The Drivers of Innovation at Universities: A Case of South African Universities

Abstract

Purpose: The study is aimed to contribute to an understanding of the drivers of innovation that lead to practical solutions at South African Universities. Theoretical Framework: This article borrows from both Institutional Theory and organizational Theory’s perspectives on innovation. Those theories are crucial in exploring the views of employees and leaders on what they deemed to be drivers of innovation at their respective universities with the view to suggest a sustainable conceptual model for public universities’ innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach was adopted, entailing an online survey and semi-structured interviews, to explore innovation from both an employee's and senior leaders' perspective. The population for the study included employees from two Universities, and random sampling and purposive sampling were applied respectively, for the survey and semi-structured interviews. Survey data were analysed using SPSS and semi-structured interviews data were analysed using Nvivo 12. Results: Several drivers for innovation were found, including the need to respond to societal challenges, the drive for collaborative knowledge exchange, global rankings, individual employee drive, a nurturing environment, leadership, students, and government. Research, Practical & Social implications: Careful reflections must be entered into by all relevant internal and external stakeholders (see figure 1) so that Universities can define the scope of innovation they wish to pursue based on their resources and contexts since Universities differ. Originality/value: The original contribution to knowledge of this study lies in the suggested conceptual model for South African universities as they position themselves to innovatively address local and global socio-economic challenges.