Social Network Analysis of the ISPIM Innovation Management Community

Abstract

Scientific communities are bound together by common purpose and interests, and tangible evidence of the structure of such communities may be found by investigating co-authorship networks. We utilise social network analysis to analyse the network structure of ISPIM (International Society for Professional Innovation Management), using co-authorship data from six ISPIM events during the years 2009-2011. We find interesting evidence of the network structure, illustrating vividly the central authors and sub-components of the network. Related to this, results reveal surprisingly tight clustering based on geographical and institutional boundaries. We also find evidence of high performing authors which span these boundaries via significantly different strategies. Overall, the results help to uncover the underlying structure of the scholarly network behind ISPIM, which helps to better understand the key contributors and their networks, and also the development points and promising research collaboration opportunities.