Drawing from data from more than a decade of NSF-sponsored work on research collaboration dynamics, the implications of the research are examined to determine factors related to effective collaboration, at the individual level, on research teams. Results from more than 100 semi-structured interviews and from more than 1,000 questionnaire responses are examined to determine the relationship of a variety of factors to research collaboration effectiveness. A first question is simply the incidence of effective vs. ineffective collaboration and, especially, “nightmare collaborations” where the outcomes go very wrong in terms of intellectual property disputes, on-going legal controversies, career damage and exploitation. On the more positive side, empirically based strategies are identified that enhance the effectiveness of research collaboration. Particular attention is given to collaboration strategies, team crediting and decision-making dynamics, role specialization, and the gender dynamics of collaboration.

Barry Bozeman is Arizona Centennial Professor of Public Management and Technology Policy and Director of the Center of Organizational Research and Design.

Prof. Bozeman’s research focuses on public management, organization theory and science and technology policy. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including most recently, Public Values and Public Interest (Georgetown University Press, 2007) which won the American Political Science Association’s Herbert Simon Award for best book published in public administration and public affairs. Bozeman’s All Organizations Are Public (Jossey-Bass, 1987) helped establish a new research and theory approach to “publicness.”

He is an elected fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement Science and the National Academy of Public Administration. Awards received include the Charles Levine Memorial Award of the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. Prof. Bozeman received the 2013 Public Management Research Association’s H. George Frederickson Award for “lifetime achievement and contributions to public management research.

Prof. Bozeman was a Conference Co-Chair and Keynote Speaker at the IAFOR Asian Conference on Business and Public Policy 2014 (ACBPP2014) and the Asian Conference on Technology, Information and Society 2014 (ACTIS2014) in Osaka, Japan. In his Keynote Presentation he discusses his research findings on Research Collaboration Effectiveness.

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