Multilevel analysis of research management professionals and external funding at universities: Empirical evidence from Japan

This study examines the relationships between a collaborative climate for research management professionals and external funding at universities. University research management is becoming increasingly important in efforts to develop innovation. By combining data from an original questionnaire survey and a public dataset, this study employed multilevel structural equation modelling. The sample comprised 292 research management professionals at 76 Japanese universities and research institutions. The results indicate that the whole hypothetical model of the two-level structure fitted the data well. At the organisational level, the knowledge-sharing environment had a significant positive relation with external research funding. Supportive supervision was also positively and significantly related to the knowledge-sharing environment at the individual and organisational levels. The findings show that a more collaborative climate for research management professionals can lead to more external funding of the entire university; they provide a new contribution to the theory and practice of university research management.