تاثیر تحقیقات محققان زنجیره تامین: تحلیل میانجیگری مدون Supply chain management scholar’s research impact: moderated mediation analysis

1. Introduction Scientific scholars usually obtain peer recognition and funding opportunities by sharing their research outcomes. The most popular and common method of knowledge sharing is to share their publications through academic social websites. The literature suggests that social networking sites are better suited for networking and maintaining a professional image in the academic community (Dermentzi et al., 2016) Practically, scholars have been adopting academic social websites professionally for their research endeavors because of the convenience of forming new connections with their peers (Yu et al., 2016; Kuo et al., 2017). Today, scholars can collaborate, publish, and promote their work online (De Vocht et al., 2017). Wang and Chen (2012) further suggest that when more members with similar interests join an online community, network externalities can form, and interaction ties would occur. Furthermore, these users are more likely to participate regularly because they believe that their friends or reference groups are concerned with their participation (Yu et al., 2016). To date, ResearchGate is the largest online social platform used in the scholar community for knowledge sharing (Yu et al., 2016; Thelwall and Kousha, 2015). ResearchGate was founded by Madisch in 2008, as a means to transform the way researchers conduct their research (Thelwall and Kousha, 2015). On ResearchGate, researchers can exchange research ideas and share articles freely to facilitate collaboration without additional cost from other researchers elsewhere. To some degree, ResearchGate is the “Facebook” equivalent for scholars. On ResearchGate, users can announce their findings, communicate with others, and keep abreast of the other scholars’ publications. The uniqueness of ResearchGate is that its website not only allows member researchers to publish and share their publications but also provides a platform for the researchers to interact with others informally. ResearchGate combines both bibliometrics and altmetrics to create a general performance measurement for organizations and researchers alike (Yu et al., 2016). Traditional bibliometric, a performance metric, is used for evaluating the number and impact of research publications. In ResearchGate, the RG score, an impact point, represents a scholar’s academic impact. In ResearchGate, supply chain management is a large research group which is rapidly growing in number and quality. Given that international trade has increased rapidly in recent decades, more supply chain management scholars are directing their research to explain how commercial supply chains manage their supply chains efficiently to facilitate trade. This increase is accompanied by the growth in human and social capital in the logistics industry (Hartmann and Herb, 2014). Thus, the study on supply chain management should follow apace with economic development (Ni et al., 2016; Shah and Brueckner, 2012; Lee, 2015). In particular, the study of the global supply chain management scholar’s academic impact can lend an international perspective to supply chain management and can help the community to have a better understanding of this scientific area (Rao et al., 2013).