Pathology of social responsibility in local and regional research of faculty members

The study aimed to analyze the pathology of faculty members’ social responsibility in research area and to provide solutions to increase the fit between research outputs and local and regional needs.

Semi-structured interviews were held with 12 faculty members from Shiraz, Ilam and Yazd universities. The sampling method was theoretical sampling. The collection of data continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. The data were analyzed by thematic analysis method.

Intra-institutional factors were research expediency, lack of belief in the function of problem–solving, insufficient support of social responsibility in promotion regulations, quantity orientation and article orientation, minimal research per capita. Extra-institutional factors were clientless research, lack of acceptance of need-based research, research lobbying, weak mutual trust between the university and society, luxury and marginality of research, lack of comprehensiveness in upstream documents, lack of meritocracy in appointments, employer’s unprofessional behavior, industry lack of trust in internal power, and incomplete database.

In order to respond to the local and regional needs, it is possible to increase the faculty members’ adherence to the research social responsibility to a desirable level by providing funds and injecting financial credits, creating permanent joint desks and scientific communities consisting of local researchers and policy makers, revising the policies of faculty members’ promotion and encouragement, reviewing understanding of science and the world of localization, strengthening interdisciplinary research teams, mission orientation of universities, meritocracy in the appointment of managers and strong supervision, and prevention of collusions in research.
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