Assessing coreness and intermediarity of technology sectors using patent co-classification analysis: the case of Korean national R&D

• Published in: Scientometrics Vol. 98; no. 2; pp. 853 - 890
• Main Authors: Park, Hyunseok, Yoon, Janghyeok
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.02.2014; Springer
• Subjects: Bibliometrics. Scientometrics; Bibliometrics. Scientometrics. Evaluation; Budgets; Classification; Computer Science; Exact sciences and technology; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Information Storage and Retrieval; Library and information science. General aspects; Library Science; Research and development; Sciences and techniques of general use; Analytic network process (ANP); C63; Social network analysis (SNA); National R&D investment; C82; Patent analysis; O32; Patents; Scientific research; Classification; Citation; Research and development
• ISSN: 0138-9130; 1588-2861
• DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1109-2

Rapid technological advancements and increasing research and development (R&D) costs are making it necessary for national R&D plans to identify the coreness and intermediarity of technologies in selecting projects and allocating budgets. Studies on the coreness or intermediarity of technology sectors have used patent citations, but there are limitations to dealing with patent data. The limitations arise from the most current patents and patents that do not require citations, e.g. Korean patents. Further, few or no studies have simultaneously considered both coreness and intermediarity. Therefore, we propose a patent co-classification based method to measure coreness and intermediarity of technology sectors by incorporating the analytic network process and the social network analysis. Using IPC co-classifications of patents as technological knowledge flows, this method constructs a network of directed knowledge flows among technology sectors and measures the long-term importance and the intermediating potential of each technology sector, despite the limitations of patent-based analyses. Considering both coreness and intermediarity, this method can provide more detailed and essential knowledge for decision making in planning national R&D. We demonstrated this method using Korean national R&D patents from 2008 to 2011. We expect that this method will help in planning national R&D in a rapidly evolving technological environment.