Purpose Previous research has considered human motivation as a determinant of inquisitiveness, learning and innovation. However, how student’s motivation affects both exploitative/exploratory research outcomes has not yet been sufficiently addressed. The purpose of this paper is to examine self-determination theory (SDT) as a conceptual tool to understand post-graduate student’s academic motivation and how it affects two types of ambidextrous outcomes (exploitative and exploratory), and thus posit relational capital as an important mediator in the motivation–innovation process. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw conclusions using 331 valid post-graduate foreign scholars data collected via online survey in three Chinese Universities and conduct data analysis using the structural equation modeling technique (AMOS). Findings Results indicate that: academic motivation and perceived collaboration capability both has a significant effect on exploitation behavior; there was no significant relationship between academic motivation and tendency to collaborate with actors within their networks; collaboration capability and exploitation behavior mediate the relationship between academic motivation and exploration behavior; and further a complementary link was found to exist between exploitation behavior and exploration behavior in students attempt to be ambidextrous. Originality/value The authors advance innovation research by expanding SDT to include relational perspective as an antecedent of ambidexterity (exploration/exploitation behaviors) and provide new insights into current understanding of research engagement in higher education settings. The authors highlight some implications for educational agencies seeking to promote the emergence of psychological and relational conditions to enhance novelty in post-graduate internationalized education.

This study investigated the role of cognitive-(absorptive capacity), psychological-(subjective-wellbeing) and cultural-fit-factors as predictors of academic achievement-novelty in a Chinese-C9-league-University. We addressed the question of what drive student’s achievement of high graduations requirements and innovativeness in their Host-University; focusing mainly on whether interactionistic-nature-(fit-capabilities) are better mechanisms. The quantitative approach was adopted; collect 234 valid data via survey questionnaire, and conduct analysis via structural equation modeling technique. We found that individual-absorptive-capacity has significant effect on supervisor-fit, but a non-significant effect on university-fit dimensions of cultural-fit. Subjective-wellbeing significantly affects both dimensions of cultural-fit. The findings further show how supervisor-fit and university-fit indirectly mediate the (absorptive-capacity, subjective-wellbeing)-achievement-novelty relationship. We highlight the importance of cultural-diversity-awareness; considering supervisor-institutional-fit-factors in research-mentorship-development to support international-students ‘induction for research productivity in educational-settings.

With the current controversy and blame game on output of public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives concerns, we investigate why there may be variations in achieving innovativeness, perceived quality, and performance of PPP initiatives across different geographical locations. For instance, we investigate a scenario where "a private company involved in waste management will perform in country 'A' but fails to perform in country 'B' given the same assignment and target." We empirically sampled and make conclusions with 475 respondents from the public sector, private sector, and academia based on a survey inquiry. We adopted the structural equation modeling method using the partial least square for the data analysis.The results show that environmental dynamism causes major variations in desired output of PPP initiatives followed by collaboration capacity, environmental fit, and absorptive capacity, respectively. The findings further show that one partner cannot be blamed entirely for causing the failure of PPP initiative. However, we conclude that because on the basis of our data, environmental dynamism, which is as a result of some governmental activities, depicts the highest effect on output, public partners might be more liable. The findings from this study are an explicit view of PPP technocrats, which makes the conclusions more reliable.

Studies on public mass transportation has gained attention over the years. Even though as part of the success of achieving low-carbon goal and reduction in traffic congestion has been attributed to promoting public buses usage, transport planners are yet to achieve this goal by meeting the expectations of users and non-users of public bus services to boost patronage. This study examines some elements of public buses attractiveness. The current study is one of the first to empirically examine and test commuters' expectations towards public bus services in China. The research findings show that among the expectations of users and non-users of public bus services are provision of storage space in public buses, availability of bus card recharge machines at various bus stops, improvement of entry and exit systems in public buses, availability of sufficient charging systems in public buses and provision of free Wi-Fi in the public buses. Also, the study found that, commuters prefer to pay transport fare directly with WeChat and Alipay applications rather than other applications.