The Effect of Academic Environment on Turnover Intention of High-Skilled Scientific and Technology Professionals: Empirical Evidence from China’s First-Class Universities

TL;DR

This study explores how the academic environment and job satisfaction influence the likelihood of high-skilled science and tech professionals in China's top universities wanting to leave their jobs.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel theoretical framework linking academic environment, job satisfaction, and turnover intention in high-skilled scientific professionals.

Findings

High-skilled science and technology professionals show low overall turnover intention, but regional disparities exist.

Job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between collaboration/democracy in the academic environment and turnover intention.

Academic environment and job satisfaction both significantly and negatively predict turnover intention.

Abstract

The study constructs a theoretical framework for how the academic environment and job satisfaction affect the turnover intention of high-skilled science and technology talents (STPs), based on academic ecology theory and job satisfaction theory. Conducting a quantitative analysis based on survey data collected from 482 national-level STP recipients across 14 first-class universities, the study integrates descriptive statistics, ANOVA, OLS regression, and bias-corrected bootstrap mediation analysis to examine the relationships between these variables. Findings reveal that STPs exhibit relatively low overall turnover intention; however, significant regional disparities exist, with higher turnover intentions observed in central and western regions. Academic environment shows moderate overall positivity, with competition receiving the highest mean score. Both academic environment and job satisfaction significantly and negatively predict turnover intention. Furthermore, job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between collaboration/democracy and turnover intention. Based on the findings, the study recommends that universities strengthen the institutional development of the academic environment to provide a favorable environment for talent development and scientific and technological innovation.

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