Wiring knowledge : metaphors, boundaries and scientific performance

The topic of the dissertation is knowledge combination that is key for innovation and the generation of new knowledge and for innovation. The dissertation comprises three chapters. In the first chapter, we longitudinally study the activity of a group of scientists and how they use metaphors to coordinate both disciplinary and multidisciplinary knowledge creation. In the second chapter, we show a method to identify concepts that bridge different disciplines through the analysis of textual networks. In the third chapter, we study how the structure of co-authorship network and the position of the articles in the literature affect their scientific impact.