Researcher Attitudes and Commercialisation Intention Among Researchers in Public Universities in Malaysia

Research commercialisation is one of the key agendas for the Malaysian government to enhance economic growth in Malaysia. Despite various efforts commissioned by the government, the success rate of commercialisation in Malaysia is still relatively low. Although studies have shown that many academicians’ contributions in commercialisation is significant, many university researchers perceive that this activity could divert them from their main task, which are teaching and learning. This perception eventually affects commercialisation rate thus influences the target set by the government. In order to overcome this issue, it is crucial to understand the factors impeding commercialisation in order to ensure that researchers understand the underlying issue towards commercialisation intention. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors that influence the commercialisation intention among researchers in Malaysian public universities based on the framework of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Data from a total of 95 respondents have been analysed statistically using correlation analysis. The results show that attitudes towards behaviour, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and self-identity have significant relationship with commercialisation intention. Specifically, the results reveal that the highest correlation coefficient is derived from the relationship between attitudes toward behaviour and commercialisation intention. This is followed by self-identity and subjective norms, with the coefficient values of 0.485 and 0.450, respectively. Perceived behavioural control was found to have the weakest relationship with commercialisation intention.