Distant recombination and the creation of basic inventions: An analysis of the diffusion of public and private sector nanotechnology patents in Canada

Abstract

Document publié chez l'éditeur commercialDocument issued by the commercial publisher Mention légale:Legal notice:In all cases accepted manuscripts should link to the formal publication via its DOI AbstractThis article explores whether the relationship between the breath of technological integration (recombination distance) and the breath of an invention's subsequent application (basicness) is moderated by the sector of activity (private or public), sciencelinkage strength and industry characteristics. Our analysis of Canadian nanotechnology patents granted between 1990 and 1997 shows that although private organizations generally yield smaller rates of basic inventions than public organizations, increases to recombination distance by the former increases invention basicness at a higher rate; increasing reliance upon basic science moderates the relationship between recombination distance and basicness; and increases to recombination distance in emerging sciencebased industries increases invention basicness at a higher rate. These findings have implications regarding the debate around the efficiency of the academic enterprise model. organizations, increases to recombination distance by the former increases invention basicness at a higher rate; increasing reliance upon basic science moderates the relationship between recombination distance and basicness; and increases to recombination distance in emerging science-based industries increases invention basicness at a higher rate. These findings have implications regarding the debate around the efficiency of the academic enterprise model.

Exploring Uncharted Territory: Knowledge Search Processes in the Origination of Outlier Innovation

“…For reasons we explain in the next section, we do not attempt to empirically examine long search paths with patent data and instead rely on theory and the qualitative statements that arose from the inventor interviews. There have been previous studies that have considered the role of scientific reasoning in unusual discoveries (e.g., Fleming and Sorenson 2004) and distant recombination (e.g., Barirani et al 2015, Keijl et al 2016. Our paper, however, is the first we know of to articulate and explore the role of long search paths in outlier patents, to compare multiple search processes that may result in outlier discoveries, and to disentangle the roles of individual breadth of experience and team breadth of experience in distant recombination.…”

“…One of the ways that inventors might create inventions that appear distant from known inventions is through distant recombination-that is, a combination that fuses two or more disparate knowledge domains (see Figure 1, panel (d) and Table 3). Other studies have similarly posited that distant recombination might lead to inventions that are more basic or fundamental in their nature, or that have greater impact (e.g., Barirani et al 2015, Keijl et al 2016). An excellent example is the development of the camera pill.…”

“…There may also be interesting relationships between the use of scientific reasoning and distant recombination. For example, Gruber et al (2013) found that inventors with a scientific education are more likely to generate patents that span technological boundaries, and Barirani et al (2015) found that the use of basic science moderated the relationship between distant recombination and "basicness" of invention in Canadian nanotechnology. Second, it might be possible to gain a richer perspective of the search processes described here by using a multiple case study approach with a matched case design where outlying patents and nonoutlying patents from the same field and time period are compared in more depth.…”

Sustainable Competitive Position of Mobile Communication Companies: Comprehensive Perspectives of Insiders and Outsiders

“…Researchers in the fields of information science and business management have designed multidimensional evaluation systems for analyzing competitive relations based on patent data. Common indicators include: the number of patents (used for measuring the scale of technological innovation), the patent application area (used for identifying the target market of enterprises), the International Patent Classification (IPC) or U.S. Patent Classification (UPC) (used for discovering the focus of technology R&D of enterprises), the number of invention patents or tripartite patents (used for evaluating enterprise's technical quality), the forward reference of the patent (used for evaluating the technical influence of enterprises), the back reference of the patent (used for determining technical originality), and so on [23][24][25]. Jaffeused the sales revenue of each product category to measure the proximity of technology positioning among enterprises [26].…”

Beyond direct relationships

“…Patents are an important indication of the originality and creativity of knowledge (Schoenmakers and Duysters, 2010). Barirani et al (2015, p. 40) suggested that “since patents are granted to inventions that are novel, non-obvious and useful, they can generally be viewed as indicators of technological change and innovative activity.”…”