Due to their pervasiveness and their business potential, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are currently attracting the largest investments by firms focusing on the development of nanotechnologies. However, firms present with a wide heterogeneity in the strategies they pursue to develop CNTs and graphene technologies, which is reflected both in the diversification degree of their nanotechnology-related patent portfolios and in the type of partnerships they establish with external actors (being other firms or universities) to promote technology development. Such an heterogeneity in firms’ behaviour and innovation outcomes may also mask a different ability (or intention) to promote nanotechnologies that present different levels of radicalness and that show a different potential to become basic building blocks of the nascent nanotechnology trajectory. Against this background, this paper analyses the nanotechnology-related competences currently possessed by the largest players in this field. For each patent possessed by firms, we explore how the probability to generate a radical knowledge recombination is affected by the diversity of knowledge bases on which such a patent has been built. We distinguish two main knowledge bases, the one linked to scientific knowledge (and assessed through non-patent references), and the other linked to technological knowledge (and assessed through patent references). We thus explore to what extent science and technology have contributed to technology development, and to what extent the diversity among firms’ patent portfolios is explained by a different ability to combine together different scientific and technological sources. Results show that firms are heterogeneous in their ability to recombine knowledge. Albeit there are no companies neglecting neither science nor technology, some of the top inventors tend to cite more science than technology (their trajectory is characterized by science-driven recombination), while others tend to prefer the alternative innovation pattern of technology-driven recombination. From these results we derive implications for both managers and policy makers.
The Interplay of Science and Technology in shaping the Patenting Activity of Top Companies in the Nanotech Industry
APPIO, FRANCESCO PAOLO;MARTINI, ANTONELLA
2015-01-01
Abstract
Due to their pervasiveness and their business potential, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are currently attracting the largest investments by firms focusing on the development of nanotechnologies. However, firms present with a wide heterogeneity in the strategies they pursue to develop CNTs and graphene technologies, which is reflected both in the diversification degree of their nanotechnology-related patent portfolios and in the type of partnerships they establish with external actors (being other firms or universities) to promote technology development. Such an heterogeneity in firms’ behaviour and innovation outcomes may also mask a different ability (or intention) to promote nanotechnologies that present different levels of radicalness and that show a different potential to become basic building blocks of the nascent nanotechnology trajectory. Against this background, this paper analyses the nanotechnology-related competences currently possessed by the largest players in this field. For each patent possessed by firms, we explore how the probability to generate a radical knowledge recombination is affected by the diversity of knowledge bases on which such a patent has been built. We distinguish two main knowledge bases, the one linked to scientific knowledge (and assessed through non-patent references), and the other linked to technological knowledge (and assessed through patent references). We thus explore to what extent science and technology have contributed to technology development, and to what extent the diversity among firms’ patent portfolios is explained by a different ability to combine together different scientific and technological sources. Results show that firms are heterogeneous in their ability to recombine knowledge. Albeit there are no companies neglecting neither science nor technology, some of the top inventors tend to cite more science than technology (their trajectory is characterized by science-driven recombination), while others tend to prefer the alternative innovation pattern of technology-driven recombination. From these results we derive implications for both managers and policy makers.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
