Why Do IS Scholars Cite Other Scholars? An Empirical Analysis of the Direct and Moderating Effects of Cooperation and Competition among IS Scholars on Individual Citation Behavior

Employing a theoretical framework based on social capital theory, we conceptualize previous citations by author A of author B as weak cooperation that indicates cognitive capital between these authors, and previous coauthorships between them as strong cooperation that captures relational capital between them. We propose that these two types of cooperation impact the citation behavior of author A. We also propose that competition between two authors arising from their affiliation similarity moderates the impact of both the strong and weak cooperation on individual citation behavior. Using a sample of all the 1034 authors who published papers in 10 premier IS journals in 2011, and their previous citation and coauthorship network data from 2006-2011, we found that the frequencies of previous citations and coauthorships are related to current citations, as hypothesized. Further, as hypothesized, these positive associations are weakened when the citing and cited authors have the same institutional affiliation.