Exploring the topology and dynamic growth properties of co-invention networks and technology fields

Abstract

This study investigates the topology and dynamics of collaboration networks that exist between inventors and their patent co-authors for patents granted by the USPTO from 2007–2019 (2,241,201 patents and 1,879,037 inventors). We study changes in the configurations of different technology fields via the power-law, small-world, preferential attachment, shrinking diameter, densification law, and gelling point hypotheses. Similar to the existing literature, we obtain mixed results. Based on network statistics, we argue that the sudden rise of large networks in six technology sectors can be understood as a phase transition in which small, isolated networks form one giant component. In two other technology sectors, such a transition occurred much later and much less dramatically. The examination of inventor networks over time reveals the increased complexity of all technology sectors, regardless of the individual characteristics of the network. Therefore, we introduce ideas associated with the technological diversification of inventors to complement our analysis, and we find evidence that inventors tend to diversify into new fields that are less mature. This behavior appears to be correlated with the compliance of some of the expected network rules and has implications for the emerging patterns among the different collaboration networks under consideration here.

Investigating Company’s Technical Development Directions Based on Internal Knowledge Inheritance and Inventor Capabilities: The Case of Samsung Electronics

“…In a scholarly data analysis, inventors or authors are important bibliographic information for various research purposes. Since R&D human resources can represent the scientific and technical capability of organizations, their co-occurrence relations with other bibliographic information, such as a country, organization, or research field, can be used for better understanding the collaboration trends [48][49][50], regional characteristics [33,[51][52][53][54][55][56], or technical changes and innovation [33,54,[57][58][59][60][61]. In particular, co-inventor relationships within an organization can show some significant inventors who are strategically allocated to major R&D projects and so usually lead most R&D projects.…”