Contingencies for Interdisciplinary Research: Matching Research Questions with Research Organizations
- 1 November 1981
- journal article
- Published by Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in Management Science
- Vol. 27 (11) , 1279-1293
- https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.27.11.1279
Abstract
The conditions under which interdisciplinary research helps improve research performance are explored in a heterogeneous sample of 67 ongoing academic interdisciplinary teams from the United States and Canada. We conclude that interdisciplinary research is more appropriate for very difficult research questions and at early stages of the research process. Interdisciplinary research was found to inhibit the outputs of articles, books, papers, and technical reports when the research had a clearly identified client prior to the start of the project. Interdisciplinary research was not found to be more helpful for either applied or pure research. It was not found to be helpful either at the concluding stage of research or when used throughout the research process.Keywords
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