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Leveraging bridging universities to access international knowledge: Korean universities’ R&D internationalization

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Abstract

Bridging universities are research entities that connect the international research community with their domestic peer universities, referred as bridged universities. In this paper, we study co-authorship networks using international collaborative publication data from Korean universities and investigate the structural relationships between 142 Korean universities and 105 foreign countries. The results reveal the presence of bridging universities at the center of the international R&D networks. Further, we identify a positive relationship between bridged universities’ research outcomes and their collaboration intensity with bridging universities. However, a negative correlation is also found between bridged universities’ R&D internationalization and their collaboration with bridging universities. Universities, especially in latecomer countries where access to international knowledge is limited, are advised to balance their utilization of bridging universities with contacting global partners directly for their internalization efforts.

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Notes

  1. The 1981–2010 South Korea NCR, which is the source of the data used in this study, is a commercial product from Thompson Reuters. As seen in the title of this product, the information is particular to one region (Republic of Korea) over a specific time period (1981–2010). The age of the data is one limitation for this study, and we expect that further research on this theme will use more recent data.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for an editor, Wolfgang Glänzel, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. Hyundo Choi acknowledges that this study was supported by research fund from Chosun University, 2018.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, 5 Gukchaegyeonguwon-ro, Sejong, 30149, Republic of Korea

    JongWuk Ahn

  2. College of Business, Chosun University, 309 Pilmun-daero, Dong-gu, Gwangju, 61452, Republic of Korea

    Hyundo Choi

  3. Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Michuhol-gu, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea

    Dong-hyun Oh

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  1. JongWuk Ahn
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Correspondence to Hyundo Choi.

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Ahn, J., Choi, H. & Oh, Dh. Leveraging bridging universities to access international knowledge: Korean universities’ R&D internationalization. Scientometrics 120, 519–537 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03138-4

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