Assembly Mechanisms of Emerging Interdisciplinary Scientific Teams and Their Impact on Performance

Abstract

We use a multi-level multi-theory framework to study the influence of compositional, relation, and ecosystem mechanisms on the assembly and performance of scientific teams in interdisciplinary fields. Specifically, we test the effects of these mechanisms on the assembly of interdisciplinary scientific teams using a novel hybrid agent-based and systems dynamics computational model fitted using data collected from 533 teams and 1,696 researchers working in the scientific field of Oncofertility from its inception in 1996 until 2010. We further complement these simulation models with robust statistical linear regression techniques to assess the implications of assembly mechanisms on team performance. Our analysis offers new insights about the assembly of interdisciplinary scientific teams and for increasing the ability of such teams to take corrective actions under conditions of low performance.