East-West Cross-Cultural Collaboration and Research Impact

This paper investigates how East-West cross-cultural collaboration affects team research impact. A dataset of international collaboration articles of Chinese scholars was constructed, and then the cultural background of each researcher was traced with a surname and culture category matching process and a manual search process. Empirical analysis using negative binomial regression reveals that East-West cross-cultural collaboration has a positive effect on research impact, and culture concentration in an East-West cross-cultural team affects the research impact positively. Knowledge diversity negatively moderates the relationship between East-West cross-cultural collaboration and research impact. The cross-cultural collaboration experiences of team members and the strength of ties between current East-West cultural collaborators positively moderate the relationship between East-West cross-cultural collaboration and team research impact. Suggestions for personal collaboration strategy and institutional research management policies are presented: scholars participating in an East-West cross-cultural team with high culture concentration can be helpful in achieving high-impact research. For institutions, promoting East-West cross-cultural collaboration will enrich scholars’ cross-cultural collaboration experience, which will support future cross-cultural collaboration.