Purpose: This article aims to explore how self-efficacy is related to academic research activities and how intra-culturally relevant factors may play a role in self-efficacy in the context of higher education in Beijing. In particular, relationships of self-efficacy for research with research productivity and idiocentrism-allocentrism are to be examined. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was administered to academics in ten randomly selected universities in Beijing and generated 296 valid questionnaires. Data were analysed using factor analysis and multiple regression. Findings: Gender and discipline are identified as predictors of self-efficacy. Specifically, female academics reported lower levels of self-efficacy for research than males. Academics in the social sciences reported lower levels of self-efficacy for research than those in the natural sciences. Moreover, relationships are also found between self-efficacy for research and idiocentrism-allocentrism. Originality/value: The study makes an extensive investigation of self-efficacy theory, originally developed in Western contexts, in an Eastern culture and provides evidence that intra-cultural and demographic factors play substantial roles in research self-efficacy. (Contains 6 tables.)