Too big to innovate? Exploring organizational size and innovation processes in scientific research

• Published in: Science & public policy Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 332 - 337
• Main Authors: Mote, Jonathon, Jordan, Gretchen, Hage, Jerald, Hadden, Wilbur, Clark, Aleia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01.06.2016
• Subjects: Biological research; Biology; Chemistry; Innovations; Interdisciplinary aspects; Organization size; Organization theory; Research centers; Science; Scientists; Size of enterprise; Time use; organizational theory; research and innovation; public research organizations
• ISSN: 0302-3427; 1471-5430
• DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scv045

We explore the impact of organizational size in six federally funded research organizations on a range of organizational processes related to the pursuit of innovation. The data utilized consisted of 266 scientists drawn from 64 research projects across five programmatic research areas: alternative energies, biology, chemistry, geophysical sciences, and material sciences. A sixth project category was added to accommodate the highly interdisciplinary character of a handful of projects. Although the data had some limitations, it was found that organizational size had a negative impact on three categories of innovation processes: the amount of time spent in research and professional activities, how research time is spent, and exchanges of technical knowledge. In addition, some potential advantages of larger size, such as: greater research resources, better perceived managerial quality or a visionary strategy, were not found to be significant.