Network growth dynamics: The simultaneous interaction between network positions and research performance of collaborative organisations

Abstract

The extant literature has long focused on the causality between the research performance of organisations and their network positions in an inter-organisational research collaboration network. However, we still do not know much about the simultaneous bidirectional relationship between network positions and research performance, or how this bidirectional relationship varies with the difference in the intrinsic cognitive characteristics of network nodes. This paper attempts to fill these research gaps, which helps to reveal the network growth dynamics of an inter-organisational research collaboration system by incorporating the concept of cognitive proximity into a systemic analytical framework where network positions and research performance are considered to be mutually correlated with each other. Based on the research sample of an inter-organisational research collaboration ego-network composed of research institutes subordinated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), firms, and universities, the simultaneous bidirectional relationship between network positions and research performance of CAS research institutes is examined by using a simultaneous equation approach, and the moderating effect of cognitive proximity between CAS research institutes and firms (or universities) is further tested. Our results confirm that the collaborative organisations’ network positions and their research performance mutually affect each other in a co-evolutionary process, providing continuous development momentum of an inter-organisational research collaboration system. The simultaneous bidirectional relationship is significantly enhanced by the cognitive proximity between collaborative organisations.