Exploring knowledge flow within a technology domain by conducting a dynamic analysis of a patent co-citation network

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Smojver ◽  
Mario Štorga ◽  
Goran Zovak

Purpose This paper aims to present a methodology by which future knowledge flow can be predicted by predicting co-citations of patents within a technology domain using a link prediction algorithm applied to a co-citation network. Design/methodology/approach Several methods and approaches are used: a dynamic analysis of a patent citation network to identify technology life cycle phases, patent co-citation network mapping from the patent citation network and the application of link prediction algorithms to the patent co-citation network. Findings The results of the presented study indicate that future knowledge flow within a technology domain can be predicted by predicting patent co-citations using the preferential attachment link prediction algorithm. Furthermore, they indicate that the patent – co-citations occurring between the end of the growth life cycle phase and the start of the maturation life cycle phase contribute the most to the precision of the knowledge flow prediction. Finally, it is demonstrated that most of the predicted knowledge flow occurs in a time period closely following the application of the link – prediction algorithm. Practical implications By having insight into future potential co-citations of patents, a firm can leverage its existing patent portfolio or asses the acquisition value of patents or the companies owning them. Originality/value It is demonstrated that the flow of knowledge in patent co-citation networks follows a rich get richer intuition. Moreover, it is show that the knowledge contained in younger patents has a greater chance of being cited again. Finally, it is demonstrated that these co-citations can be predicted in the short term when the preferential attachment algorithm is applied to a patent co-citation network.

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 880-896
Author(s):  
Helena Merikoski ◽  
Paula Savolainen ◽  
Jarmo J. Ahonen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a life cycle phase of a software development project which is substantial for the success of the project. This paper visualizes the project start-up phase from suppliers’ perspective. Design/methodology/approach The method is a theory building from case studies. The data were collected from three software supplier firms by conducting process modeling separately in each firm. Findings The study resulted in a model of a supplier’s software project start-up which includes start-up practices and involved roles. The results indicate that project start-up is an integral and structured phase of project life cycle, which influences the execution of a software development project, especially from the supplier’s perspective in the project business context. Research limitations/implications The study focuses on the start-up phase of software development projects delivered to external customers. Therefore, developed project start-up model is applicable as such in software supplier firms. Practical implications The project start-up model presented in this paper indicates that project start-up is a complex and multi-dimensional activity in a supplier firm. This study suggests that if the project start-up phase is clearly defined, planned and followed in a supplier firm, it reduces confusion and miscommunication among the people involved in the project and helps to achieve the business goals of a project. Originality/value This study emphasizes that it is necessary to make a distinction between the perspectives of the customer and the supplier when studying projects in the project business context. The findings contribute the new knowledge for managing outsourced software development projects.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Parijat Lanke ◽  
Papri Nath

Purpose This paper aims to understand the impact of the job switching behavior on different stages of the communities of practice’s life cycle. Job switching has been viewed from both positive and negative point of views, and its impact on certain organizational factors might be found in literature. Job switching/job hopping behavior of an individual might be fueled by socio-economic factors as well as fun, but it has serious implication for the companies. But an understanding of how this new employee might influence the communities of practice, given which stage is the community in, is something that has not been studied yet. This work is an attempt in that direction. Design/methodology/approach Using integrative review technique, this paper forwards a conceptual framework based on the literature reviewed and builds a model using an understanding of the nuances of each stage of the life cycle of communities of practice. Findings The model proposes the impact of switching on each stage of the life cycle of communities of practice. It is observed that at each stage a new entrant who is a “job hopper” might either help or hinder the progress of a community of practice. Research limitations/implications This paper gives a new impetus to the research on communities of practice in contemporary perspective. The model proposed could be tested using data from real communities of practice. This paper limits itself to the proposal of the model and does not engage in testing it. Practical implications Organizations and managers may use the model to understand how a new entrant to the organization will complement the existing life cycle phase of the communities of practice within. Originality/value The conceptual model proposed is unique in its context of job switching behavior and its effect on communities of practice. Research on communities of practice from this contemporary perspective might bring important research directions in future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Olusola Babatunde ◽  
Srinath Perera ◽  
Onaopepo Adeniyi

Purpose Public‐private partnerships (PPPs) are being faced by risk threats, notwithstanding the fact that the PPP model has been structured in a way that the associated risks are shared by both the public and private sectors. Consequently, the sources of risk change over the PPP project phases. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the risk factors in PPP infrastructure project phases comprising development phase, construction phase, operation phase and project life cycle through an empirical approach. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted four different data-gathering approaches including literature review, desk review, brainstorming session and questionnaire survey. In order to capture a broad perception of stakeholders, the questionnaires were administered to three different stakeholder organizations to include public sector authorities (i.e. ministries, department and agencies), concessionaires and lenders/banks involved in different PPP infrastructure projects implementation in Nigeria. A total of 81 questionnaires were administered, out of which 63 were retrieved but after checking through the completed questionnaires, 60 questionnaires were found suitable for the analysis. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean score, Kruskal–Wallis test and the risk significance index in terms of severity and likelihood of occurrence conducted. Findings In total, 70 risk factors were identified with respect to PPP project phases and their relative importance was gauged. In addition, the analysis of total 70 risk factors in the development phase, construction phase, operation phase and project life cycle phase indicated that 51 risk factors are located in the yellow zone, which is considered as moderate and 19 risk factors are located in the red zone that are regarded as critical. Practical implications The identification of specific critical risk factors in each PPP project phase will provide a benchmark in developing risk management programs in developing countries. Originality/value These study findings would be useful for PPP stakeholders to focus their attention, priorities and leadership in managing these critical risk factors. Furthermore, the findings of this study are significant in providing an in-depth understanding of the current Nigeria’s PPP market environment, which is a true reflection of developing countries as a whole.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kyle William Higham

