Co-citation Analysis of the Scientific Literature of Innovation Research Traditions

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article explores the interrelationships between the interdisciplinary specialties of the diffusion of innovations and technology transfer. Bibliometric data were utilized to examine the formal communication structures of these two specialties and to identify how and to what extent their literatures were related. A modified author co-citation analysis was performed to identify the interrelationships among the works of scholars in these two specialties. Co-citation analysis has been used to study other research fields and to identify with considerable accuracy the membership of research specialties. The article identifies the ideational links or cognitive relations between the works of the diffusion of innovations and the technology transfer scholars. Rip and Courtial (1984) stated that co-citation, like other scientometric techniques, is useful for analyzing developments in science "provided one is prepared to take the content of scientific articles into account" (p. 381). Accordingly, highly cited documents are identified as exemplars and used to interpret the data.