A quantitative comparative study of researchers′ professional happiness from a global perspective

doi:10.19571/j.cnki.1000-2995.2025.02.016

Abstract

Abstract: Professional happiness is a widely mentioned concept in the field of management in recent years, and a high level of professional happiness could stimulate employees′ job satisfaction and loyalty, improve the vitality of innovation and competitive advantages of institutions in the labor market, but how to enhance the happiness of researchers is a real problem that needs to be solved urgently at present. Based on the survey data of global scientific researchers in 2021, this study constructed a DEA evaluation model for assessing professional happiness level, analyzed and compared the relationship between resource allocation of scientific research institutions and professional happiness of researchers in major countries in the global academic labor market using the rank statistics method, and further analyzed with the Tobit model the organizational factors affecting happiness level. The empirical results showed that there are still shortcomings in maintaining the happiness of researchers in China′s research institutions, and most researchers have increasing returns on the scale of happiness, in which bureaucracy are the main factor that damages researchers′ happiness. The research conclusions will have important practical implications for Chinese scientific institutions to optimize resource allocation, improve the level of researchers′ professional happiness, and then enhance the attraction of talents in the global academic labor market and stimulate innovation vitality of researchers.

Key words: professional happiness, researcher, academic labor market, DEA-Tobit model

Li Xinzhe, Lu Xiao, Liu Xiaoxiao. A quantitative comparative study of researchers′ professional happiness from a global perspective[J]. Science Research Management, 2025, 46(2): 158-169.

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A quantitative comparative study of researchers′ professional happiness from a global perspective

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