<p>The diffusion of knowledge through society proceeds like an invisible ripple that moves between agents through multiple information channels. However, some types of knowledge are recorded, systematised and digitised for the benefit of everyone. Patents and academic articles are examples of such codified knowledge. These documents also contain a common element that is utilised for linking new and established knowledge: citations.  This thesis harnesses citations in patents and scientific articles as proxies for signifying the existence of knowledge flows between cited and citing documents, focusing primarily on the dynamics of citation accumulation and the mechanisms governing these dynamics. For this purpose, it is helpful to think of patents and their citations as nodes and links, respectively, in a network where new nodes join the network and distribute their citations among existing nodes. This mode of thinking leads directly to the question: How does the citation network grow? This thesis addresses that question both empirically and theoretically.  Two mechanisms that can explain much of the observed citation dynamics are preferential attachment and node ageing. The former mechanism reflects the tendency for successful nodes (by citation count) to become even more successful, while the latter captures the propensity for knowledge to become obsolete over time. The independence of these phenomena is nontrivial, but has generally been assumed. We put this assumption to the test for both patent and scientific-article citation networks and found it to be generally true if precautions are taken to account for important context surrounding the meaning of citations. Achieving a clear separation of these mechanisms is found to be very useful both mathematically and empirically, as they can now be studied independently.  Patents are particularly sophisticated documents, with various components holding specific legal meanings. Associating certain properties of these components with popularity in the form of citation accrual creates a rare opportunity to build a framework that can identify ex-ante node fitnesses and examine their effect on the growth of a citation network. We find that a significant portion of the preferential-attachment process observed in the patent-citation network can be attributed to basic properties of patents determined by their time of grant. Besides suggesting novel approaches towards estimating patent quality, the results of our work also provide a platform for gaining a deeper understanding of the various mechanisms that underpin the success-breeds-success dynamics ubiquitously observed in complex systems.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vimal Kumar ◽  
Kuei-Kuei Lai ◽  
Yu-Hsin Chang ◽  
Priyanka Chand Bhatt ◽  
Fang-Pei Su

Purpose The evolution of technology has become the mainstream of the current technological innovation era. Technological change is organized in its unique pattern and a new approach that takes place in a systematic and selective manner. Such change is generally molded with the amalgamation of various factors, namely, economic, social or scientific and technological. This paper aims to focus on identifying technological trajectories in a technological ecosystem with the case of m-payment technology. Design/methodology/approach This study constructs a patent citation network for mobile payment service technology through patent citation data and identifies the main evolution process using the main path analysis of the network. The scope of this study focuses on key innovation using social network analysis and patent citation network, validated using the case of a mobile payment system and analyzing its technological trajectory. Findings Analyzing technology evolution provides a greater insight of the overall technology landscape to the researcher and practitioner. Analyzing the m-payment technology landscape gives three main categories of m-payment systems: the mobile financial transaction system), the payee mobile device payment selection system and e-wallet services. Originality/value The novelty of this research lies in the process of identifying technological evolution using social network and patent citation network analysis. The case of m-payment technology ecosystem is studied quantitatively which is not explored by previous researchers. This research provides a way to develop the main path technology of innovative products or services to identify technology evolution using the case of m-payment landscape.


2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-285
Author(s):  
Jeonghwan Jeon ◽  
Yongyoon Suh

Purpose Using the large database of patent, the purpose of this paper is to structure a technology convergence network using various patent network analysis for integrating different results according to network characteristics. Design/methodology/approach The patent co-class analysis and the patent citation analysis are applied to discover core safety fields and technology, respectively. In specific, three types of network analysis, which are centrality analysis, association rule mining analysis and brokerage network analysis, are applied to measure the individual, synergy and group intensity. Findings The core safety fields derived from three types of network analysis used by different nature of data algorithms are compared with each other to understand distinctive meaning of cores of patent class such as medical safety, working safety and vehicle safety, differentiating network structure. Also, to be specific, the authors find the detailed technology contained in the core patent class using patent citation network analysis. Practical implications The results provide meaningful implications to various stakeholders in organization: safety management, safety engineering and safety policy. The multiple patent network enables safety manager to identify core safety convergence fields and safety engineers to develop new safety technology. Also, in the view of technology convergence, the strategy of safety policy can be expanded to collaboration and open innovation. Originality/value This is the initial study on applying various network analysis algorithms based on patent data (class and citation) for safety management. Through comparison among network analysis techniques, the different results are identified and the collective decision making on finding core of safety technology convergence is supported. The decision maker can obtain the various perspectives of tracing technology convergence.


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