Research performance of teams in Business and Management: The impact of team size, knowledge diversity and international diversity

Krammer, Sorin M.S. and Belkouja, Mustapha and Yoon, David (2019): Research performance of teams in Business and Management: The impact of team size, knowledge diversity and international diversity.

Abstract

Despite inherent differences across disciplines, collaboration in general and larger teams of co-authors in particular, are prevalent strategies to increase research performance via academic publications. We take a more fine-grained view of this relationship by distinguishing between two dimensions of research performance, namely impact (i.e., subsequent citations of a paper) and prestige (i.e., top academic journals). Different from prior literature, we argue that there are both benefits and pitfalls in having larger teams, and these trade-offs will affect differently the impact and prestige of academic research. Specifically, we propose that while team size will enhance linearly the impact of a paper, it will contribute in a non-linear fashion to its prestige. Furthermore, these relationships will be moderated by the knowledge and international diversity of the team. We test these hypotheses using bibliometric data on more than 40,000 publications between 1994 and 2013 papers across 21 sub-fields within the realm of Business and Management. Our results broadly support our theoretical assertions. We discuss some practical implications for assessing and stimulating the research performance of academics in business schools.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Team size, citations, co-authorship, research performance.
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I23 - Higher Education ; Research Institutions; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M0 - General; Z - Other Special Topics > Z0 - General

References

Abramo, G., D’Angelo, C. A., & Di Costa, F. (2009). Research collaboration and productivity: is there correlation?. Higher Education, 57(2), 155-171.

Adams, J. D., Black, G. C., Clemmons, J. R., & Stephan, P. E. (2005). Scientific teams and institutional collaborations: Evidence from US universities, 1981–1999. Research policy, 34(3), 259-285.

Aldrich, H.E., & Al-Turk, A. (2018). Crouching Authors, Hidden Pitfalls: Collaboration in Research. Studi di Sociologia, 56(4), 351-368.

Andrews, F.M., 1976. Creative process. In: Pelz, D.C., Andrews, F.M. (Eds.), Scientists in Organizations. , 2nd ed. University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, MI, pp.337–366.

Azoulay, P., Furman, J. L., Krieger, J. L., & Murray, F. (2015). Retractions. Review of Economics and Statistics, 97(5), 1118-1136.

Baer, M., & Shaw, J. D. (2017). Falling in Love Again with What We Do: Academic Craftsmanship in the Management Sciences. Academy of Management Journal, 60(4), 1213-1217.

Babchuk, N., Keith, B., & Peters, G. (1999). Collaboration in sociology and other scientific disciplines: A comparative trend analysis of scholarship in the social, physical, and mathematical sciences. The American Sociologist, 30(3), 5-21.

Bammer, G. (2008). Enhancing research collaborations: Three key management challenges. Research Policy, 37(5), 875-887.

Bantel, K. A., & Jackson, S. E. (1989). Top management and innovations in banking: Does the composition of the top team make a difference?. Strategic Management Journal, 10(S1), 107-124.

Bar-Ilan, J. (2008). Which h-index?—A comparison of WoS, Scopus and Google Scholar. Scientometrics, 74(2), 257-271.

Barnett, A. H., Ault, R. W., & Kaserman, D. L. 1988. The rising incidence of co-authorship in economics: Further evidence. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 70(3), 539-543.

Belkhouja, M., & Yoon, H. D. (2018). How does openness influence the impact of a scholar’s research? An analysis of business scholars’ citations over their careers. Research Policy, 47(10), 2037-2047.

Bentley, R.A., 2007. Why do team-authored papers get cited more? Science (New York, NY) 317, 1496–1498, author reply 1496–1498. Bowler, P. J., and Morus, I. R. (2010). Making modern science: A historical survey. University of Chicago Press.

Brass, D. J., Butterfield, K. D., & Skaggs, B. C. (1998). Relationships and unethical behavior: A social network perspective. Academy of Management Review, 23(1), 14-31.

Bruce, A., Lyall, C., Tait, J., & Williams, R. (2004). Interdisciplinary integration in Europe: the case of the Fifth Framework programme. Futures, 36(4), 457-470.

