科学基金资助、合作网络与科研产出:学者异质性的调节效应

Scientific Grant Support,Collaborative Network and Scientific Output:The Moderating Effects of Scholar Heterogeneity

利用2007—2018年国家自然科学(国自科)基金委指定的22本管理科学A类学术期刊上发表的46991篇论文数据,运用倾向得分匹配—双重差分法(PSM-DID),比较学者在“获得科学基金资助”和“未获得科学基金资助”两种情形下的科研产出差异,探究科学基金资助对合作网络和科研产出的影响及其内在机制。结果表明,国自科基金资助不仅对科研产出具有直接影响,还通过促进科研合作网络的动态演进提升学者的结构性社会资本来影响科研产出。进一步分析发现:国自科基金更能促进青年学者和“211”高校的科研人员获取结构性社会资本;而对不同科研基础学者的提升作用是普惠性的。

With a strategic intent to cultivate innovation ability,scientific grant undertakes vital responsibilities in supporting basic research and frontier exploration,nurturing talents and teams,among others.Its performance valuation has been a focus of governmental agencies and academia.Based on social network theory,this paper introduces the collaborative network as a mediator to explain the specific impact path between scientific grant support and scientific output,and also explores the moderating effects of scholar heterogeneity on the impact of scientific grant support.With the data of 46991 papers published in China’s 22 A-class journals of management science designated by National Natural Science Foundation(NSFC)from 2007 to 2018,using difference-in-differences models combined with propensity score matching(PSM-DID),this paper compared the difference of scholars’scientific output under the conditions of receiving and not receiving scientific grant support,and examined the impact of scientific grant support on collaborative network and scientific output.As the empirical results show,scientific grant support not only has a direct effect on scientific output,but also promotes scientific output by promoting scientific collaborative network evolution and enhancing structural social capital(degree centrality,betweenness centrality,closeness centrality and structural hole)of scholars.Further analysis of scholar heterogeneity’moderating effects indicates that early-career scholars have an advantage in using scientific grant support to improve closeness centrality with no significant differences in the promotion of degree centrality,betweenness centrality and structural hole.On the contrary,scientific grant support is more beneficial to scholars from“211”university to enhance degree centrality,betweenness centrality and structural hole.Finally,we found no statistically significant difference between low-and high-profile scholars in acquiring structural social capital.The benefit of scientific grant support is inclusive for scholars with a varying degree of research base.The contributions of this paper are as follows:First,departing from the static network research paradigm of"network structure—performance"and regarding scientific grant support as an important motivation for the evolution of scientific collaborative network,this paper explores the mediating role of structural social capital,which provides new evidence and ideas for opening the black box of scientific grant.Secondly,this paper contributes to the literature on the heterogeneity of scholars by comparing their advantages and bottlenecks in using scientific grant.Finally,the empirical results also provide a guidance to perfect the operation mechanism of scientific grant and to give full play of its role in promoting scientific output.