A patent-based method for monitoring the development of technological innovations based on knowledge diffusion
Journal of Knowledge Management
ISSN: 1367-3270
Article publication date: 20 April 2020
Issue publication date: 8 March 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the diffusion patterns of knowledge in inspiring technological innovations and to enable monitoring development trends of technological innovations based on patent data analysis, thus, to manage knowledge wisely to innovate.
Design/methodology/approach
The notion of knowledge innovation potential (KIP) is proposed to measure the innovativeness of knowledge by the cumulative number of patents originated from its inspiration. KIP calculating formula is regressed in forms of two specific diffusion models by conducting a series of empirical studies with the patent-based indicators involving forward and backward citation numbers to reveal knowledge managing strategies regarding innovative activities.
Findings
Two specific diffusion models for regressing KIP formula are compared by empirical studies with the result indicating the Gompertz model has higher accuracy than the Logistic model to describe the developing curve of technological innovations. Moreover, the analysis of patent-based indicators over diffusion stages also revealed that patents applied at earlier diffusion stages normally has higher forward citation numbers indicating higher innovativeness meanwhile the patents applied at the latter stages usually requiring more knowledge inflows observed by their larger non-patent citation and backward citation amounts.
Originality/value
Although there is a large body of literature concerning knowledge-based technological innovation, there still room for discussing the mechanism of how knowledge diffuses and inspired knowledge. To the best of authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to quantitate the innovativeness of knowledge in technological innovation from the knowledge diffusion perspective with findings to support rational knowledge management related to innovation activities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Corrigendum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article Liu, W., Tan, R., Li, Z., Cao, G. and Yu, F. (2020), “A patent-based method for monitoring the development of technological innovations based on knowledge diffusion”, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print, was missing a reference. This reference has now been updated and added to the online version. The authors sincerely apologise for this.
Citation
Liu, W., Tan, R., Li, Z., Cao, G. and Yu, F. (2021), "A patent-based method for monitoring the development of technological innovations based on knowledge diffusion", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 380-401. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-09-2019-0502
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited