Conceptual analysis of interdisciplinary scientific work

Abstract

The main advantage to interdisciplinary professional practice is that it can produce novel product designs and problem solutions. However, it requires knowledge sharing and integration to leverage this potential. This paper reports on a study with a method of conceptual analysis to elicit, analyse and compare conceptual models used by individual researchers, with the ultimate aim to facilitate researchers in sharing and integrating their conceptual notions. We build on an earlier study by extending an existing conceptual model with conceptual notions from two additional researchers from an interdisciplinary research project. The results of the present study suggest that the time costs of adding more information to the existing model diminish with each addition to the existing model, and that the method of conceptual analysis can validly represent researchers' conceptual notions. Furthermore, our results offer some indication that conceptual analysis can reduce transaction costs related to grounding. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.