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 impact of knowledge spanning on both citation counts and disruptive innovation. The findings show that knowledge spanning has a U-shaped impact on disruptive innovation. In contrast, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge spanning and citation counts, and the inverted U-shaped effect is moderated by team size. This study contributes to the theories of knowledge recombination by suggesting that both intellectual conformism and 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.

翻译：基于知识重组理论，本研究旨在解析科学研究中传统与创新之间的本质张力。通过利用美国物理学会数据与计算方法，我们分析了知识跨度对引用次数和颠覆性创新的影响。结果表明，知识跨度对颠覆性创新呈现U型影响。与之相反，知识跨度与引用次数之间呈倒U型关系，且该倒U型效应受团队规模调节。本研究对知识重组理论的贡献在于揭示：知识趋同与知识重组均可能催生颠覆性创新。换言之，当以颠覆性创新为指标评估科研质量时，这种本质张力似乎不复存在。