Radical innovation: crossing knowledge boundaries with ...

12. Appendix B: Review of previous literature on
interdisciplinarity and innovation
12.1.1 Introduction
References to both innovation and interdisciplinarity are ubiquitous in current policy
agendas for research and economic development. This review examines precisely how
these two notions have become linked in different ways across policy and academic
literature. Throughout publications by government departments, think tanks, and
academic researchers, it is apparent that the notion of interdisciplinarity has attained a
heightened significance due to a more general association of innovation with
processes of boundary crossing, collaboration, and the integration of different kinds of
knowledge. This is particularly evident in literature linking interdisciplinarity to the
need to generate closer relationships between science and society. However, while the
rhetoric linking interdisciplinarity and innovation is strong, this review notes a lack of
empirical research into how interdisciplinary research might lead to innovation in
practice. In the literature reviewed here, the relationship between interdisciplinarity
and innovation is often taken for granted to the extent that the former comes to stand
for the latter and, in this context, the term interdisciplinarity often takes on an abstract
quality and loses specificity in relation to other ‘boundary crossing’ endeavours. This
review reveals the need for further research into how knowledge sharing takes place
as a social process, what it achieves, and what interdisciplinarity might mean for those
involved in research carrying this label. Some emerging ethnographic studies of
interdisciplinary research that are discussed here indicate the value of such an
approach.
12.2. Innovation Policy
Recent government policy in Britain makes evident an increasing concern with
‘innovation’ as a driver of economic productivity. The notion of ‘innovation’ in this
policy context captures the way in which ideas and knowledge are now recognised as
a valuable currency in the highly competitive global environment, and are perceived
as crucial to the ability to ‘get ahead’. In particular, it is frequently cited in policy
research that nations such as India and China are developing their skills base and are
now able to compete not only in the low value-added, labour-intensive, industries but
also in the high-technology industries in which Britain has traditionally been a
significant player (Cox 2005, Department of Trade and Industry 2003).
The Cox Business Review argued that the current higher education system, by
channeling students into specialised disciplines early on, does not do enough to equip
“tomorrow’s business leaders, technologists, engineers and creative specialists with a
greater appreciation of the context in which their different skills can be applied” (Cox
2005:29). The Department for Trade and Industry report on the ‘innovation challenge’
Innovation and Interdisciplinarity 100