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Theories and Methods of Science of Science

Innovation Research: Knowledge Base and Research Themes

Zhang Yi, Luo Yuqing

(School of Management, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China)

Abstract: In the context of increasingly fierce global competition and rapid technological

change, innovation has become a top priority for national development and plays an increasingly

important role in economic growth and social development. Since Schumpeter introduced the

concept of "innovation" in 1912, the academic community has paid great attention to innovation

research. Innovation studies have become increasingly fruitful and many studies in this field

have been devoted to some new topics, such as digital innovation, green innovation, etc. The con⁃

tinuous growth of innovation research and the emergence of innovation topics suggest the impera⁃

tive to conduct a comprehensive and critical review of this large research field, which helps

clarify the knowledge structure and research themes of innovation studies.

Although scholars have reviewed innovation research, there are certain limitations in terms

of research samples, content, time span, etc. Especially in the current context of "double transfor⁃

mation", innovation has been redefined and endowed with a new connotation. Digital innovation

and green innovation have become new hot topics in this field. Therefore, it is necessary to fur⁃

ther explore and review the field of innovation research to understand this research domain bet⁃

ter. To this end, this study introduces a bibliometric approach to provide an overview of innova⁃

tion research, in particular, to explore the knowledge structure and research topics of this re⁃

search field. These efforts are undoubtedly of great importance in deepening our understanding

of the history, status quo, and future direction of development of innovation research.

This paper takes 30 673 documents in the field of innovation research from 1950 to 2023 as

a data source and makes an in-depth analysis of publications in the journals UTD24 and FT50.

The research results show that the number of publications and the share in the SSCI literature

volume are both on a fluctuating upward trend, indicating growing attention to innovation re⁃

search in the academic community. In addition, developed countries such as the United States

and the United Kingdom are the main contributors to innovation research and China is one of the

few developing countries in this field. Moreover, innovation research is interdisciplinary and mul⁃

tidisciplinary, involving economics, management, engineering, and other fields; its knowledge

base includes knowledge innovation (creation), dynamic capabilities, organisational learning,

technological innovation, organisational innovation, open innovation, triple helix innovation, dis⁃

ruptive innovation, and endogenous growth model; furthermore, the research topics in this field

include innovation policy, innovation cooperation, innovation network, transformational innova⁃

tion, innovation system, innovation management, innovation measurement, digital innovation,

which are identified and prospects have been drawn accordingly. In summary, this paper pro⁃

vides certain theoretical value and insights for a comprehensive understanding and grasp of the

knowledge structure and research themes in the field of innovation research.

Key words: innovative research; knowledge base; research themes