Researcher Marwan Taher Abdu Saif Al-Mekhlafi was awarded a PhD degree in Business Administration for his dissertation titled: The Impact of Organizational Factors on Achieving Sustainable Organizational Excellence through Strategic Planning: A Field Study on Yemeni Private Universities, which was submitted to the Center of Business Administration–Sana’a University. The dissertation defense was held on Monday, October 5, 2026.
The PhD Viva-Voce Committee, which was formed based on a resolution issued by the Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Council, consisted of the following:
• Prof. Abdullah Abdullah Al-Sanfi – Sana’a University – Internal Examiner and Chair.
• Prof. Abdullah Ali Ahmed Al-Qurashi – Thamar University – External Examiner and Committee Member.
• Assoc. Prof. Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi – Sana’a University – Supervisor and Committee Member.
The study aimed to investigate the impact of organizational factors, represented by administrative leadership, organizational culture, and human resources, on achieving sustainable organizational excellence, represented by excellence in service delivery, overall performance results, and sustainability, through strategic planning as a mediating variable, with its dimensions of environmental analysis, strategy formulation and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation, in Yemeni private universities.
To achieve the study objectives, the study adopted a quantitative approach using descriptive and analytical methods and employed a questionnaire as a data collection instrument. The study population consisted of 660 administrative leaders and employees from different levels, including academic and administrative staff, at 10 private universities out of 18. The universities included in the study were selected using simple random sampling, while the study sample consisted of 321 participants, selected through systematic random sampling.
For data analysis and hypothesis testing, the study employed the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 27) and AMOS 25 to conduct Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and analyze the direct and indirect relationships among the study variables.
The study reached a number of findings, most notably that the levels of organizational factors, strategic planning practices, and sustainable organizational excellence were high at the Yemeni private universities under study. This reflects the availability of a supportive organizational environment, attention to strategic practices, and the capacity to achieve outstanding and sustainable performance outcomes.
The findings also revealed a statistically significant positive effect of organizational factors on sustainable organizational excellence, with an effect coefficient of 90.4%, as well as a statistically significant positive effect of organizational factors on strategic planning practices, with an effect coefficient of 89.3%.
The findings further demonstrated a statistically significant effect of organizational factors on sustainable organizational excellence through strategic planning as a mediating variable. The mediation was partial across most dimensions, confirming that organizational factors exert both direct and indirect effects on achieving sustainable organizational excellence.
The results showed no statistically significant differences in participants’ perceptions of strategic planning and sustainable organizational excellence attributable to gender, age, nature of work, years of experience, or university size and age. No differences were found in strategic planning attributable to academic qualification. However, statistically significant differences were found in both organizational factors and sustainable organizational excellence in favor of doctoral degree holders compared with master’s degree holders.
The study presented a number of recommendations, most notably the need to strengthen the sustainability of the effectiveness of organizational factors, namely administrative leadership, organizational culture, and human resources, and to conduct further research into other factors that could contribute to improving strategic planning practices across their various components. This would contribute to achieving sustainable organizational excellence in Yemeni private universities, enhancing the added value of their core functions—education, scientific research, and community service—and ensuring their long-term sustainability.
The dissertation defense was attended by a number of academics, postgraduate students, researchers, as well as the researcher's colleagues and family members.
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