Academic inbreeding: new insights for academic based research and recruitment

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of academic inbreeding in relation to academic research and proposes a new conceptual framework for its analysis. We find that mobility at the early research career stage is decisive in influencing academic behaviors and scientific productivity. The lesser mobile academics have more inward oriented information exchange dynamics and a lower scientific productivity. The analysis also indicates that the information exchange and scientific productivity of academics that changed institutions only once do not differ substantially from that of mobile inbreds academics. This emphasizes the need for mobility along the scientific and academic careers.