University Brokerage Roles in the Global Scientific Mobility System and Research Performance: Role Heterogeneity and the National Network Environment

Cross-university scientific mobility has become an important mechanism through which universities access external knowledge, sustain inter-organizational relationships, and accumulate social capital. Existing studies have mainly examined university positions in scientific mobility networks through inflows, outflows, and general centrality, while paying less attention to brokerage roles jointly shaped by inflow sources and outflow destinations. Conceptualizing cross-university mobility as a global scientific mobility system, this study examines how universities occupy differentiated brokerage roles and how these roles are associated with research performance within different national network environments. Using ORCID researcher profile data, ROR institutional identifiers, and Web of Science publication data, we constructed a university-year panel and identified five brokerage roles, namely coordinator, gatekeeper, representative, itinerant broker, and liaison, using countries as group boundaries. We further considered the national relational environment from the dimensions of external and internal social capital, using national external centrality and domestic network density to characterize the corresponding network conditions. The results show that coordinator, gatekeeper, and representative roles are positively associated with research performance, while the liaison role is more positively associated with research performance than the itinerant broker role. As national external centrality increases, the association between itinerant brokerage and research performance becomes more positive. As domestic network density increases, the association between gatekeeper brokerage and research performance becomes more positive in the full-panel models, although the statistical evidence for this pattern is sensitive to alternative specifications and remains exploratory. This study provides a multilevel perspective for understanding university scientific mobility by examining differentiated university brokerage roles and the national network conditions in which they are embedded.