Research, Innovation & National Development: The Role of Ecuadorian Universities

In the Ecuadorian Constitution, universities, as part of the Science, Technology, Innovation, and Ancestral Knowledge System, must develop technologies and innovations that promote national production, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve quality of life. However, in their role as promoters of development through the generation and transfer of knowledge, universities worldwide have traditionally focused above all on innovations that benefit industries and the formal economic sector. Therefore, universities continue to be seen as elitist, as institutions that do not work for people with low incomes. This is problematic given that, as stated in the Constitution, universities in Ecuador, even private ones, are seen as public goods; therefore, they can receive resources from the state, civil society, and NGOs or tax exemptions. This research aims to evaluate Ecuadorian universities' approaches towards research, innovation, and development and identify what influences the decision-making, including environmental elements. This work adopts the theoretical perspective of neo-institutionalism that explains how the institutional environment affects how organizations work or tend to survive; in this case, it accommodates Ecuadorian universities. The methodological approach of this research uses a mixed design: First, it conducted a classical content analysis of university documents such as status, strategic plans, and regulations from the 62 existing Ecuadorian universities. The documents provided information on the adoption of development perspectives by Ecuadorian universities. Then, it uses thematic analysis of the responses of key informants from 12 universities, who were informants in-depth with a semi-structured interview; the results help to understand what influences the adoption of different development perspectives by Ecuadorian universities. Whereas Ecuadorian universities present a higher frequency of mentions of the mainstream development perspective, the Ecuadorian Constitution intends to favor outcomes desirable from a post-development perspective. Universities are thus confronted with the imperative to balance socially beneficial research with global trends such as the imperative for economically valuable and profitable research, as well as isomorphic pressures associated with the Constitution, whether mimetic or coercive.