Title: Educators and academics in the digital world. Comparative analysis of using ResearchGate by Slovenian and Polish business researchers

Authors: Łukasz Wiechetek; Viktorija Florjančič

Addresses: Department of Management Information Systems, Faculty of Economics, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland ' Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: Digital transformation is an irreversible process today. One of the fundamental tools of the digital economy is the internet and its social networks based on Web 2.0 tools. The purpose of the article is to compare the usage of one of the most popular academic social network ResearchGate by business researchers from Poland and Slovenia (n = 896). The descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, k-means clustering, and tests of significance were used. The analyses showed that ResearchGate portal is not frequently used by researchers. The main differences relate to RG score and number of citations. The RG score is strongly positive correlated with number of citations, published items and reads. Clustering procedure identified five groups of RG users that could be called balanced, appreciated, beginners, knocking and poets. The researchers should be more encouraged to use specialised social networking sites to promote their achievements and the performance of the research teams or university units.

Keywords: ResearchGate; digital literacy; digital transformation; Polish researchers; Slovenian researchers; comparative analysis; clustering; RG score; social network.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2021.115494

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2021 Vol.29 No.4, pp.387 - 411

Received: 06 Apr 2020
Accepted: 04 Jun 2020
Published online: 07 Jun 2021 *

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