For the Sustainable Development of Universities: Exploring the External Factors Impacting Returned Early Career Academic’s Research Performance in China

Xiantong Zhao, Hongbiao Yin, Chenyang Fang and Xu Liu
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Xiantong Zhao: Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Hongbiao Yin: Department of Curriculum & Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Chenyang Fang: Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Xu Liu: Centre for Higher Education Research, South University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Early career academics are the key agents for the sustainable development of higher education institutions. In China, those who were educated overseas and have returned to Chinese universities to seek academic positions are becoming a fast-growing group. Good research performance is critical to survive in the increasingly competitive environment in academia. Improving research performance requires an understanding of the factors that facilitate or inhibit research performance. In the light of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study, using a mixed-method design (20 interviewees and 136 respondents), elaborates on a number of external factors affecting returned early career academics’ research performance. Understanding these factors is helpful for the building of a favorable environment that can improve the research performance of the returned early career academics, and hence the sustainable development of universities.

Keywords: research performance; returned early career academics; ecological theory; higher education institutions; mixed method; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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