Measuring and mapping technology‐fields correlation and its application on China's nanotechnology

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to help China's science and technology (abbr. as S&T) managers and related policy makers to allocate S&T human resources, optimize organizational systems of laboratories, design and plan some grant projects, and manage other S&T‐related work in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology, by measuring and mapping of technology‐fields correlation, with nanotechnology as an example.

Design/methodology/approach

Methodologies such as co‐occurrence analysis, correlation analysis, multidimensional scaling (abbr. as MDS) analysis, dendrogram (tree‐like) analysis, etc. are employed to measure and map technology‐fields correlation.

Findings

It is found that the exact relevance degree of any two technology‐fields exists among the top 33 technology‐fields with high frequencies. There are three industrial clusters in Multidimentional Scaling View, that is, nanotechnology used in bio‐medical industry, nanotechnology used in new material industry and nanotechnology used in electronic industry. Hierarchy of any two technology‐fields can be found out in the dendrogram view of the top 33 technology‐fields.

Originality/value

This paper could be of great significance to China's S&T managers and related policy makers, especially in the area of nanotechnology, in selecting and managing generic technology and the findings in this paper can be applied in some other fields of science and technology management in China. Both technology‐fields correlation analysis and MDS and dendrogram view analysis could benefit China's policy makers in managing nanotechnology research and development activities.

Citation

Luan, C. and Wang, X. (2012), "Measuring and mapping technology‐fields correlation and its application on China's nanotechnology", Journal of Science and Technology Policy in China, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 210-225. https://doi.org/10.1108/17585521211268673