Effects and Interactions of Researcher’s Motivation and Personality in Promoting Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research

Motivation is one of the most important factors driving innovative activities such as interdisciplinary research (IDR) and transdisciplinary research (TDR) for the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). While there has been progress in developing ex-post indicators to evaluate their performance, only a few trials have been conducted to explore how researchers’ motivations are related to their proactive participation. To address this issue, this study empirically investigates the effect of researchers’ personality traits on their attitudes toward IDR/TDR collaboration. A questionnaire survey of 228 researchers in the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, and related interdisciplinary fields was used to test the hypotheses by regression analysis that included interaction terms. The results show that researchers’ intrinsic motivation positively affects both IDR and TDR, while their extrinsic motivation mainly affects TDR. Furthermore, researchers’ personality traits have a significant effect on interdisciplinary collaboration and regional/societal collaboration. These findings provide cues on how to effectively integrate knowledge of IDR/TDR and how to motivate and allocate researchers for successful TDR/IDR collaboration.