Influencing Factors of Faculty Educational Innovation Ability in Private Universities in Liaoning Province: The Mediating Role of Perceived Contextual Factors
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Abstract
Background and Aim: Educational innovation ability has become a critical determinant of teaching quality and institutional competitiveness in private higher education, particularly within the context of China’s regional revitalization strategies. Private universities in Liaoning Province face distinctive structural and institutional constraints that shape faculty members’ capacity for educational innovation. This study aimed to examine the influencing factors of faculty members ' educational innovation ability, with particular emphasis on the mediating role of a Dominant Contextual Model, defined as faculty members' perceived dominant contextual conditions, operationalized through attitudes toward innovative behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control.
Materials and Methods: A quantitative research design was employed. Data were collected from 486 faculty members across 10 private universities in Liaoning Province using a structured five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to examine direct effects, indirect effects, and mediation relationships among faculty knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, dominant contextual factors, and educational innovation ability.
Results: The SEM results indicated that faculty knowledge and beliefs did not exert significant direct effects on educational innovation ability, whereas attitudes showed a marginal direct effect. In contrast, dominant contextual factors demonstrated a strong and significant direct effect on educational innovation ability. Knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes all had significant positive effects on dominant contextual factors. Mediation analysis further revealed that dominant contextual factors significantly mediated the relationships between individual factors (knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes) and educational innovation ability, indicating that individual attributes influenced innovation ability primarily through their effects on perceived contextual conditions.
Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that educational innovation ability in private universities is largely context-driven. Faculty members’ individual knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes become influential only when translated through dominant contextual perceptions that enable, legitimize, and support innovation. The Dominant Contextual Model provides a theoretically grounded and empirically supported framework for understanding how perceived contextual mechanisms shape educational innovation, offering important implications for future research and institutional policy in higher education.
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