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This study aims to analyse the relationship between a patent’s network position in a knowledge search network and the likelihood and speed of patent transactions. Additionally, it explores whether patent scope moderates these relationships.

In this empirical study, the authors collected a sample of patents in the artificial intelligence industry over the period of 1985–2018. Then, the authors examined the direct roles of degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality on the likelihood and speed of patent transactions and the moderating role of patent scope in the knowledge search network using the logit and accelerated failure time models.

The findings reveal that degree centrality positively affects both the likelihood and speed of patent transactions, while betweenness centrality enhances the likelihood, and closeness centrality significantly boosts both. However, regarding the speed of patent transactions, closeness centrality is the most impactful, followed by degree centrality, with no significant influence of betweenness centrality. Additionally, the patent scope moderates how betweenness centrality affects the likelihood of transactions.

This study has limitations owing to its exclusive use of data from the Chinese Intellectual Property Office, lack of visibility of the confidential terms of most patent transactions, omission of transaction directionality and focus on a single industry, potentially restricting the breadth and applicability of the findings. In the future, expanding the data set and industries and combining qualitative research methods may be considered to further explore the content of this study.

This study has practical implications for developing a better understanding of how network structure in the knowledge search network affects the likelihood and speed of patent transactions as well as the identification of high-value patents. These findings suggest future directions for patent holders and policymakers to manage and optimise patent portfolios.

This study expands the application boundaries of social network theory and the knowledge-based view by conducting an in-depth analysis of how the position characteristics of patents within the knowledge search network influence their potential and speed of transactions in the technology market. Moreover, it provides a theoretical reference for evaluating patent value and identifying high-quality patents by quantifying network positions. Furthermore, the authors construct three centrality measures and explore the development of patent transactions, particularly within the context of the developing country.

This empirical study aims to test the impact of four types of entrepreneurial context on the growth and success rates of new ventures in China and related the findings to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship dating back 2,500 years to ancient China.

After describing the business guidelines given by Fan Li, an entrepreneurial merchant selling Chinese medicines in ancient times, a conceptual framework was extracted as the basis for a discussion of the relationship between entrepreneurial context and entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurial context was conceptualized as being composed of family, social, business and institutional components. Five hypotheses about the influence of these different context variables on entrepreneurial activities were developed. From data compiled from the sampling of 239 business entrepreneurs in Beijing, a hierarchical regression was formed and the hypotheses tested.

The impact of entrepreneurial context on entrepreneurial activity can be divided into two layers, internal factors (e.g. family context) which are similar to “yin” (?) in the traditional Chinese philosophy while external factors (e.g. business, social and institutional contexts) were like “yang” (?). The two factors play different roles in entrepreneurial activities, while different contexts mediate and moderate each other in complex ways.

Research limitations pertain to the size and locale of the sample. A larger sample that involved subjects from different regions would facilitate a wider understanding of the effects of entrepreneurial context upon the entrepreneurial process.

The theory of entrepreneurial context is in its beginning stages, and the paper completed a systematic study of entrepreneurial context through theoretical model building using large-sample empirical research. In addition, the paper is the first ever to relate the theory and practice of entrepreneurship back 2,500 years. Through a multi-research methodology, the study clearly shows the critical importance of integrating Chinese history into the development of management theory.