Collaboration and Social Networks
This paper describes a longitudinal analysis of the social networks formed
by research collaborations at a Carnegie I research university. Over the
last several years, many federal agencies, e.g., NSF, NIH, DOE, have recommended
that funding proposals be submitted by collaborative interdisciplinary teams because
of a growing acknowledgment of the importance of discoveries and outcomes from
interdisciplinary science and technology. This is based on theory that more weak-tie
relationships will lead to an increase in innovation. By modeling, visualizing and
analyzing these social networks, we compare and contrast our funding relationships
before and after the implementation of an organizational response to this national
discourse on the need for interdisciplinary efforts. We implement network measures of
density, betweenness centrality, and examine the rate of change in weak-tie and
strong-tie social networks over time. We explore the strategic implications of structuring
organizational responses to interdisciplinary collaboration.
Publications
This is research was supported by ISTEC at CSU. Dr. Stephen C. Hayne - Principal Investigator |
