Google Trend analysis of the evolution of collaborative innovation terms

Abstract

A great variety of collaborative innovation terms – a concept associated with the process of engaging various stakeholders to innovate collaboratively – have been proposed. Prior studies have revealed significant popularity differences between the usage of these terms among scholars, while less is known about how widespread the usage of these terms is among general public. An altmetrics study grounded on Google Trend data is conducted to evaluate term adoption among the general public and to identify which of the terms show an increasing or decreasing trend. As a result, the number of upward, downward, and horizontal trends depended on whether monthly, quarterly, or yearly Google Trend data was used in the analysis. Out of 118 terms, 24 robust upward and 16 downward trends were identified. Only stakeholder engagement, design thinking, community engagement, customer based and hackathon term had strong positive trend while co-operation and co-development followed strong negative trend.