The Impact of the Third Mission on Teaching and Research Performance: Evidence From Academic Scholars in an Emerging Country

Minh Thang Le,Hiep-Hung Pham,Anh Nguyen Quoc

doi:10.1177/21582440211054493

Abstract

Despite the plethora of empirical evidence on the associations between the third mission of academic scholars (i.e., academic engagement, academic commercialization, and public engagement) and their performance regarding two other missions (teaching and research), we have not known much about such relationships in the context of emerging countries such as Vietnam. To examine this problem, we delivered a survey with 245 Vietnamese academic scholars. Findings extracted from exploratory factor analysis revealed that the third mission of Vietnamese academic scholars might be divided into two distinct factors: (i) academic engagement and commercialization and (ii) public engagement and extra work. Subsequently, results of multiple regression revealed that while both academic engagement and commercialization, public engagement and extra work, as well as the interaction of these two factors, have positive impacts on research performance, only the second factor has a positive impact on teaching performance. This study extended the current mixed understandings on the associations among the three missions of academic scholars with evidence from an emerging country such as Vietnam. This study also provides implications for stakeholders, including policymakers, university leaders, and industry practitioners.

Highlights

IntroductionThere has been a growing literature on the topic of “the third mission” of academic scholars, apart from their two traditional ones (i.e., teaching and research) (Klofsten & Jones-Evans, 2000; Ca & Hung, 2011; Wang et al, 2016)
Over the past decades, there has been a growing literature on the topic of “the third mission” of academic scholars, apart from their two traditional ones (Klofsten & Jones-Evans, 2000; Ca & Hung, 2011; Wang et al, 2016)
When we include all possible independent variables into the analysis, including AECO, public engagement and extra work” (PEEW), their interaction (AECO × PEEW) and their square terms (Model 5, Table 8), the results reveal that AECO, PEEW, AECO × PEEW have a significant impact on research performance (β = .284, p < .001; β = .138, p < .05; β = .05, p < .05, respectively), but that the square

Summary

Introduction

There has been a growing literature on the topic of “the third mission” of academic scholars, apart from their two traditional ones (i.e., teaching and research) (Klofsten & Jones-Evans, 2000; Ca & Hung, 2011; Wang et al, 2016). From the academic perspective, according to Grimpe and Fier (2010), motivations for scholars to be involved in the third mission may stem from two major sources: First, scholars’ desire to engage with external bodies to help them develop their career. From the non-academic perspective, different stakeholders have vested interests in requiring scholars to perform the third mission (Klofsten & Jones-Evans, 2000). The role of academic sector is to provide human resources to the labor market, and to transfer knowledge and technology through means, including joint research (Kato & Odagiri, 2012), consulting (Perkmann & Walsh, 2008), and patenting (Azoulay et al, 2007)

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