Innovation as a Nonlinear Process, the Scientometric Perspective, and the Specification of an "Innovation Opportunities Explorer"

TL;DR

This paper explores the nonlinear nature of innovation using bibliometric mapping techniques to analyze multiple perspectives and interactions across scientific, technological, and economic domains, exemplified by RNA interference.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-perspective bibliometric approach to analyze innovation dynamics and specifies the development of an 'Innovation Opportunities Explorer' tool.

Findings

Revealed non-linear innovation patterns across domains

Demonstrated multi-perspective analysis with bibliometric data

Outlined the concept for an 'Innovation Opportunities Explorer'

Abstract

The process of innovation follows non-linear patterns across the domains of science, technology, and the economy. Novel bibliometric mapping techniques can be used to investigate and represent distinctive, but complementary perspectives on the innovation process (e.g., "demand" and "supply") as well as the interactions among these perspectives. The perspectives can be represented as "continents" of data related to varying extents over time. For example, the different branches of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in the Medline database provide sources of such perspectives (e.g., "Diseases" versus "Drugs and Chemicals"). The multiple-perspective approach enables us to reconstruct facets of the dynamics of innovation, in terms of selection mechanisms shaping localizable trajectories and/or resulting in more globalized regimes. By expanding the data with patents and scholarly publications, we demonstrate the use of this multi-perspective approach in the case of RNA Interference (RNAi). The possibility to develop an "Innovation Opportunities Explorer" is specified.