Antecedents of Knowledge Interaction in the Sustainable Interdisciplinary Research Team: A Mixed Research Method

Abstract

This paper mainly focuses on two questions: (1) Which factors mainly influence knowledge interaction in a sustainable interdisciplinary research team (SIDRT)? and (2) How are knowledge interaction processes structured in a SIDRT? This paper first defines the conception of knowledge interaction in a SIDRT from the complex system perspective. Then the model of key influencing factors in a SIDRT is constructed through grounded theory, including subjects’ attributes, objects’ characteristics, environment, and resources of knowledge interaction. Furthermore, we propose hypotheses and empirically validate our conceptual model. The combination of the two methods can strengthen the research conclusions from different angles. Finally, based on our qualitative and quantitative results, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.