Small Teams Propel Fresh Ideas in Science and Technology

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that small research teams are more effective at generating innovative ideas and new concepts in science and technology than larger teams, challenging the common belief that bigger collaborations are inherently more innovative.

Contribution

It provides a large-scale re-evaluation of team size and innovation, confirming small teams' unique role in fostering original scientific and technological ideas using new measures.

Findings

Small teams are more likely to propose new scientific concepts.

Small teams introduce more new technology codes in patents.

Large teams mainly refine existing ideas.

Abstract

The past half-century has seen a dramatic increase in the scale and complexity of scientific research, to which researchers have responded by dedicating more time to education and training, narrowing their areas of specialization, and collaborating in larger teams. A widely held view is that such collaborations, by fostering specialization and encouraging novel combinations of ideas, accelerate scientific innovation. However, recent research challenges this notion, suggesting that small teams and solo researchers consistently disrupt science and technology with fresh ideas and opportunities, while larger teams tend to refine existing ones (Wu et al. 2019). This study, along with other relevant research, has garnered attention for challenging the zeitgeist of our time that views collaboration as the inevitable path forward in scientific and technological advancement. Yet, few studies have re-evaluated its central finding: the innovative advantage of small teams over large ones, using alternative measures. We explore innovation by identifying papers proposing new scientific concepts and patents introducing new technology codes. We analyzed 88 million research articles spanning from 1800 to 2020 and 7 million patent applications from 1976 to 2020 worldwide. Our findings confirm that while large teams contribute to development, small teams play a critical role in innovation by propelling fresh, original ideas in science and technology.