Interdisciplinary System Integration and Inducement of Innovation: A Methodological Approach for Interdisciplinary Research; [Interdisziplinäre Systemintegration und Innovationsgenese: Ein methodologischer Zugang für die interdisziplinäre Forschung]

The increasing significance of inter- and transdisciplinary research raises the demand for principles with respect to methodology and philosophy of science. The discussion of this question leads to the development of an interdisciplinary research process with two methodic core areas: system integration and inducement of innovation. It will be shown that interdisciplinary research can be understood as a discipline of its own, while its potential of synthesis cannot be declared as a central distinctive feature relative to other disciplines. In fact the developed methodology is firstly aligned analytically, with a focus on the research potential from the area of tension between individual disciplines. This results in an interdisciplinary methodology, generating epistemological progress, which can be applied to complex and cooperation intensive research in academia as well as industry and society. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.