ABSTRACT

Research productivity has become one of the important measures of university performance. All around the world universities are ranked on the basis of their research output. Universities are now prioritizing research engagement of their faculty and are incentivizing their research activities to maximize their productivity. There are various factors that impacts research productivity. This study analyzes how research environment of the university impacts the research productivity of faculty members along with their personal characteristics. The objective of the study is to analyze what is current research environment of public sector universities in Pakistan and how is that research environment impacting the research productivity of the faculty members of social sciences. In this study primary data was used which was collected through questionnaires. The data was analyzed through situational and OLS regression analysis. Study concludes that research environment of universities has positive relation with research productivity of faculty members. Faculty in high level research environment have higher research productivity and publish in high ranked journals as compare to faculty in low and medium level research environment. Also, according to findings of this study the research environment of universities is below average and is not conducive for research productivity. Personal characteristics also have significant impact on research productivity therefore impact of personal characteristics are also analyzed in the study according to which male faculty members have higher research productivity, faculty with foreign qualification are more productive than faculty that are locally qualified. Therefore, to maximize research productivity and increase the quality and visibility of research produced better conducive research environment in universities is very crucial.