Universities play a pivotal role in driving national economic development and advancing both global and national educational objectives. Ensuring financial sustainability in public universities is critical for achieving these goals. Existing research highlights the importance of revenue diversification and cost management strategies in fostering financial sustainability. However, the moderating role of executive officers’ perceptions in influencing these relationships remains underexplored in the literature. This study addresses this gap by employing PLS-SEM to analyze primary data from public universities in an emerging economy context. Specifically, it investigates how executive officers’ perceptions influence the effectiveness of revenue diversification and cost management strategies on the financial sustainability of public universities in Ghana. The findings reveal three key insights: First, revenue diversification and cost management strategies directly and positively impact financial sustainability in Ghanaian public universities. Second, executive officers’ perceptions significantly and positively moderate the relationship between revenue diversification strategies and financial sustainability. Third, executive officers’ perceptions exhibit a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between cost management strategies and financial sustainability. The study highlights the important influence of leadership perceptions on financial results, indicating that executive officers should take an active role in shaping and executing policies for public universities.

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Keywords

Financial sustainability, revenue diversification, cost management, public universities, Ghana