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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Innovation, Technology, and Society

Innovation, Technology, and Society is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 12k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the concept of social innovation, emphasizing interdisciplinary research networks, innovation policy, sustainable development, knowledge engineering, digital social innovation, organizational innovation, empowerment, urban development, and innovation theory. The papers cover a wide range of topics related to the societal impact of innovation and the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in driving social change.

  • Social Innovation
  • Interdisciplinary Research
  • Innovation Policy
  • Sustainable Development
  • Knowledge Engineering
  • Digital Social Innovation
  • Organizational Innovation
  • Empowerment
  • Urban Development
  • Innovation Theory
Research works
12k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+2%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Germany
73% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Innovation, Technology, and Society

Which countries lead Innovation, Technology, and Society research?

By volume, Germany and Austria publish the most (2k and 171 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Germany 2k works
  2. 2 Austria 171 works
  3. 3 Switzerland 153 works
  4. 4 United States 144 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 67 works
  6. 6 China 52 works
  7. 7 Italy 46 works
  8. 8 Netherlands 42 works
  9. 9 Finland 31 works
  10. 10 Spain 29 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Germany: 72.7%Austria: 6.3%Switzerland: 5.7%United States: 5.3%6 others listed: 9.9%73%largest
Germany1,961 · 72.7%Austria171 · 6.3%Switzerland153 · 5.7%United States144 · 5.3%6 others listed268 · 9.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Innovation, Technology, and Society research?

By volume in 2022-now, Leibniz Association publishes the most Innovation, Technology, and Society research, followed by University of Wuppertal and TU Dortmund University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Leibniz AssociationGermany 46 works
  2. 2 University of WuppertalGermany 36 works
  3. 3 TU Dortmund UniversityGermany 34 works
  4. 4 Universität HamburgGermany 29 works
  5. 5 Technische Universität BerlinGermany 28 works
  6. 6 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 28 works
  7. 7 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 27 works
  8. 8 University of KasselGermany 25 works
  9. 9 Technische Universität DresdenGermany 25 works
  10. 10 University of Duisburg-EssenGermany 25 works

Who are the leading researchers in Innovation, Technology, and Society?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Innovation, Technology, and Society include Florian Fischer, Wolfgang K. Huber and Marko Sarstedt.

  1. 1 Florian Fischer Germany 257k citations
  2. 2 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  3. 3 Marko Sarstedt Germany 221k citations
  4. 4 Kläus Müllen Germany 182k citations
  5. 5 Jens Juul Holst Denmark 163k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Innovation, Technology, and Society?

The most cited paper in Innovation, Technology, and Society is "Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways" (Frank W. Geels, Johan Schot, 2007), with 5,187 citations. Next come "Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0—Inception, conception and perception" (2,505) and "The Social Shaping of Technology" (1,758).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways Frank W. Geels, Johan Schot · Research Policy Open access 21 Feb 2007 5,187
2 Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0—Inception, conception and perception Xun William Xu, Yuqian Lu, Birgit Vogel‐Heuser et al. · Journal of Manufacturing Systems Open access Oct 2021 2,505
3 The Social Shaping of Technology Robin Williams, David O. Edge Book chapter 31 Oct 1996 1,758
4 What is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability Adrian Smith, Rob P. J. M. Raven · Research Policy Open access 23 Mar 2012 1,703
5 Innovation in services Faı̈z Gallouj, Olivier Weinstein · Research Policy Dec 1997 1,691
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Innovation, Technology, and Society research done?

The largest centres of Innovation, Technology, and Society research in 2022-now are Berlin (Germany), Munich (Germany), Vienna (Austria) and Hamburg (Germany).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BerlinGermany 173 works
  2. 2 MunichGermany 103 works
  3. 3 ViennaAustria 91 works
  4. 4 HamburgGermany 81 works
  5. 5 StuttgartGermany 75 works
  6. 6 EssenGermany 61 works
  7. 7 CologneGermany 58 works
  8. 8 DortmundGermany 54 works
  9. 9 Frankfurt am MainGermany 53 works
  10. 10 MünsterGermany 43 works
See Innovation, Technology, and Society on the map

Where is the best place to study Innovation, Technology, and Society?

Among universities, judged by research, TU Dortmund University, Technische Universität Berlin and Universität Hamburg score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 8.8%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Technische Universit…TU Dortmund UniversityFreie Universität Be…Universität Hamburg
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1TU Dortmund UniversityGermany 72.811.1%50.5×34 +2.1%
2Technische Universität BerlinGermany 71.116.2%31.6×28 -41.7%
3Universität HamburgGermany 70.69.8%15.0×29 +44.2%
4Freie Universität BerlinGermany 65.910.6%20.5×22 +30.2%
5University of WuppertalGermany 59.52.2%98.4×36 +264.9%
6Bielefeld UniversityGermany 58.29.1%33.5×20 -0.5%
7Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 57.97.1%21.6×20 +31.0%
8Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 57.88.9%8.4×19 +1.2%
9Technische Universität DresdenGermany 56.95.1%17.0×25 +59.9%
10RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 56.67.9%13.5×28 -4.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Innovation, Technology, and Society, country by country

Is Innovation, Technology, and Society research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 2% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Innovation, Technology, and Society.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Innovation, Technology, and Society as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.012% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Innovation, Technology, and Society0.011% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Innovation, Technology, and Society over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Innovation, Technology, and Society10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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