"Language, Socialization and Networks: Knowledge Creation in Globalized Business Schools"

Abstract

The paper explores antecedents of knowledge creation in a globalized business school industry. We focus on linguistic socialization of researchers as a contingency factor which influences the ability of academics to extract value from the quality of their professional socialization and from social capital embedded in their knowledge network. We analyze the career paths of 550 academics from 30 business schools in the Financial Times Global Top 100 MBA/Masters in Management rankings and use a multilevel approach to individual research productivity. Our findings confirm the long-term impact of early- career linguistic socialization on the ability of management researchers to produce knowledge in the form of peer-reviewed journal publications. The value of centrality in knowledge network is subject to diminishing returns where the value of social capital brought by additional co-authors is dependent upon quality and language of an academic’s professional socialization. Linguistic socialization has an impact ...