Unleashing academic innovation: how work engagement mediates the impact of key drivers on professors’ innovative work behaviour in Malaysian Private Universities

Innovation is a crucial catalyst for generating new opportunities which benefits to national economy and social well-being. As it increases efficiency and competitiveness to be an advanced and inclusive nation, innovation is a critical element of Malaysia's development agenda. Malaysia is aligning with Twelfth Malaysia Plan and The National Transformation 2050 to transition into an advanced knowledge-based economy and achieve developed nation status. In order to achieve these goals, there are indicators that measure the level of innovation for instance, Global Innovation Index, World Competitiveness Ranking and Bloomberg Innovation Index. As to date, Malaysia’s ranking in all the indices has generally worsened over the years. In order to improve the Malaysia position in innovation, innovative work behaviour should be fostered. Despite of all the competitive industries, education industry also becomes an important sector in Malaysia that needs to be a crucial sector and innovative. Therefore, innovative work behaviour should be fostered among academicians, specifically among professors. Unlike public universities, private universities received limited funding from the governments, hence, it mounts competitive pressures on the private universities to generate revenue for their survival and sustainability that requires them to enhance their innovative work behaviour. In addition, there is a paucity of knowledge about how innovative work behaviour can be fostered in the academic sector specifically among university professors. Therefore, this study aims to examines how work engagement mediates the impact of key drivers on professors’ innovative work behaviour in Malaysian private universities. Data for this study was collected from 205 professors in Malaysian private universities and was analysed by using PLS-SEM. The findings revealed that work engagement has positive and significant relationship with innovative work behaviour. In addition, all the independent variables (self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, servant leadership, charismatic leadership, training and reward) have positive and significant relationship with work engagement. Moreover, all the independent variables are positive and significant relationship with innovative work behaviour mediated by work engagement. This study is subject to several limitations. Firstly, this study only focuses on certain variables, was conducted exclusively among professors, focused solely on private universities in Malaysia and faced difficulty in obtaining an accurate sampling frame. Therefore, future research may include a broader range of variables, incorporating a wider spectrum of academic staff, expanding the research to include public universities and consider establishing partnerships with relevant educational agencies to obtain accurate and complete sampling frame.