Assessment of the Research Orientation of Academics in Ghana through the Lens of Entrepreneurialism

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.