INNOVATION: EXPLORING THE KNOWLEDGE BASE

New types of knowledge, and new ways of organising the production of it, may emerge as knowledge producers respond to the challenges posed by a changing society. This study will focus on the core knowledge of one such emerging field, namely, innovation studies, i.e., the study of how improvements of products, processes, and the organisation of economic activities take place and what the political, social and economic underpinnings and consequences are. To explore the knowledge base of this field a new data base of references in scholarly surveys of various aspects of innovation, published in “handbooks”, is assembled and a methodology for analysing the data developed. The paper describes the process that led to the construction of the data base and its exploitation in identifying the core literature on innovation. Furthermore, the characteristics of this literature, its evolution over time and the use of the literature as reflected by references to this core literature in scholarly journals are analysed. Finally, cluster analysis is used to make inferences about how the field is structured and its links with various disciplinary and cross-disciplinary contexts