Networks, Collaboration, and Productivity in Resource-Rich Research Institutions in a Non-Western Context

In this paper, we engage concepts, issues, and principles from the sociology of science. We test a hypothesis -- the collaboration-productivity hypothesis -- emanating from a Western view of science, that scientific collaboration construed as working together in research projects is associated with increased research productivity. Recent studies have indicated that in the context of resource-constrained research institutions, research productivity is significantly linked to professional network factors, but with no evidence of any association with scientific collaboration. In this paper, we test the collaboration-productivity hypothesis in the context of resource-rich research institutions, but situated within a non-Western context.  We incorporate professional network characteristics in the research productivity model, cast productivity and collaboration as two different phenomena, and examine these phenomena in the context of resource-rich research institutions in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.

              We use face-to-face survey data collected from a sample of Japanese, Singaporean, and Taiwanese researchers, and employ a generalized linear regression approach to examine the relationship among professional network, scientific collaboration, and research productivity measures. For our ultimate dependent dimension, we use two measures of research productivity: number of manuscript written in the 12 months, number of international journal publications in the last two years. Our predictors include researchers’ personal characteristics, professional activities, informational and communication technology utilization, and professional network characteristics. Our intervening dimension is involvement in scientific collaboration measured by number of collaborative projects involved in. Our results carry important implications for science policy, research administration and management of state universities and of government research institutes in non-Western contexts, and for U.S. research institutions planning to engage research institutions abroad.