Bridging the Gap: Evidence from the Return Migration of African Scientists

Abstract

Although prior research has highlighted the benefits that accrue to brokers in innovation networks, much less attention is devoted to understanding who benefits from associating with a broker. This study focuses on the impact of associating with a specific kind of broker—a core/periphery bridge—that is, one that spans central and peripheral actors. I argue that actors associated with a core/periphery bridge benefit more when they have no central connection, or are outsiders in the network, due to their greater need for sponsorship from the broker. I explore this idea in the context of the return migration of American-trained scientists to African institutions, who span the core and the periphery of the global scientific network. I evaluate the impact of their return on the publication outcomes of nonmigrant scientists based in African institutions and find that following the arrival of a returnee in their institution, the nonmigrants who are not already connected to scientists in top global institutions have a greater publication output through improved access to central knowledge and connections. The findings contribute to a better understanding of how brokers can influence innovation systems more broadly. Supplemental Material: The online appendices available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1580 .