Academic autonomy as driving change: Investigating its effect on strategy development and university performance

There has been an ongoing theoretical argument on the role of Academic autonomy (AA) in improving the ability of public universities to develop strategies and enhance their performance. This study aims to investigate whether AA impacts strategy development (SD) and University performance (UP). Moreover, it investigates the effect of SD on UP. The present study uses a resource-based view to demonstrate the links among constructs. This study employed a survey method, and data were collected from 130 leaders of Indian public universities utilising a nonprobability purposive sampling technique. Data was analysed using Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that AA positively and significantly affects SD. Moreover, the results demonstrated that AA directly affects both UP's dimensions: research and teaching performance. The results also showed that SD directly and positively affects both UP's dimensions, research, and teaching performance. In line with these findings, several implications for theory and practices are addressed for university management.