Issues in strategy formulation and implementation in international collaborative research and development: a case study of research based institutions in Kenya

Abstract

Using a sample of twenty research-based institutions within which twenty-seven collaborative research settings participated in our study, we reveal that strategy formulation and implementation in research-based institutions in Kenya is characterized by scarce local talent in collaboration management. We also show that foreign collaborators dominate strategy formulation and implementation in these settings, (R2 a=O.996), and that collaboration in international R&D advances foreign policy objectives. Using the non-cooperative model, we find that dominated strategy reduces with t.he duration of strategic plans put in place. We contend that realized strategy in international collaborative R&D is primarily explained by emergent components rather than planned components of strategy. One implication of our findings is that a national policy on R&D needs to be put in place. Another implication is that local researchers need to take a more proactive role in determining the local research agenda