Buenstorf, G., & Schacht, A. (2013). We need to talk–or do we? Geographic distance and the commercialization of technologies from public research. Research Policy, 42(2), 465-480.

Burke, C. M., and Morley, M. J. (2016). On temporary organizations: A review, synthesis and research agenda. Human relations, 69(6), 1235-1258.

Cattani, G., & Ferriani, S. (2008). A core/periphery perspective on individual creative performance: Social networks and cinematic achievements in the Hollywood film industry. Organization science, 19(6), 824-844.

Cattani G, Ferriani S, Frederiksen L and Täube F (eds) (2011) Project-Based Organizing and Strategic Management. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Chambers, R. (1994). Paradigm shifts and the practice of participatory research and development. Available: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/3712/WP2.pdf

Chambers, C. P., & Miller, A. D. (2014). Scholarly influence. Journal of Economic Theory, 151, 571-583.

Cohen, S. G., & Bailey, D. E. (1997). What makes teams work: Group effectiveness research from the shop floor to the executive suite. Journal of Management, 23(3), 239-290.

Confraria, H., Godinho, M. M., & Wang, L. (2017). Determinants of citation impact: A comparative analysis of the Global South versus the Global North. Research Policy, 46(1), 265-279.

Corbett, A., Cornelissen, J., Delios, A. and Harley, B. (2014). Variety, novelty, and perceptions of scholarship in research on management and organizations: An appeal for ambidextrous scholarship. Journal of Management Studies, 51(1), 3-18.

Cramton, C. D., & Webber, S. S. (2005). Relationships among geographic dispersion, team processes, and effectiveness in software development work teams. Journal of Business Research, 58(6), 758-765.

Crescenzi, R., Nathan, M., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2016). Do inventors talk to strangers? On proximity and collaborative knowledge creation. Research Policy, 45(1), 177-194.

Cronin, B. (1984). The citation process: The role and significance of citations in scientific communication. London: Graham.

Crippen, J. A., & Robinson, L. C. (2013). In defense of the lone wolf: Collaboration in language documentation. Available at: https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/4577/1/crippenrobinson.pdf

Cummings, J. N., & Kiesler, S. (2005). Collaborative research across disciplinary and organizational boundaries. Social Studies of Science, 35(5), 703-722.

Dahlander, L., O'Mahony, S., & Gann, D. M. (2016). One foot in, one foot out: how does individuals' external search breadth affect innovation outcomes?. Strategic Management Journal, 37(2), 280-302.

De Rond, M., & Miller, A. N. (2005). Publish or perish: bane or boon of academic life?. Journal of Management Inquiry, 14(4), 321-329.

Desanctis, G., & Gallupe, R. B. (1987). A foundation for the study of group decision support systems. Management Science, 33(5), 589-609.

Diamond, A. M. (1986). The life-cycle research productivity of mathematicians and scientists. Journal of Gerontology, 41(4), 520-525.

Ding, Y. (2011). Scientific collaboration and endorsement: Network analysis of coauthorship and citation networks. Journal of Informetrics, 5(1), 187-203.

Eisend, M., & Schmidt, S. (2014). The influence of knowledge-based resources and business scholars’ internationalization strategies on research performance. Research Policy, 43(1), 48-59.

Felin, T., and Foss, N. J. (2005). Strategic organization: A field in search of micro-foundations. Strategic Organization, 3(4), 441-455.

Fleming, L., Mingo, S., & Chen, D. (2007). Collaborative brokerage, generative creativity, and creative success. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(3), 443-475.

Floyd, S. W., Schroeder, D. M., & Finn, D. M. 1994. “Only if I’m first author”: Conflict over credit in management scholarship. Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 734–747.

Fox, M. F., & Faver, C. A. (1984). Independence and cooperation in research: The motivations and costs of collaboration. The Journal of Higher Education, 55(3), 347-359.

Freeman, R. B., Ganguli, I., & Murciano-Goroff, R. (2014). Why and wherefore of increased scientific collaboration. In The changing frontier: Rethinking science and innovation policy (pp. 17-48). University of Chicago Press.

Ghoshal, S., & Nohria, N. (1989). Internal differentiation within multinational corporations. Strategic Management Journal, 10(4), 323-337.

