico-deductive generative
mechanism were: SIS, SAL and AC, while the hypothetico-deductive mediation were,
SIS mediating the relationship between EXC and SAL, SAL mediating partially the
influence of SIS on AC, and AC mediating fully the influence of SAL on students‟
intention to apply SIB at workplaces. Moreover, the discriminant analysis responses on
open-ended question and the normal distribution analysis were used to categorize
students as adopters of SIB where categories were similar to those identified by
Rodger‟s (2003) model of innovation diffusion. These similarities helped to reveal the
link between students‟ intention to adopt SIB at workplaces and barriers facing them.
During the theory evaluation phase, the initial SAL model was replicated in a survey of
398 students from other three HEIs apart from the first HEI, in order to determine if
hypothetico-deductive generative mechanism relationships remain stable to signify the
existence of generative mechanisms. Also, the validities of hypothetico-deductive
mediations were evaluated. The findings confirmed that SIS, SAL and AC are
generative mechanisms that interact to enhance students‟ intention to apply SIB at
workplaces. These findings and further discriminant analysis of findings confirmed the
ontology SAL. Furthermore, the research findings confirmed that SIS mediates
relationship between students‟ EXC and SAL, SAL mediates partially the influence of
SIS on students‟ AC, and students‟ AC mediates fully the influence of SAL on
students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces. It was also noted that although
students‟ EXC regularities are not a generative mechanism, they enhance the stability
and plausibility of the SAL model.
It was also observed that there is a negative relationship (trade-off relationship)
between students‟ AC and their level of exposure to different extrinsic experiences.
The plane formed by students‟ AC level and their extrinsic exposure level, showed that
students‟ AC, their intention, SIS and SAL are efficient points that form a production
possibility curve (PPC). Thus, the researcher theorizes that there exists an efficient
combination of students‟ AC and their exposure to extrinsic experiences in a given
HEI‟s context that optimizes students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces such that
this combination forms a PPC. Thus, the SAL model implies that SAL enhances
students‟ intention to apply SIB at workplaces such that SAL and students‟ intention
are aligned and supported by SIS and students‟ AC.
This thesis recommends, first, faculties in HEIs to adopt the SAL in facilitating
learning process; second, students to adopt SIB as part of their ethical innovative
virtues; and third, actors of social power structures to foster SIS in the society. This
will help to enhance strategic, but ethical innovative behavior and ultimately the
welfare of people in the society as time goes on. Recommended SAL practices to
faculties include enlightening students broadly, emphasizing on ethics of caring,
engaging each student actively in creativity, being enthusiastic to students‟ creativity,
and evaluating constructively students‟ creativity (5Es). Recommended SIB to students
include being considerate, constructive, communicative, and collaborative (4Cs).
Moreover, recommended SIS practices include commitment to teamwork, valuing
innovative ideas fairly, and the support of movement, leadership and experts on
innovation activities. It is also recommended to replicate the SAL model in different
studies in order to confirm its external validity and applications. |
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