Bridging the Gap: Evidence from the Return Migration of African Scientists
研究美国受训科学家回迁非洲机构后，对当地未迁移科学家的发表产出影响，发现回迁者作为核心-边缘桥梁，尤其帮助那些缺乏全球顶尖机构联系的本地科学家提升发表量。
Although prior research has highlighted the benefits that accrue to brokers in innovation networks, much less attention is devoted to understanding who benefits from associating with a broker. This study focuses on the impact of associating with a specific kind of broker—a core/periphery bridge—that is, one that spans central and peripheral actors. I argue that actors associated with a core/periphery bridge benefit more when they have no central connection, or are outsiders in the network, due to their greater need for sponsorship from the broker. I explore this idea in the context of the return migration of American-trained scientists to African institutions, who span the core and the periphery of the global scientific network. I evaluate the impact of their return on the publication outcomes of nonmigrant scientists based in African institutions and find that following the arrival of a returnee in their institution, the nonmigrants who are not already connected to scientists in top global institutions have a greater publication output through improved access to central knowledge and connections. The findings contribute to a better understanding of how brokers can influence innovation systems more broadly. Supplemental Material: The online appendices available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1580 .