| Titre | La diffusion des innovations scientifiques | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Diana Crane-Hervé, Bernard-Pierre Lécuyer | |
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Revue | Revue Française de Sociologie |
| Numéro | 1969, 10-2 | |
| Page | 166-185 | |
| Résumé anglais |
Diana Crane-Hervé : The diffusion of innovation in science : a case study.
In order to find out if the factors affecting the diffusion of innovations in science are similar to those which have been found in studies of other types of innovations, variables contained in all publications appearing during a twenty-five year period in a research problem area in sociology were analyzed. It was found that about a third of the innovations in the area were developed in the early stages of activity in the field when only 5 percent of the authors had published in it. The most widely used innovations appeared to have been transmitted by personal influence creating a steadily expanding network of adopters. In order to produce such a network of adopters, an innovation had to be associated with scientists who were highly visible in the area. There was some evidence that resistance to new ideas increased over time since both the production and acceptance of innovations declined during the last decade of activity in the area. These findings suggest that the growth of science can be interpreted as a process of diffusion in which innovations spread by means of expanding networks of adopters. Such a process could explain why the growth of scientific publications and of authors takes the form of a logistic curve. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rfsoc_0035-2969_1969_num_10_2_1508 |
