Unpacking the essential tension of knowledge recombination: Analyzing the impact of knowledge spanning on citation impact and disruptive innovation

Drawing on the theories of knowledge recombination, we aim to unpack the essential tension between tradition and innovation in scientific research. Using the American Physical Society data and computational methods, we analyze the relationship between knowledge spanning, citation impact, and disruptive innovation. The findings show that there exists a U-shaped relationship between knowledge spanning and disruptive innovation. In contrast, there is an inverted Ushaped relationship between knowledge spanning and citation impact, and the inverted U-shaped effect is moderated by team size. This study contributes to the theories of knowledge recombination by suggesting that either intellectual conformism or knowledge recombination can lead to disruptive innovation. That is, when evaluating the quality of scientific research with disruptive innovation, the essential tension seems to disappear.