Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deal with the topic internationalization of higher education institutions (IHEI), in terms of the research they engage in. The main motivation for the study is to understand the role of researchers in the internationalization of the institutions in which they work through the academic activities they perform. Based on the assumption that each of the researcher’s internationalization activities leads, to some extent, to a greater internationalization of HEI in which it operates, the following question was proposed: Do researchers’ personal characteristics and academic activities affect the internationalization of their (higher education) institutions? Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study adopted as main methods a review of the literature on internationalization of higher education and in-depth interviews based on a semi-structured script with an intentional sample. A sample of 16 researchers was selected for interview using the snowball technique of sample selection. Findings The paper provides theoretical and empirical insights into the characteristics of researchers that influence the internationalization of HEIs. These include the researchers’ international academic experience; insertion in international collaboration networks; international co-authorship; and experience in international publications. These are the four main factors that emerge at the individual level (researcher) that positively impact IHEI. Originality/value The paper responds to a gap found in the literature on the underestimated role of researchers in the internationalization process of HEIs in which they work.

Rankings de periódicos elaborados por bases científicas têm influenciado pesquisadores, programas de Stricto Sensu e instituições que integram nossa academia. Diante do reduzido número de estudos de base empírica e quantitativa sobre esse tema, acessamos Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, Google Scholar, Scielo e Spell com a finalidade de respondermos a seguinte questão: Qual é a classificação dos periódicos brasileiros de Administração, Contabilidade e Turismo nas diferentes bases que calculam fator de impacto? Como resultados, notamos (i) ínfima presença e crescimento do impacto dos periódicos nas bases Scopus e Scielo, (ii) crescimento razoável na WoS, porém oriundo principalmente de autocitações, de citações nacionais de periódicos e de citações de autores brasileiros, (iii) alta correlação entre diferentes medidas de impacto, (iv) inexistência de diferença significante das médias de impacto entre alguns estratos Qualis em diferentes medidas e (v) variação considerável no impacto de um mesmo periódico em diferentes bases internacionais e nacionais.

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Purpose Although faculty members are regarded as one of the main agents of internationalization in higher education (IHE), research has focused on the upper levels of analysis (e.g. country or educational institution) rather than the individual. The purpose of this paper is to draw from social exchange theory (SET) to examine how the perceptions of costs and expected rewards affect faculty members’ choices of international activities. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study adopted as main methods a review of the literature on IHE and in-depth interviews based on a semi-structured script with an international sample. A sample of 16 researches was selected for interview using the snowball technique of sample selection. Findings The authors verified that faculty may seek internationalization in search of job opportunities, greater social approval, greater autonomy and greater security. On the other hand, temporal, monetary, psychological and physical costs discourage faculty members from seeking international insertion. Based on these tradeoffs, our findings suggest that although the basic tenets of SET do apply, the theory does not explicitly address two issues: the fact that costs and rewards are intricately related, and the apparent mismatch between (short-term) costs and (long-term) expected rewards. Originality/value This study contributes to the IHE literature by highlighting the crucial role of faculty – that is, the level of analysis of the individual – which has been under-researched and by setting out the reasoning that supports the decision of faculty members to seek (higher) international insertion. Furthermore, this study extends SET as a plausible explanation for the self-internationalization decision by scholars.

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