Abstract:
This paper examines from, an entrepreneurial perspective, the research
orientation of academic researchers, across academic discipline. It also investigates
knowledge requirements, in the form of research requests, by the carriers of innovation
in relation to the research orientation of academics. It follows an explanatory sequential
mixed methods approach to analyse survey data from a stratified sample of 266
academic researchers and interview responses from 11 key informants from two universities,
in Ghana, with the entrepreneurial mandate to contribute to regional and national
development. Data were analysed with mean values, skewness, kurtosis and
Kruskal-Wallis tests. The research findings indicate versatility in the research orientation
of the academics surveyed although no statistically significant differences were
established among academics from the Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,
the Social Sciences and the Arts, in their research orientation as basic researchers,
applied researchers and use-inspired basic researchers. Further exploration shows
that knowledge requirements by the carriers of innovation were in line with the academics’
research orientation. Versatility in the research orientation of the academics,
is an indication of the capacity of the two universities to fulfil their entrepreneurial
mandate of knowledge production, in the Ghanaian economy.
