Large Teams Have Developed Science and Technology; Small Teams Have Disrupted It

摘要

Teams dominate the production of high-impact science and technology.Analyzing teamwork from more than 50 million papers, patents, and softwareproducts, 1954-2014, we demonstrate across this period that larger teamsdeveloped recent, popular ideas, while small teams disrupted the system bydrawing on older and less prevalent ideas. Attention to work from large teamscame immediately, while advances by small teams succeeded further into thefuture. Differences between small and large teams magnify with impact - smallteams have become known for disruptive work and large teams for developingwork. Differences in topic and re- search design account for part of therelationship between team size and disruption, but most of the effect occurswithin people, controlling for detailed subject and article type. Our findingssuggest the importance of supporting both small and large teams for thesustainable vitality of science and technology.