Hackman, J. R. (1992). Group influences on individuals in organizations. In M. D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol.3, pp. 199-267). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Hagen, N. T. 2010. Harmonic publication and citation counting: Sharing authorship credit equitably–Not equally, geometrically or arithmetically. Scientometrics, 84(3), 785-793.

Hall, J., & Martin, B. R. (2018). Towards a taxonomy of research misconduct: the case of business school research. Research Policy.

Hamermesh, D. S. (2018). Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses, and Impacts. Journal of Economic Literature, 56(1), 115-56.

Hansen, W. L., Weisbrod, B. A., & Strauss, R. P. (1978). Modeling the earnings and research productivity of academic economists. Journal of Political Economy, 86(4), 729-741.

Harris, C. (2008). Ranking the management journals. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 39(4), 373-409.

Harryson, S., Kliknaite, S., & Dudkowski, R. (2008). Flexibility in innovation through external learning: exploring two models for enhanced industry? university collaboration. International Journal of Technology Management, 41(1-2), 109-137.

Hauptman, R. (2005). How to be a successful scholar: Publish efficiently. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 36(2), 115-119.

Hirsch, J. E. (2005), An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. PNAS, 102(46), 16569–16572.

Hoekman, J., Frenken, K., & Tijssen, R. J. (2010). Research collaboration at a distance: Changing spatial patterns of scientific collaboration within Europe. Research Policy, 39(5), 662-673.

Hollingsworth, R., 2004. Institutionalizing excellence in biomedical research: the case of Rockefeller University. In: Stapleton, D.H. (Ed.), Creating a Tradition of Biomedical Research. Rockefeller University Press, NewYork.

Hülsheger, U. R., Anderson, N., and Salgado, J. F. (2009). Team-level predictors of innovation at work: A comprehensive meta-analysis spanning three decades of research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), 1128-1145.

Jaccard, P. (1912). The distribution of the flora in the alpine zone. New Phytologist, 11(2), 37-50.

Johnson, G. E., & Stafford, F. P. (1974). Lifetime earnings in a professional labor market: Academic economists. Journal of Political Economy, 82(3), 549-569.

Judge, T. A., Cable, D. M., Colbert, A. E., and Rynes, S. L. (2007). What causes a management article to be cited—article, author, or journal?. Academy of Management Journal, 50(3), 491-506.

Kacperczyk, A. and Younkin, P. (2017). The paradox of breadth: The tension between experience and legitimacy in the transition to entrepreneurship. Administrative Science Quarterly, 62(4), 731-64.

Kafouros, M., Wang, C., Mavroudi, E., Hong, J., & Katsikeas, C. S. (2018). Geographic dispersion and co-location in global R&D portfolios: Consequences for firm performance. Research Policy, 47(7), 1243-1255.

Katz, J. S., & Martin, B. R. (1997). What is research collaboration?. Research Policy, 26(1), 1-18.

Kiesler, C.A., 1969. Group Pressure and Conformity. Macmillan, NewYork.

Lahiri, N. (2010). Geographic distribution of R&D activity: how does it affect innovation quality?. Academy of Management Journal, 53(5), 1194-1209.

Landry, R., & Amara, N. (1998). The impact of transaction costs on the institutional structuration of collaborative academic research. Research Policy, 27(9), 901-913.

Larivière, V., Gingras, Y., Sugimoto, C. R., & Tsou, A. (2015). Team size matters: Collaboration and scientific impact since 1900. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(7), 1323-1332.

Lavie, D., & Miller, S. R. (2008). Alliance portfolio internationalization and firm performance. Organization Science, 19(4), 623-646.

Leahey, E. (2007). Not by productivity alone: How visibility and specialization contribute to academic earnings. American Sociological Review, 72(4), 533-561.

Leahey, E., Beckman, C. M., & Stanko, T. L. (2017). Prominent but less productive: The impact of interdisciplinarity on scientists’ research. Administrative Science Quarterly, 62(1), 105-139.

Lee, Y. N., Walsh, J. P., & Wang, J. (2015). Creativity in scientific teams: Unpacking novelty and impact. Research Policy, 44(3), 684-697.

Lee, S., & Bozeman, B. (2005). The impact of research collaboration on scientific productivity. Social studies of science, 35(5), 673-702.

