A Path Analysis of Cambodian Faculty’s Research Intention: Focusing on Direct and Mediating Effects at Individual Level

Intention to engage in research activities has probably been one of the least investigated concepts when it comes to literature on relationship among research attitudes, research behaviors and research outputs. Only few studies in the past drew on the Planned Behavior Theory to explore how research intention mediates between certain antecedent variables and research performance. Extending the
previous literature, this current study aimed to use some key variables from previous
theories [i.e. Planned Behavior Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory] to
predict the intention to engage in research activities of Cambodia faculty. Results
from Path Analysis of 453 respondents indicated that research self-efficacy, research
outcome expectation, and research interest all pose a positive, direct influence on
research intention. Research interest was also detected to partially mediate the
relationship between research self-efficacy and research intention. The final model
(with both the direct and mediating effects) explained 39% of variation in research
intention. These findings, scoped within the psychological dimensions, seemed to
imply that promoting research intention and performance hinges heavily on whether
participants are interested enough in research, confident enough in their ability to do
research, and motivated enough to feel complicated research tasks are worth their
efforts.Link to the article