Page 196 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

Ge SONG / The diffusion process of academic innovation 195

3.5 Diffusion network of structural holes theory in areas

To clearly show the diffusion relations of the structural holes theory in the major areas, we
extracted the areas that cited each other more than 10 times, and established an interactive network
of knowledge diffusion among them (see Figure 6). The size of the network is 11. The arrows
indicate the direction of diffusion. Diffusion strengths are represented by the width of lines, and
the numbers on the lines denote the citation frequency.

Information Science & Library Science
Computer Science
13
22 24 Environmental Science & Ecology
11
36
Sociology 18
16 Sociel Sciences-Other Topic
10 12
39
Psychology 38 Business & Economics
17 99
15 33
14 31
Anthropology
Engineering
13 10
Agriculture
Communication
Figure 6. Diffusion network of structural holes theory in areas.

The diffusion network of the structural holes theory has two centers: Sociology, and Business
& Economics. The dynamic structure of the two centers is that the structural holes theory diffused
from Sociology to Business & Economics strongly. Diffusion models between other areas and the
center are in two ways. One is a two-way diffusion, such as Anthropology, other topics in Social
Sciences, Computer Science. These subjects not only introduced structural holes theory into their
field, but also used their own theories and methods to further improve the structural holes theory.
Another way is a unidirectional diffusion that was from center to other applied disciplines. In the
unidirectional diffusion model, some areas took double centers as their knowledge sources, such
as LIS, Environmental Sciences & Ecology, and Psychology, while others only took Business &
Economics as the single knowledge source, such as Engineering, Agriculture, Communications,
etc.
Comprehensive analysis of the above main path components, the diffusion process of the
structural holes theory can be summarized as follows: the structural holes theory had a fusion
development and mutual promotion in Sociology and Business & Economics, and they also
stimulated other areas to adopt it. At the same time, they also used other fields’ expertise to further