How Mobility Direction Shapes Sustainable Research Productivity in Higher Education: Buffering and Amplifying Roles of Co-Authorship Networks

Maintaining stable research productivity is critical for sustainable knowledge production, yet institutional mobility—an increasingly common form of organizational transition in higher education—may disrupt scientists’ output trajectories. This study examines how mobility direction shapes sustainable research productivity and how co-authorship network structure conditions these effects. Using curriculum vitae records and 74,336 Web of Science publications for 531 preliminary candidates for Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians (2005–2019), we estimate random-effects negative binomial models to assess the quantity and quality dimensions of sustainable research productivity in the third-to-fifth years after mobility events. Downward mobility to lower-ranked institutions is associated with significant declines in both dimensions, whereas upward mobility shows no detectable effect within the same window. Network structure matters: higher co-authorship network density buffers the adverse effect of downward mobility, while higher betweenness centrality amplifies it. These findings suggest that cohesive collaboration structures help sustain knowledge production under adverse transitions, whereas brokerage-oriented positions may increase vulnerability when collaborations are reconfigured. By conceptualizing post-mobility outcomes as sustainable research productivity, this study extends the talent mobility literature and offers implications for universities and science policy on supporting high-level scientists during institutional transitions.