The Factors And Effects Of Strategic Implementation On The Research Universities

With the rise of the university autonomy and the intensity of competition, theresearch universities are facing more and more challenges, taking the importantstrategic missions for the national development. When the strategic plans are made,the key issue falls on how to systematically ensure the plans be carried out efficientlyand effectively, which has been recognized by several research universities in China.On this subject, there are some typical issues, including “what are the contents of thestrategy implementation”,“what are the key factors”,“How to evaluate theeffectiveness of the strategy”, and so on. Thus, this study is to explore the structures,factors, and effects of strategic implementation in those universities.This study focuses on the “985Project” universities in China. First, the pertinentliteratures are collected and analyzed by knowledge map. Then, the structuraldimensions, the factors, and the operation mechanism of their strategicimplementation are examined with research methods including expert survey,interviews, questionnaires, structural equation modeling, and so on. Finally, twodetailed case studies, respectively the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign andShanghai Jiao Tong University, are carried out using action research, system analysisand other methods.The status quo of the “985Project” universities’ strategic management isexamined using content analysis, interviews and questionnaires. By exploring39universities’ strategic planning departments and analyzing32universities’"TwelfthFive Year Plan", this study finds out:1) Every investigated research university has astrategic planning department, and it functions well with a range of capabilitiesincluding strategic planning, disciplinary study or construction,985/211constructionaffairs, campus planning, statistics, policy research, ect.;2) There are four clusters ofquantitative indicators (disciplines, students, research, faculty) that are highlyemphasized in strategic planning;3) Strategic implementation is becoming moreimportant in those universities, but still not as much as expected.Questionnaires are delivered to the strategic planning offices of the“985Project”universities. With SPSS20.0and Amos20.0, the following arguments are made:1)The three internal dimensions of strategic implementation are engagement, supportand depth;2) The three essential factors of strategic implementation arecommunication, leadership and culture;3) Communication affects engagement,support and depth; leadership affects engagement and support; while culture affectsengagement, support and depth.Twelve performance indicators for the research universities are identified withthe expert survey and factor analysis. Namely they are full-time equivalent student faculty, Chinese academicians, amount of SCIE/SSCI/A&HCI papers, impact ofSCIE/SSCI/A&HCI papers, amount of Nature&Science papers, amount of TopAwards of National Science and Technology and the other three National Awards onScience and Technology, employment rate of the undergraduates, proportion offoreign students, amount of the national excellent doctoral dissertations, totalexpenditure, research funding, amount of licensed patents. The12performanceindicators are classified into3categories: internal and foundation, growth anddevelopment, and stakeholders. Factor analysis of the "985Project" universities’performances during2006-2012shows that several performance indicators (such asresearch funding, amount of licensed patents, and amount of SCIE/SSCI/A&HCIpapers are on the rise, while the universities’ performances on the quality of theresearch output are still lagging behind the world-class research universities.The correlation analysis of strategic implementation, strategic consensus andperformances finds that:1) the engagement and the strategic identity has a verysignificant correlation at the level of0.05, the engagement and strategic understandinghas very significant correlation at the level of0.01, indicating the more involvementand better for the strategic planning identity and implementation;2) the support,strategic identity and strategic understanding has a very significant correlation at thelevel of0.01, it shows more support planning and implementation, the moreunderstanding and recognition of the planning and implementation;3) the depth andstrategic understanding has a significant correlation at the level of0.01shows the twofactors help more understanding of planning and the implementation strategy;4) thereare very significant correlation between strategic identity and internal&fundamentalperformance;5) the strategic understanding and the growth performance has a verysignificant correlation at the level of0.05, shows that understanding of planning andimplementation better improve the growth performance.The case study on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that ithas established explicit indicators on strategic planning, its engagement has been deep,it has allocated resources for the strategic implementation, it has combined the budgetto the strategic implementation, and it carries out accountability. The case study onShanghai Jiao Tong University shows the details about its strategic planningapproaches, KPI making, decomposition of the strategic target, and its strategicimplications.This study provides an integrative perspective on the strategic implementationand the performance measures of the research universities in China. It analyses theinternal structure and factors of strategic planning, and sets up a model on therelationship between strategic implementation and performance. Therefore, it lays atheoretical foundation for the effective implementation of university strategy.