Joel Nshom Bafon
University of Yaoundé 1 | bafonnshom@gmail.com
Marcelline Tchamabe Djeumeni
University of Yaounde 1 | Marcelline.djeumenictababe@yahoo.fr
The main objective of this study is to explore the intelligibility of knowledge economy ramifications on strategic management performance in Cameroon’s higher education. Its postulate’s that Cameroon higher education is anchored on the knowledge economy paradigm seems be unrealistic at the institutional lacks effective technological capability in harnessing institutional ambidexterity as strategic innovation insights-foresights for human capital development, research and innovation for competitiveness, agility and visibility. The study adopted an exploratory case study design. The respondents were: research students, lecturer-researchers, and administrators from public and private higher education institutions in Cameroon. The data was collected with the use of an unstructured interview guide. The data was analysed through hermeneutic-interpretative approach. The results revealed that higher education strategic policy-objectives are influenced to an extent by knowledge economy indicators. However, institutional discrepancies and challenges are informed by slow pace of technological integration, less innovation and research value creation, limitations in the implementation of the third mission (support to development/community outreach) at the institutional level. Therefore, we concluded that institutional strategic management must consider knowledge-based economy indicators through the creation of innovation and research networks with strong quality assurance frameworks which can engender a robust national innovation-entrepreneurial value creation ecosystem for a sustainable socioeconomic development.
Keywords: Knowledge Economy, Strategic Management, Innovation for Development, ICT Infrastructure Development and Human Capital Development