Perception versus Performance Indicators: A Study of Innovation Performance in a Research University

Research Universities in Malaysia are continually strengthening the innovation process with the ultimate aim to improve innovation performance. However, innovation improvement effort requires prior recognition by individual involved that there is need for improvement prior to the execution. Hence, based on performance indicators released by one of Research University in Malaysia, the study identified a Faculty with a relatively low innovation performance, and assesses the innovation performance level perceived by the members of the Faculty. As such, 5 innovation performance measures are identified from literature review and transformed into a survey questionnaire which responded by 62 respondents. Descriptive analysis is performed to rank the perceived innovation performance level and subsequently compared with performance indicators. The research findings present an interesting managerial implication; respondents perceived that innovation performance is maintained at the same level for last 2 years despite performance indicator reflected a decline trend. This issue needs to be addressed for the reason that to achieve desired innovation performance, it is important to have the right employee perception.