Leung, K. (2007). The glory and tyranny of citation impact: An East Asian perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 50(3), 510-513.

Li, E. Y., Liao, C. H., & Yen, H. R. (2013). Co-authorship networks and research impact: A social capital perspective. Research Policy, 42(9), 1515-1530.

Linton, J. D., & Thongpapanl, N. (2004). Perspective: Ranking the technology innovation management journals. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 21(2), 123-139.

Lisak, A., Erez, M., Sui, Y., & Lee, C. (2016). The positive role of global leaders in enhancing multicultural team innovation. Journal of International Business Studies, 47(6), 655-673.

Liu, C., Olivola, C. Y., & Kovács, B. (2017). Coauthorship Trends in the Field of Management: Facts and Perceptions. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 16(4), 509-530.

Luukkonen, T., Tussen, R. J. W., Persson, O., & Sivertsen, G. (1993). The measurement of international scientific collaboration. Scientometrics, 28(1), 15-36.

Manton, E. J., & English, D. E. 2007. The trend toward multiple authorship in business journals. Journal of Education for Business, 82(3), 164–168.

Marchant, T. (2009). An axiomatic characterization of the ranking based on the h-index and some other bibliometric rankings of authors. Scientometrics, 80(2), 325-342.

McLeod, P. L., Lobel, S. A., & Cox Jr, T. H. (1996). Ethnic diversity and creativity in small groups. Small Group Research, 27(2), 248-264.

Merton, R. K. (1968). The Matthew effect in science: The reward and communication systems of science are considered. Science, 159(3810), 56-63.

Meyer-Krahmer, F., & Reger, G. (1999). New perspectives on the innovation strategies of multinational enterprises: lessons for technology policy in Europe. Research Policy, 28(7), 751-776.

Mingers, J., & Xu, F. (2010). The drivers of citations in management science journals. European Journal of Operational Research, 205(2), 422-430.

Miron-Spektor, E., Ingram, A., Keller, J., Smith, W. K., and Lewis, M. W. (2018). Microfoundations of organizational paradox: The problem is how we think about the problem. Academy of Management Journal, 61(1), 26-45.

Mitchell, R., Nicholas, S., & Boyle, B. (2009). The role of openness to cognitive diversity and group processes in knowledge creation. Small Group Research, 40(5), 535-554.

Moed, H. F., Burger, W. J. M., Frankfort, J. G., & Van Raan, A. F. (1985). The use of bibliometric data for the measurement of university research performance. Research Policy, 14(3), 131-149.

Moreira, S., Markus, A., & Laursen, K. (2018). Knowledge diversity and coordination: The effect of intrafirm inventor task networks on absorption speed. Strategic Management Journal, 39(9), 2517-2546.

Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 242-266.

Nederhof, A. J. (2006). Bibliometric monitoring of research performance in the social sciences and the humanities: A review. Scientometrics, 66(1), 81-100.

Nelson, R. R. and S. G. Winter (1982).An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Nooteboom, B. (2009). A cognitive theory of the firm: Learning, governance and dynamic capabilities. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Otte, E., & Rousseau, R. (2002). Social network analysis: a powerful strategy, also for the information sciences. Journal of Information Science, 28(6), 441-453.

Pezzoni, M., Sterzi, V., & Lissoni, F. (2012). Career progress in centralized academic systems: Social capital and institutions in France and Italy. Research Policy, 41(4), 704-719.

Pieterse, A. N., Van Knippenberg, D., & Van Dierendonck, D. (2013). Cultural diversity and team performance: The role of team member goal orientation. Academy of Management Journal, 56(3), 782-804. Presser, S. (1980). Collaboration and the quality of research. Social Studies of Science, 10(1), 95-101.

Rafols, I., Leydesdorff, L., O’Hare, A., Nightingale, P., & Stirling, A. (2012). How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research: A comparison between innovation studies and business & management. Research Policy, 41(7), 1262-1282.

Raisch, S., Hargrave, T. J., and Van De Ven, A. H. (2018). The learning spiral: A process perspective on paradox. Journal of Management Studies. Reagans, R., & Zuckerman, E. W. (2001). Networks, diversity, and productivity: The social capital of corporate R&D teams. Organization Science, 12(4), 502-517.

