The effects of interdisciplinarity and relationship link attributes on team performance from a dynamic perspective: evidence from medical informatics
摘要
Interdisciplinary research enables effective collaboration through the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge. The increasing complexity of real-world research challenges necessitates the formation of interdisciplinary teams. In this study, we used publications in medical informatics from 2002 to 2021, and identified research teams using the clique percolation method (CPM). We mapped authors’ disciplines based on their affiliated secondary institutions and identified interdisciplinary teams based on scholars’ collaborative relationships. This study focuses on the correlation between team interdisciplinarity, relationship link attributes, and team performance from a dynamic perspective. Specifically, interdisciplinarity was measured by the DIV indicator; relationship link attributes included team stability, collaboration prevalence, and team hierarchy; team performance was evaluated from impact and productivity dimensions. Furthermore, the moderating effect of team interdisciplinarity on the relationship between relationship link attributes and team performance was explored. Besides, we conducted an empirical analysis using feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regression. Our results show that team interdisciplinarity and stability do not directly affect team performance. Collaboration prevalence and team hierarchy are negatively related to team impact, and both exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship with productivity. Moreover, introducing the interaction effect of interdisciplinarity reveals a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between team stability and team performance, and interdisciplinarity attenuates this relationship. Additionally, the relationships of collaboration prevalence and team hierarchy with team impact, as well as the correlation between team hierarchy and productivity, are mitigated by interdisciplinarity. Based on the above findings, we provide implications for the management and development of interdisciplinary teams.