Deepening the consequences of multidisciplinarity on research: the moderating role of social capital

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between multidisciplinarity and research performance in the academic context. The paper explains how scholars’ scientific performance is affected by the multidisciplinarity of the network of colleagues with whom they conduct their research. Furthermore, this paper explores the potential moderating role of academics’ social capital, assuming that relational dynamics can mitigate the potential problems associated with disciplinary diversity. To build the proposed model, the paper draws on previous literature on diversity and social capital. The resulting hypotheses are tested through a quantitative study developed on the basis of a sample of scholars in the field of management. Information about multidisciplinarity and research performance was extracted from the Scopus database, while social capital variables were measured through social network analysis techniques. Econometric estimations were used to test the proposed relationships. The findings suggest that the effect of multidisciplinarity and researchers’ performance can be depicted as an inverted U-shaped relationship, so an optimal intermediate level of diversity can be found. Estimations also show that relational, cognitive and structural social capital moderates this curvilinear relationship, making it possible to achieve higher research performance at higher levels of multidisciplinarity.