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

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.

The Impact of Co-Inventor Networks on Smart Cleantech Innovation: The Case of Montreal Agglomeration

We use patent big data and apply a combination of network analysis techniques to explore the social structure of the Montreal tech community and its embeddedness in the global innovation landscape. In particular, we focus on the smart cleantech segment. In doing so, we analyze the effect of inventor collaborations on innovations and the emergence of smart clean technologies and smart sustainable solutions in Montreal and their global impact. Our analysis reveals the importance of both local and international ties for the general development of innovations in Montreal’s competitive urban economy, with a stronger impact of international ties, in generating smart cleantech innovations. We discuss the implications of our findings for smart cleantech and cleantech clusters and for further development of tech agglomerations.

Micro dynamics and macro stability in inventor networks

From a macro perspective, inventor networks tend to generate remarkably stable structures over time. At the same time, we observe highly dynamic processes at the micro level, in terms of inventor entries and exits as well as formations and terminations of collaborative relationships between them. In order to explain this—at least at the first glance—contradicting pattern, we investigate processes at the intermediate network level. Our analysis draws upon co-patenting data for the entire population of West German inventors in the field of laser technology research from the onset of the technology in the early 1960s over a period of 45 years. Our findings suggest that the key factor for maintaining structural stability of networks is that directly linked partners of inventors with stabilizing properties—so-called ‘key players’—take over this function in a subsequent period. We show that processes at the intermediate network level provide new insights on the co-existence of micro fluidity and macro stability in complex adaptive systems.

Knowledge Recombination and Inventor Networks: The Asymmetric Effects of Embeddedness on Knowledge Reuse and Impact

Inventors are triply embedded. They are embedded in a network of knowledge components that they can reuse in future inventions. They are embedded in an inventor network, where internal embeddedness (the strength of relationships between focal inventors and their colleagues upon whose knowledge the team builds) and network centrality influence access to information. Finally, they are embedded in the firm, with its specific routines that favor external or internal knowledge search, what we call search orientation. Using a sample of 39,785 semiconductor patents, we study the pattern of knowledge reuse, or the recombination of technologically similar components, on invention impact. We propose that reuse of internal knowledge affects invention impact in a concave manner and posit that internal embeddedness steepens this relationship while network centrality leads to an inflection point shift. We examine whether these effects differ for subsamples of firms with inward- or outward-looking search orientation. We find that inward-looking firms’ optimal pattern of internal knowledge reuse does not differ markedly from that of outward-looking firms. We find that inward-looking firms are more susceptible to internal embeddedness and that centrality in the collaborative network flattens rather than shifts the relationship between reuse and impact. These findings elevate the theoretical discourse of embeddedness from the effects of network positions on innovation outcomes to similar network positions having asymmetric effects that vary with the firm’s search orientation. Our results contribute to an emergent area in innovation research on how inventor networks shape the inventive process and its outcomes.

Inter-firm inventor mobility and the role of co-inventor networks in producing high-impact innovation

Inter-firm mobility of inventors is a major source of embodied knowledge transfer and receiving firms enjoy additional benefits from the collaboration networks of mobile inventors. However, there is still limited understanding on how the firm can maximize the impact of incoming inventors and what structure of co-inventor networks is the most beneficial for that. To answer this question, we construct a weighted and time-decayed co-inventor network from all IT-related patents in the harmonized OECD PATSTAT 1977–2010 database and analyze events of inter-firm inventor mobility. We look at the future impact of firm innovation and isolate the effect of mobile inventors’ network characteristics from the characteristics of the collaboration network in the receiving firm. Our results imply that high-impact innovations are produced if the firm hires broker inventors who have diverse networks and thus has the potential to channel a wide pool of knowledge into the firm. We find evidence that cohesive networks within the firm, measured by small world characteristics, exaggerate the effect of incoming brokers and high-impact inventors.