Exploring the determinants of scientific productivity: a proposed typology of researchers
Journal of Intellectual Capital
ISSN: 1469-1930
Article publication date: 1 September 2020
Issue publication date: 8 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Although several previous studies were focused on examining the determinants of research productivity, the knowledge of the competences and motives that lead researchers to achieve relevant scientific performance remains unclear. This paper is aimed at contributing to this gap in the research by proposing a typology to understand academic researchers' traits and extending the traditional “more is better” approach, which assumes that higher levels of competence and motivation are always preferable.
Design/methodology/approach
Cluster analysis was applied to a sample of 471 Spanish academics to examine diverse combinations of human capital attributes – knowledge, skills, and abilities – and two sources of motivation – intrinsic and extrinsic.
Findings
Four researcher profiles were identified: (1) high vocational academics; (2) motivated academics; (3) self-starter academics and (4) reactive academics. Based on these preliminary findings, we present conclusions about the functioning and productivity of academic researchers.
Originality/value
This paper contributes a novel typology of researchers to the extant literature based on the variables of academic human capital and motivation. The findings indicate that a required and specific combination of attributes better fits the reality of research activities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors appear in alphabetical order and have contributed equally to this paper. The research project described in this paper was developed under the Research Group SEJ-449 funded by the Andalusian Government (Andalusian Plan for R&D&I 2007–2013) and the Research Projects ECO2014-56580-R funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Technology (Non-oriented Fundamental Research Projects Subprogram) and P12-SEJ-1810 (Andalusian Government).
Citation
Ballesteros-Rodríguez, J.L., De Saá-Pérez, P., García-Carbonell, N., Martín-Alcázar, F. and Sánchez-Gardey, G. (2022), "Exploring the determinants of scientific productivity: a proposed typology of researchers", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 195-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-07-2019-0178
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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