Abstract

In higher education institutions, where scholars and academics have ever-evolving roles as research's contributors, most felt research support facilities were subpar in Malaysia. This indicates that academics' research orientation may not meet the overall needs of the higher education system. In a country home to several ethnicities, the diverse identities could potentially affect academics' research performance. This knowledge-gap motivates the study to examine how academics' identities could promote research orientation through the interplay between autonomy and relatedness on their competence when seen through the prism of self-determination. The study employed a structural equation modelling technique to analyze the collected data from 310 academics across 21 Malaysian universities. Participants reported that research orientation was significantly higher through satisfying their competence pushed by their autonomy and academic community relatedness motivated by their academic identity. The findings contribute to the self-determination theory by highlighting participants' pursuit of competence in their research orientation through autonomy and relatedness motivated by their academic identification. This study offers intriguing insights by evaluating the effects of academic identity in motivating psychological needs to make academics research oriented. This enables policymakers to develop more influential motivational strategies. Future research could expand to explore this phenomenon in more diverse settings.