An empirical enquiry into co-patent networks and their stars: The case of cardiac pacemaker technology

作者：Goetze Christiane^*

来源：Technovation, 2010, 30(7-8): 436-446.

DOI：10.1016/j.technovation.2010.03.003

• Patent
• Network analysis
• Inventor
• Gatekeeper
• Cardiac pacemaker
• R&amp
• D

Scientific research concerning R&D staff structures has already been based on networks as they are mapped by co-patent data. The present paper combines the method of patent analysis with network analysis techniques and shows by means of a patent sample from cardiac pacemaker technology, that the different communication functions a star inventor accomplishes in their network are mirrored not only by quantity, but also by quality of patents. The mere patent quantity has a significant positive impact on the size of an inventors' personal network and the number of inventors they can directly pass information to. But more importantly, there is significant empirical evidence that high technical specialisation has a positive impact on an inventor's potential to mediate between others as well as on the efficacy to reach them on short notice. For the latter, likewise the number of citations received is a positive predictor. Thus, we characterise stars as industrious, well-known technical specialists and contradict the general assumption that generalists would be the ideal gatekeeper in an R&D network.

• 出版日期2010-8