Ryazanova, O., & McNamara, P. (2016). Socialization and proactive behavior: Multilevel exploration of research productivity drivers in US business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 15(3), 525-548.

Ryazanova, O., McNamara, P., & Aguinis, H. (2017). Research performance as a quality signal in international labor markets: Visibility of business schools worldwide through a global research performance system. Journal of World Business, 52(6), 831-841.

Sauer, R. D. (1988). Estimates of the returns to quality and coauthorship in economic academia. Journal of Political Economy, 96(4), 855-866.

Schilling, M. A., & Green, E. (2011). Recombinant search and breakthrough idea generation: An analysis of high impact papers in the social sciences. Research Policy, 40(10), 1321-1331.

Söderbaum, F. (2001). Networking and capacity building: the role of regional research networks in Africa. The European Journal of Development Research, 13(2), 144-163.

Simonton, D. K. (1999). Origins of genius: Darwinian perspectives on creativity. Oxford University Press.

Simonton, D. K. (2013). After Einstein: scientific genius is extinct. Nature, 493(7434), 602.

Singh, J., & Fleming, L. (2010). Lone inventors as sources of breakthroughs: Myth or reality?. Management Science, 56(1), 41-56.

Stahl, G. K., Maznevski, M. L., Voigt, A., & Jonsen, K. (2010). Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A meta-analysis of research on multicultural work groups. Journal of International Business Studies, 41(4), 690-709.

Stewart, G. L. (2006). A meta-analytic review of relationships between team design features and team performance. Journal of Management, 32(1), 29-55.

Suchman, M. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 571-610.

Szulanski, G. (1996). Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic management journal, 17(S2), 27-43.

Tahai, A., & Meyer, M. J. (1999). A revealed preference study of management journals’ direct influences. Strategic Management Journal, 20(3), 279-296.

Thomas, H. and Wilson, A. (2011). ‘Physics envy’, cognitive legitimacy or practical relevance: Dilemmas in the evolution of management research in the UK. British Journal of Management, 22(3), 443-56.

Trieschmann, J. S., Dennis, A. R., Northcraft, G. B., & Nieme Jr, A. W. (2000). Serving constituencies in business schools: MBA program versus research performance. Academy of Management Journal, 43(6), 1130-1141.

Valderas, J.M., 2007. Why do team-authored papers get cited more? Science (New York, NY) 317, 1496.

Van Leeuwen, T. N., Moed, H. F., Tijssen, R. J., Visser, M. S., & Van Raan, A. F. (2001). Language biases in the coverage of the Science Citation Index and its consequencesfor international comparisons of national research performance. Scientometrics, 51(1), 335-346.

Van Raan, A. (1998). The influence of international collaboration on the impact of research results: Some simple mathematical considerations concerning the role of self-citations. Scientometrics, 42(3), 423-428.

Wagner III, J. A. (1995). Studies of individualism-collectivism: Effects on cooperation in groups. Academy of Management journal, 38(1), 152-173.

Wales, W. J., Parida, V., & Patel, P. C. (2013). Too much of a good thing? Absorptive capacity, firm performance, and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation. Strategic Management Journal, 34(5), 622-633.

Walsh, J. P., Lee, Y. N., & Tang, L. (2019). Pathogenic organization in science: Division of labor and retractions. Research Policy, 48(2), 444-461.

Whitley, R., 1984. The Intellectual and Social Organization of the Sciences. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Williamson, O.E., 1975. Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implication, New York, The Free Press.

Williamson, O.E., 1985. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. New York, The Free Press.

Williamson, O.E., 1996. The Mechanisms of Governance, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Wray, B. K. 2006. Scientific authorship in the age of collaborative research. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 37(3), 505–514.

Wuchty, S., Jones, B. F., & Uzzi, B. (2007). The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge. Science, 316(5827), 1036-1039.

Yamane, D. (1996). Collaboration and its discontents: Steps toward overcoming barriers to successful group projects. Teaching Sociology, 24(4), 378-383.

Zellmer-Bruhn, M., & Gibson, C. (2006). Multinational organization context: Implications for team learning and performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49(3), 501-518.