Analysis on the influencing factors of the flow of world-class scientific and technological talents based on grounded theory

全球顶尖科技人才流动的影响因素探析—基于扎根理论的分析

Abstract

High-level talents are the source of strength for building world power of science and technology, but how to retain and attract world-class scientific and technological talents(WSTT) has not been explored by the academic community. Currently, most researches on the influencing factors of scientific and technological talents flow adopt methods such as questionnaire surveys and econometric models. However, due to the objective shortcomings of the research methods, only a few factors can be discussed on the flow of talents such as academicians, and a comprehensive and systematic theoretical model has not yet been formed. And there are not many analyses on WSTT. To this end, the paper regards the winners of international famous academic awards in the field of natural science as WSTT. Based on the qualitative data such as the biographies of the research objects, the paper uses grounded theory method to construct an influencing factor model of WSTT, and comprehensively and systematically reveals the key factors and mechanisms that affect talent flow. Grounded analysis, which is based on detailed qualitative information, is widely used to explore and summarize the influencing factors of a phenomenon, and has a good research utility for this study. Specifically, first of all, 227 winners with relatively sufficient information are selected as research samples, who have flow experience between the production of significant achievements and the awarding of awards. Secondly, through the grounded analysis processes such as open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, it is found that: (1)Livelihood security (medical conditions, salary and treatment, work stability, living environment), working atmosphere (colleague relationships, partners, academic exchanges, institutional management, regional academic environment), research support (team building, research conditions, research fields, research autonomy, and external support) and research strength (institutional reputation and research team) are the external environmental factors affecting talent flow; family life (family reunion, family health, and comfortable life) and personal emotions (academic inheritance, homeland complex, research mission, and changing environment) are the internal drivers of talent flow. (2)There are indirect mechanisms between internal and external factors, as well as external factors themselves, that affect talent flow, including team building→colleague relationships→talent flow, medical conditions→family health→talent flow, academic exchanges→comfortable life→talent flow, academic exchanges→changing environment→talent flow, research conditions→changing environment→talent flow, and other indirect pathways. (3)There are certain disciplinary differences in the main influencing factors of talent flow, which are reflected in the industry-research interaction and experimental setup in the field of biology, academic exchanges in the field of mathematics, institutional characteristics and experimental setup in the field of chemistry and physics, and mandatory retirement system for government departments in the field of earth sciences. Finally, the following suggestions are put forward on how to better retain and attract talents: encouraging diverse forms of academic exchanges; providing sufficient but moderate research support; paying attention to the "self-realization" needs of scientific and technological talents; paying attention to family care for scientific and technological talents.