Firstly, the theory of social network analysis is introduced and its track of development is analyzed. Then the method of social network analysis in the literature is concluded and the methodology, content and quantity in literature is summarized to analyze the application of the social network to the innovative research .This paper proposes that the study using social network analysis prefers the change of connections between interactive nodes rather than nodes themselves; therefore, the combination of social network analysis, traditional quantitative economic methods and case study and analysis of the impact of network structure characteristics on the innovation and other organizational questions can help to discover the nature of the problem profoundly.