Innovation: Exploring the knowledge base
Author
Summary, in English
New types of knowledge, and new ways of organising the production of it, may emerge as knowledge producers respond to the challenges posed by a changing society. This paper focuses on the core knowledge of one such emerging field, namely, innovation studies. To explore the knowledge base of the field, a database of references in scholarly surveys of various aspects of innovation, published in "handbooks", is assembled and a new methodology for analysing the knowledge base of a field with the help of such data is developed. The paper identifies the core contributions to the literature in this area, the most central scholars and important research environments, and analyses - with the help of citations in scholarly journals - how the core literature is used by researchers in different scientific disciplines and cross-disciplinary fields. Based on this information a cluster analysis is used to draw inferences about the structure of the knowledge base on innovation. Finally, the changing character of the field over time is analysed, and possible challenges for its continuing development are discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Department/s
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Pages
1132-1153
Publication/Series
Research Policy
Volume
41
Issue
7
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- Innovation studies
- New scientific fields
- Specialisms
- Bibliometrics
- Handbooks
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0048-7333