Departmental leadership and peer pressure on academic research performance at universities in emerging countries: An empirical study in Vietnam

Research performance of lecturers in higher education institutions has become an important topic but many variables are still largely unexplored in current literature. The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of four leadership behaviors of department heads and coworkers on the lecturers’ research performance and the moderating effects of achievement value. A survey was conducted with a sample of 408 Vietnamese lecturers at economics and business management focused universities. Our findings contribute to the literature of job performance in higher education from an organizational behavior perspective by explaining the mid-level impacts of departmental factors affecting research performance. We also discuss potential implications and make recommendations for future research.