Bibi, Dilnaz
(2019)
Antecedents and outcomes of resources recombination in the context of higher education industry at United Arab Emirates.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Given the paradigm shift in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) economy from a fuel-based model to a service-based model made it worthy to examine what was happening in the UAE higher education sector where the UAE currently devotes approximately 25 percent of the total of federal government spending tons on education and the overall literacy rate is 90%. (Wikipedia.org). Coupled with quest towards a knowledge-based economy, lack of clear RR measurement scale, and the increased need for competitiveness in the higher education sectors, has called for the need to study the resources reconfiguration in UAE higher education institution (HEI) competitiveness.
The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of the Resources Recombination (RR) phenomenon with special reference to the context of UAE HEI competitiveness and to critically assess the impact of Internal Marketing Orientation (IMO) and Dynamic Capabilities (DC) on the RR. RR has garnered lots of interest in the past decades in both the academic and the practitioner communities. Though some amount of literature exists on the area of RR, it is primarily implicit, and no particular scale exists for the assessment or measurement of RR.
A mixed research method is considered in a sequential exploratory research design, building on the need to explore the area of RR in HEI competitiveness prior to overall quantitative empirical assessment of HEI competitiveness model. Examining the effect of a specific set of DC – namely the firm`s Sensing Capabilities, Learning Capabilities, Integrating Capabilities, and Coordinating Capabilities, and the constructs of IMO- namely Information Generation, Information Dissemination and Information Responsiveness on RR in firms, this research sheds light on what it explains as the competitive heterogeneity and variance in resource value creation across firms. This research contributes to the resource and competence-based research by presenting and empirically testing a conceptual model of factors influencing RR in firms.
It is worth mentioning that this study is predominantly explanatory even though an exploratory observation was conducted first. The study is conducted in 3 phases, including Study One which is Qualitative Exploratory Phase (Interview Data Collection), Study Two is Quantitative Exploratory Phase (Survey Questionnaire Data Collection) and Study Three is Quantitative Explanatory Phase (Main Study Phase for testing the research hypotheses). Study One was conducted with the help of 21 interviews with respondents being faculty and non-faculty in UAE HEIs. Study Two consisted of 453 respondents consisting of both faculty and non-faculty members and Study Three surveyed 636 respondents consisting of only faculty members. Three main data collection instruments were used for the present study – an interview guide for the qualitative aspect and a survey questionnaire for the two quantitative aspects of the investigation. Study One and Study Two were combined in a sequential exploratory mixed research design where the quantitative study built on the outcome of the interviews to establish more relevant findings.
The findings of Study Two were later employed in Study Three to test the research framework. The findings of Study One entailed a total of 64 individual themes representing resources (21 themes), business processes (29 themes) and complementary factors (14 themes). Based on a critical analysis of findings, the sensemaking framework of RR in business organisations was proposed. The Study Two was built on the 64 main themes derived from Study One. The measurement model of resources recombination consisted of five main factors; (1) asset, research and affiliation processes, (2) automated technology management, (3) financial support for HR and departmental initiatives (4) mainstream staff rewards and retention and (5) institutional brand image appeal. A survey was run to help gather responses to validate the model. Thorough Structural Equation Modelling methodologies were implemented to ensure a highly parsimonious fit model was arrived. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was first conducted to explore the pattern of factors. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then conducted in a measurement model to re-affirm the patterns, their validity, and reliability. A total of 12 items under 5 factors remained in Study Two.
Study Three adapted the RR construct as defined by the Study Two. It also combined literature and existing measurement on IMO, DC, and competitiveness to arrive at and enable the testing of the research hypothesis. Similarly, an EFA was conducted followed by a CFA and subsequently the main structural model. A total of 64.7% of the hypotheses were supported, establishing DC and IMO as important antecedents for the development of RR and competitiveness as a performance outcome.
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