Research Performance, Collaboration, and Movement of Researchers in the Field of Business and Management: A Comparison between International and Domestic Migrants in East Asia

Abstract

This study examines differences in research performance, international collaboration, and migration moves between two types of migrant researchers: international and domestic migrant researchers. The investigation focuses on 929 researchers in the field of business and management in four East Asian countries—China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—and explores their scientific output and movements across types of institutions. The study uses bibliographic data from the Web of Science and Scopus author ID to disambiguate information across databases. The findings reveal that both international and domestic migrants demonstrate comparable productivity. Concerning publication quality, international migrants exhibit a higher citation impact, and researchers from Taiwan demonstrate the highest average number of citations per paper among the four countries. For international collaboration, international migrants report a higher rate of international collaboration than domestic migrants. The United States serves as the primary collaborative partner for migrant researchers from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, whereas China has a closer partnership with Hong Kong. Finally, international migrants demonstrate a higher frequency of migration, with an average of two moves per capita. This study provides empirical evidence for the value of scientific migration from the perspectives of international and domestic migrants in East Asian countries.

Keywords

• academic mobility
• international migrant
• domestic migrant
• bibliometrics
• business & management