Organisational determinants of international collaborations in clinical research: evidence from Italian research hospitals

Understanding the organisational drivers of research hospitals’ engagement in international research collaborations is an issue that has notable implications for policy and research management. While the factors that promote scientific production in research hospitals have garnered some attention, to the best of our knowledge there is very little research on the drivers of their involvement in international research collaborations. In this study, we examine research hospitals in the context of the stream of work on Academic Health Centres, analysing how their organisation of research and clinical work—particularly focusing on (i) the extent to which staff collaborate with each other; (ii) the extent to which different staff undertake the leadership of research projects, and (iii) the novelty and complexity of clinical work—favours different modes of engagement in international collaborations. We exploit publicly available information about Italian research hospitals. Results suggest that greater prevalence of international collaborations is associated with internal collaborativeness and distributed research leadership, with stronger orientation towards providing more complex healthcare. Instead, more geographically diversified collaborations are associated with concentrated research leadership, and greater intensity of private provision. Greater scale of clinical operations supports both forms of internationalisation. We derive implications for research policy and management.