TY - JOUR

T1 - The rise and fall of interdisciplinary research

T2 - The case of open source innovation

AU - Raasch, Christina

AU - Lee, Viktor

AU - Spaeth, Sebastian

AU - Herstatt, Cornelius

PY - 2013/6

Y1 - 2013/6

N2 - A large, and purportedly increasing, number of research fields in modern science require scholars from more than one discipline to understand their puzzling phenomena. In response, many scholars argue that scientific work needs to become more interdisciplinary, and is indeed becoming so. This paper contributes to our understanding of the evolution of interdisciplinary research in new fields. We explore interdisciplinary co-authorship, co-citation and publication patterns in the recently emergent research field of open source innovation during the first ten years of its existence. Utilizing a database containing 306 core publications and over 10,000 associated reference documents, we find that inquiry shifts from interdisciplinary to multidisciplinary research, and from joint puzzle solving to parallel problem solving, within a very few years after the inception of the field. "High-involvement" forms of interdisciplinary exchange decline faster than "low- involvement" forms. The patterns we find in open source research, we argue, may be quite general. We propose that they are driven by changes in task uncertainty and the ability to modularize research, among other factors. Our findings have important implications for individual scholars, research organizations, and research policy.

AB - A large, and purportedly increasing, number of research fields in modern science require scholars from more than one discipline to understand their puzzling phenomena. In response, many scholars argue that scientific work needs to become more interdisciplinary, and is indeed becoming so. This paper contributes to our understanding of the evolution of interdisciplinary research in new fields. We explore interdisciplinary co-authorship, co-citation and publication patterns in the recently emergent research field of open source innovation during the first ten years of its existence. Utilizing a database containing 306 core publications and over 10,000 associated reference documents, we find that inquiry shifts from interdisciplinary to multidisciplinary research, and from joint puzzle solving to parallel problem solving, within a very few years after the inception of the field. "High-involvement" forms of interdisciplinary exchange decline faster than "low- involvement" forms. The patterns we find in open source research, we argue, may be quite general. We propose that they are driven by changes in task uncertainty and the ability to modularize research, among other factors. Our findings have important implications for individual scholars, research organizations, and research policy.

KW - Bibliometric analysis

KW - Co-author analysis

KW - Co-citation analysis

KW - Evolution of research fields

KW - Interdisciplinary research

KW - Open source

KW - Phenomenon-based research

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84876877175&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.respol.2013.01.010

DO - 10.1016/j.respol.2013.01.010

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84876877175

VL - 42

SP - 1138

EP - 1151

JO - Research Policy

JF - Research Policy

SN - 0048-7333

IS - 5

ER -