Evaluating the effectiveness of research centers and institutes in universities: Disciplines and life cycle stages

Despite increasing demands to evaluate the performance of research centers and institutes, few satisfactory theoretical frameworks and methods to do so exist. The wide variety of disciplines and varied length of organizational life cycle in research organizations has become a barrier to evaluation. This study examines the utility of the Competing Value Framework (CVF), using Data Envelopment Analysis methods. Results indicated that academic disciplines and CVF models influence organizational efficiency, but organizational life cycle was not significant. The performance of research centers and institutes should therefore be evaluated by their disciplines, and various models should be considered for evaluating performance in a more systematic way. Organizational life cycle should be carefully treated for research centers and institutes, dissimilar from other types of organizations, such as private companies.