Network variations using patent citation network analysis

What is it about?

How do national factors intersect in network formation in different emerging sectors? Scholars have focused on these regarding networking phenomena: the effects of national and sectoral factors. In spite of their theoretical contributions, attempts have been neglected in identifying and/or linking the factors from both national and sectoral innovation systems within the networks. This paper examines the cross-country differences within a sector, and the cross-sectoral differences within a country, as the consequences of sectoral–national intersections. Longitudinal patent citation networks in two emerging sectors, the hydrogen energy sector and nano-tech sector have been analysed for a time period from 2004 to 2012, in four diverse developed countries. The results convey that the two sectors demonstrate significantly varied networking activities, notably influenced by national capability orientations. On the other hand, cross-country differences in networking activities are also varied by technological path dependence.

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Why is it important?

This work intends to investigate the relationships between national and sectoral factors in knowledge network formation. We discover empirical evidence by deliberately choosing cases from the hydrogen energy and nano-tech sectors in four developed countries. These two sectors are in their infancies, and strongly depend on R&D. This leads us to assume that they may share some aspects in their patterns of networking. Notably, we explicitly focus on the national capability orientations, which may either amplify or constrain the divergences between different sectors. On the other hand, we also paid attention to the path dependence of the sectoral innovation system, which either amplify or constrain the degrees of difference between countries. We may call these inter-related and competing propensities as sectoral–national intersections. This work will narrow the literature gap between two disparate research strands, in analysing network formation in emerging sectors. First, we reveal cross-country and cross-sector differences as a form of intersection between national and sectoral systems with a focus on national capability orientations and technological path dependence. Second, we analyse how sectoral–national intersections take place from national capability orientation and technological path dependence perspectives. The result may be useful to policy-makers in choosing either country-oriented or specific sector-oriented strategies.