Type of the article: Research Article AbstractHigher education institutions face mounting pressure to sustain lecturer engagement amid increasing workloads and constrained resources, yet the mechanisms underlying engagement formation remain insufficiently understood. This study aims to investigate how job resources and value alignment predict employee engagement among university lecturers in Indonesia, examining the mediating roles of employee well-being and affective commitment. A cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was conducted in November 2025 with 272 full-time lecturers from 77 higher education institutions across five regions of Indonesia (Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Nusa Tenggara–Bali, and Sulawesi) using an online structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using PLS-SEM via WarpPLS 8.0 with 999 bootstrap resamples. Work–life balance and job autonomy significantly predict employee well-being. Person–organization fit strongly predicts affective commitment; perceived organizational support does not have an effect. Affective commitment is the dominant predictor of engagement (R² = 0.631); employee well-being does not retain direct significance in the full model. Only the indirect path of person–organization fit → affective commitment → engagement is significant (β = 0.290, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.194, 0.386]), constituting complementary partial mediation. Servant leadership moderation is not supported. Robustness checks with demographic controls confirm the pattern of significant predictors is unchanged. These findings indicate that engagement is predicted more decisively by value alignment and emotional attachment than by exchange-based support, though generalization is bounded by the convenience sampling design.
Type of the article: Research Article AbstractAmid rising labor mobility and competition for skilled employees, this study aims to examine how talent and knowledge management relates to employee engagement and retention, with employee engagement as a mediator, among private-sector employees in Indonesia’s manufacturing, banking, retail, service, and logistics sectors. Using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling, 543 valid responses (from 964 distributed questionnaires across 97 companies) were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Talent management (β = 0.554) and knowledge management (β = 0.379) were positively associated with employee engagement (R² = 0.721), and both were also directly associated with employee retention (β = 0.275 and β = 0.315, respectively; R² = 0.632). Employee engagement was positively associated with employee retention (β = 0.290), and its indirect effects for talent management (β = 0.161) and knowledge management (β = 0.110) were statistically significant (p < 0.001), confirming employee engagement as a significant partial mediator (VAF = 36.93% and 25.88%, respectively). Direct effects of talent and knowledge management on retention remained somewhat larger than their indirect effects through engagement, but the substantial VAF values indicate that employee engagement is a meaningful complementary pathway, alongside direct organizational investment in talent development and knowledge management, through which these practices are associated with employee retention. The study extends social exchange theory and the resource-based view and offers practical implications for strengthening retention in the sampled Indonesian private companies. AcknowledgmentsThanks to the lecturers of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Muhammadiyah Jember, for their support of this research.
Type of the article: Research Article AbstractHigher education institutions are increasingly expected to achieve sustainable performance amid rapid technological and societal change. However, the organizational capability mechanisms through which strategic human resource management (strategic HRM) contributes to perceived sustainable university performance remain insufficiently understood, particularly in developing-country contexts. This study examines the relationships among strategic HRM, open innovation, digital transformation, and perceived sustainable university performance in Thai higher education institutions. A quantitative cross-sectional survey involved 440 academic and administrative personnel from 110 higher education institutions. Because employees were the unit of analysis, all constructs were measured as employee perceptions. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with a two-stage hierarchical component model and 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Strategic HRM was positively associated with open innovation (β = 0.540), digital transformation (β = 0.752), and perceived sustainable university performance (β = 0.296). Digital transformation was positively associated with perceived sustainable university performance (β = 0.604), whereas open innovation was positively associated with digital transformation (β = 0.166) but not directly with perceived sustainable university performance (β = −0.022, p = 0.541). The model explained 29.2%, 72.7%, and 73.1% of the variance in open innovation, digital transformation, and perceived sustainable university performance, respectively. Digital transformation significantly mediated the strategic HRM–performance relationship, while sequential mediation through open innovation and digital transformation was also significant. The findings extend the resource-based view and dynamic capability theory by demonstrating complementary capability mechanisms associated with sustainability perceptions in higher education.
Type of the article: Research Article AbstractInnovation and digitalization increasingly shape the national capabilities supporting international economic cooperation, extending the analytical focus beyond trade and financial flows. This study aims to assess country-level structural readiness for innovation-driven international economic cooperation and identify differences across income groups. Published composite indices and World Economic Outlook indicators are examined through descriptive Pearson correlation analysis, comparative analysis, and indicator-correlation network mapping for six benchmark years: 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025, subject to indicator availability. Correlations are estimated across individual countries within the World Bank income groups applicable to each year.The averaged 2020/2025 networks retain 46 index–macroeconomic relationships for low-income countries, 49 for lower-middle-income countries, 48 for upper-middle-income countries, and 15 for high-income countries at an absolute correlation threshold of 0.40. Of these, 44, 48, 47, and 14 relationships, respectively, are positive. Low- and lower-middle-income configurations are predominantly organized around GDP per capita, whereas upper-middle-income configurations encompass a broader range of macroeconomic variables. High-income associations are more selective and distributed across the output gap, government debt, exports, savings, and GDP per capita. Within these averaged networks, network readiness is positively associated with constant-price GDP per capita, with coefficients of 0.66 for low-income countries and 0.63 for upper-middle-income countries. Trade and globalization associations vary across groups and periods.The findings indicate differentiated structural-readiness configurations across income groups, with comparisons constrained by unequal indicator coverage. The framework distinguishes national readiness conditions from realized international cooperation and supports descriptive interpretation.
Type of the article: Research Article AbstractThis study examines the relationship between external R&D purchases and internal R&D expenditure with technological and non-technological innovation in large Ecuadorian companies, using internal R&D expenditure as a mediating variable and company age as a moderating variable. A structured survey was administered in 2024 to the CEOs of 380 large companies in Ecuador’s three main business centers: Guayaquil, Quito, and Cuenca. Data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results confirmed that internal R&D expenditure is the main driver of reported innovation, with large direct effects on technological (β = 0.545; p < 0.001; f² = 0.434) and non-technological innovation (β = 0.526; p < 0.001; f² = 0.400). External R&D purchases directly affect non-technological innovation (β = 0.178; p < 0.001) and internal R&D expenditure (β = 0.308; p < 0.001; f² = 0.105), with significant indirect effects on both types of innovation (β = 0.168 and 0.162; p < 0.001). The model explains 37.9% of the variance in technological innovation and 37.5% of the variance in non-technological innovation (Q² > 0). Firm age negatively moderates the external R&D purchases–technological innovation relationship (β = −0.141; p = 0.045), a pattern consistent with younger firms relying more on external R&D purchases for technological innovation, although this interpretation requires caution given the moderate significance of the effect. Therefore, internal R&D expenditure relates to reported outcomes of innovation, while external R&D purchases appear to contribute mainly to the development of internal R&D.
