Temporarily going abroad is widely believed to increase academics' research performance. However, our understanding of the mechanisms linking academics' temporary stays abroad and subsequent research performance is tenuous. We investigate to what extent the accumulation of career capital (i.e., human and social capital) links temporary stays abroad and subsequent research performance by focusing on the conditions under which career capital is enhanced. Using matching and mediation analysis on a sample of 277 academics in German-speaking Europe, we show that it is the accumulation of social capital (i.e., contacts and social networks) rather than the accumulation of human capital (i.e., knowledge and skills) that accounts for the positive performance effects of temporarily going abroad. Furthermore, our study highlights the conditions (e.g., duration and number of stays abroad, number of different host institutions) that facilitate the accumulation of career capital during a stay abroad. Thus, our study informs academics on how to build their career capital and thus push their performance by temporarily going abroad.

人们普遍认为，暂时出国可以提高学者的研究绩效。然而，我们对学者在国外的临时逗留与随后的研究成果之间的联系机制的理解是薄弱的。我们通过关注职业资本增强的条件来调查职业资本（即人力和社会资本）的积累在多大程度上将暂时在国外逗留与随后的研究绩效联系起来。通过对欧洲德语区 277 名学者的样本进行匹配和中介分析，我们表明是社会资本（即人脉和社交网络）的积累而不是人力资本（即知识和技能）的积累考虑到暂时出国的积极绩效影响。此外，我们的研究强调了条件（例如，在国外逗留的时间和次数，不同的东道机构的数量），这有助于在国外逗留期间积累职业资本。因此，我们的研究告诉学者如何建立他们的职业资本，从而通过暂时出国来提高他们的表现。