This study draws on the theoretical concepts of field and market competition to explore how academics in higher education achieve societal contributions under varying structural conditions. Field competition emphasizes academic status, reputation, and recognition, shaping academics' collaboration networks and career development. In contrast, market competition focuses on the distribution and utilization of resources, affecting access to research funding and academic support. Based on these frameworks, this study identifies two structural variables – partnerships and funding – to analyze their influence on two types of societal contributions: academic and application outputs. Using data from the 2021 APIKS survey, the study focuses on academics in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea to examine collaboration and financial support patterns involving different institutional actors, including higher education institutions, public/private agencies, governments, and companies/industries. Descriptive statistics and negative binomial regression analysis assess the associations between partnerships, funding, and their interaction effects on academic and application knowledge production. The findings suggest that partnerships are generally more closely associated with both types of outputs, while the effect of funding is relatively limited. In some cases, the interaction between partnerships and funding demonstrates negative associations, indicating that excessive reliance on multiple resources may lead to reduced flexibility and misaligned resource allocation. Based on these insights, the study also offers a set of practical recommendations to address these challenges and strengthen the translation of academic knowledge into societal impact.
Ho et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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