Single window performance management: a strategy for evaluation integrated research culture in the commercial agriculture sector

In their attempts to evaluate the progress, and in turn, to make evidence-based decisions on the resource-use of a research and development program in hand, research institutes can practice diverse methodologies. An investigation into such practices at work in a prominent sector in an economy from multiple angles, i.e., commercial agriculture sector in Sri Lanka that invests millions of public funds annually to generate “marketable” outputs, was the focus of this study. The topmost administrators of a network of well-established research institutes working on commercial agriculture were contacted personally to get their responses to multiple questions structured into an interview guide to reveal those practices at work. It was found that those institutes adopt many diverse and non-integrated strategical processes without considering their subtle differences, and their key stakeholders were, for the most part, unaware of the importance of integrating them into a science-based systematic mode. In the light of this, a model of a single-window performance management system was proposed in this paper that enables high-level data sharing in an interoperable manner and facilitates data-driven decision-making processes. The model proposed avoids duplications of evaluation efforts and optimizes the research development process by eliminating weaknesses in performance management systems, including research duplication, idling and underutilization of scarce resources, etc. Furthermore, it elaborates on the key performance indicators that were mapped into key performance drives, along with the relevant policy measures, to realign those practices in place to create performance-based research culture facilitating proper scientific evaluations.