International research collaboration: is Africa different? A cross-country panel data analysis

Jorge Cerdeira, João Mesquita and Elizabeth S. Vieira ()
Additional contact information
Jorge Cerdeira: Universidade do Porto
João Mesquita: Universidade do Porto
Elizabeth S. Vieira: Universidade do Porto

Scientometrics, 2023, vol. 128, issue 4, No 4, 2145-2174

Abstract: Abstract International research collaboration (IRC) has been relevant for the development of national scientific systems. In Africa, given the limited resources devoted to research and development (R&D) activities and the crucial role that scientific knowledge generated through research activities can have in socioeconomic development, IRC may be an opportunity to strengthen scientific capabilities. While geographical, economic, political/governance, cultural, intellectual and excellence distance hampers IRC in other regions, we argue that economic and excellence distances actuate differently in Africa. We explored the impact of the variables above in addition to the information and communication technologies (ICTs), and social distances on the IRC of these countries. Using panel data for 54 African economies, our results show that economic distance fosters IRC while governance and excellence distances are non-significant. Past collaborations (one out of two proxies for social distance) and speaking the same language have the highest effect on IRC, and ICTs distance the lowest. The results have implications for science policy in Africa. For instance, we argue that science policies need to be adapted to each environment as the scientific landscape in each country is unique.

Keywords: International research collaboration; Barriers; Africa; Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-023-04659-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:128:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11192-023-04659-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-023-04659-9

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().