How Senior International Officers Promote Innovation through Leadership

• In Event: Roundtable Session 9
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Global Trends and Perspectives on Stimulating Innovation in Higher Education

Proposal

Research universities support internationalization strategies for a number of reasons, including greater global collaboration and engagement, expanded capacity for research and innovation, bolstered institutional branding and impact, and the preparation of students and graduates for global citizenship (Lomer et al., 2018; Oleksiyenko, 2023). In many research universities, a Senior International Officer (SIO) is deeply involved in the internationalization strategic planning process and charged with leading a strategic plan that represents the institution’s mission and goals, which generally involve innovation (Cruz, 2019). Nevertheless, the SIO’s leadership role in strategic internationalization planning and implementation for innovation remains an under-researched topic (Altbach & de Wit, 2017). Therefore, a qualitative study of how the SIOs of research universities navigate these evolving global challenges in their leadership roles is both timely and necessary for understanding the future of higher education leadership in support of innovation.

This qualitative study draws upon more than 16 hours of interviews with 15 SIOs at U.S. research universities to interrogate two research questions:
1) From the perspective of SIOs, what are the primary institutional motivations for internationalization as they relate to innovation?
2) How do SIOs stimulate institutional innovation through internationalization?

Concerning the first research question, SIOs identified global distinction as a core motivation for internationalization, emphasizing how visibility, academic quality, and external partnerships were used to elevate institutional standing and influence. Participants described how internationalization not only signals excellence, but actively contributes to it, particularly in the realms of research, talent acquisition, and innovation. As stated by one SIO, “We believe it is very important for our faculty and our students to have access to and to work with the best there is… in many fields, many disciplines, from a research perspective, is to be found outside the United States.”

Concerning the second question, SIOs viewed global talent exchange as both an operational imperative and a reflection of their research institutions’ intellectual values, enabling universities to remain collaborative, innovative, and globally responsive. For instance, one SIO described the importance of global talent exchange through a metaphor from the automotive industry, highlighting how globalization has blurred the lines of national production: “In the 60s and 70s, when my parents bought a car, that car was probably built in America, and the pieces came from America… Nowadays, even if you buy an American built car, you're building a car with probably the windshield from Mexico and the door handles from India, and the catalytic converter from China, and the computer chip from Taiwan… So, what is an American car?” Another SIO was more explicit about the importance of international collaboration, stating, “I think without the implicit ideology of globalization, we would not be able to do a lot of the research that we do, and we probably wouldn't even really think of some of the questions we think of.” This presentation concludes with the observation that, in my ways, SIOs serve as a bridge between institutional ambition and global need, shaping partnerships and cultivating expertise in service of innovation and impact.

Author

• Iyonka M. Strawn-Valcy, Georgia Institute of Technology