Introduction This study examines academic engagement as a mechanism through which universities connect research with societal use. Drawing on a stimulus–organism–response perspective, it investigates the determinants of academic engagement and its effects on knowledge transfer and scientific productivity. Methods We administered a cross-sectional survey to 147 full-time faculty members in Colombia using a validated 32-item instrument measured on five-point Likert scales. The model specifies epistemic motivation, instrumental motivation, prior U–I experience, institutional support, and perceived social norms as antecedents; academic engagement as the focal construct; and knowledge transfer and scientific productivity as outcomes. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to assess reliability, validity, collinearity, and predictive performance. Results The measurement model showed satisfactory psychometric properties, with standardised loadings above 0.70, AVE values ranging from 0.590 to 0.715, composite reliability between 0.852 and 0.899, and a maximum HTMT of 0.829. All antecedents were positively and significantly associated with academic engagement, with institutional support ( β = 0.373) and epistemic motivation ( β = 0.320) showing the strongest effects. Academic engagement was positively associated with knowledge transfer ( β = 0.688) and scientific productivity ( β = 0.563). The model explained 66.4% of the variance in academic engagement, 47.4% in knowledge transfer, and 31.7% in scientific productivity. Discussion The findings position academic engagement as a robust mechanism for translating academic work into external use while sustaining scholarly output. They suggest that universities can strengthen both societal impact and research performance by recognising engagement in workload and promotion systems, reinforcing faculty support structures, and embedding collaboration more systematically into institutional strategy.
Ballesteros-Ballesteros et al. (2026) studied this question.