ZHAW International Business Seminar Series: Scientific Impact of Interdisciplinary Research during Crises

Name: ZHAW International Business Seminar Series: Scientific Impact of Interdisciplinary Research during Crises
Start: 2026-11-30T12:30:00+01:00
End: 2026-11-30T13:30:00+01:00

30 November 2026

In this session of the International Business Seminar Series, Prof. Dr. Murat Tarakci examines whether interdisciplinary research continues to have a higher scientific impact during times of crisis. His research explores how crises influence the way scientific work is evaluated and recognized.

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Previous studies have shown that interdisciplinary research often has a higher scientific impact. However, during crises, time pressure and institutional demands can make it more difficult for researchers to recognize and build on previous interdisciplinary work.

Analyzing 63,850 coronavirus-related papers, the study finds that the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research fell by 46.9% during the pandemic. At the same time, researchers increasingly cited papers from specialized fields, even when these were conceptually distant from their own research.

IBSS 2026

Prof. Dr. Murat Tarakci is Professor of Innovation Strategy at IMD. His research focuses on the social and psychological foundations of innovation and strategy, exploring how individuals and organizations adapt to and shape their environments. He is particularly interested in how cognition, emotion, and motivation influence strategic decisions and organizational innovation.

His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Academy of Management Journal, MIS Quarterly, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal, and has featured in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and The Wall Street Journal. Before joining IMD in 2025, he was Professor and Chair of Innovation Strategy at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, where he also served as Director of the Erasmus Center for Innovation.