The Impact of Strategic Orientation on Educational Innovation: An Empirical Study of Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

This paper investigates the imperative connection between Strategic Orientation, Knowledge Sharing and Educational Innovation in the unstable academic environment in Baghdad, Iraq in response to the global shift in approach to academic practice being more innovation driven. Although institutional resilience usually requires an active strategic stance, internal processes of the vision to action are poorly studied in non-developed settings. The study employed a quantitative research design since the data was gathered in 214 academic members in six major universities (public and private). The analysis, which is performed using (Partial Least Squares) Structural Equation Modeling and results indicate that an entrepreneurial and proactive strategic orientation positively contributes to the ability of an institution to introduce new pedagogical and organizational changes. Importantly, the findings also pinpoint knowledge sharing, namely the two processes of giving and receiving expertise as critical mediator that can be described as an operation bridge between strategic intent and innovative outcomes. The paper emphasizes that strategic leadership cannot be effective but when a strong culture of intellectual engagement is adopted, the effect is greatly enhanced. Such lessons imply that to outperform competitors by having a competitive edge and being sustainable in the long term, universities in high pressure settings are advised to focus on the systematic flow of knowledge to enable the co-construction of modernized curricula and digital learning systems.