Modelling a Causal Relationship between the Internet and Academic Research Performance in an Australian University: A Case Study

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between academics' use of the Internet for academic purposes and their research performance using cross-sectional data collected from academics of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia, during the period February-March 2014. In this study, a system of simultaneous equation models is used to control the potential bias associated with simultaneity between the use of the Internet and academics' research performances. The simultaneity, a potential econometric problem, was overlooked in past studies. A finding of this study is that academics' use of the Internet is a statistically significant contributor to research output in an Australian university. The estimated elasticity of research output is 0.16 with respect to changes in Internet use.

Managing individual research productivity in academic organizations: A review of the evidence and a path forward

“…Complexity of the task environment describes the degree of interdependence among employees in the process of delivering task performance. Relevant features of task environment which emerged from our review mostly refer to communication processes that support knowledge production in research teams (e.g., Mamun and Rahman, 2016). However, task environment might also include the temporal structure of research work and the features of physical environment in which research is produced.…”

“…Scientific ideas also seem to be produced in interaction with others. While the use of internet for scientific purposes increases the volume of research (Mamun and Rahman, 2016) and the number of long-distance co-authors (Hamermesh and Oster, 2002), personal face-to-face communication delivers higher scholarly impact than internet-enabled long-distance collaborations (Hamermesh and Oster, 2002). Some of the influences are more nuanced, such as the positive influence of a higher number of international colleagues, which only works for US-born and US-educated faculty members (Kim et al, 2011).…”