Mapping the importance of the real world: The validity of connectivity analysis of patent citations networks

Recent empirical findings have questioned the use of patent citations as a measure. This points to the need of validation of patent citations methodologies, which we address by testing a recent methodology for studying technological evolution, namely connectivity analysis of citation networks. We find connectivity analysis to be a valid tool to identify the reliable knowledge which opens the way to further technological evolution of a surgical prosthesis, the artificial spinal disc. We also illustrate how connectivity analysis represents how this reliable knowledge differs depending on the stage of technological evolution. The corroborated validity of connectivity analysis of patent citations may trigger a renaissance in the use of this kind of patent data.

[1]  J. Ziman.  Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process , 2003 .

[2]  Jeffrey C. Wang,et al.  Lumbar disc arthroplasty. , 2005, The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society.

[3]  F. Verzini,et al.  Device migration after endoluminal abdominal aortic aneurysm repair: analysis of 113 cases with a minimum follow-up period of 2 years. , 2002, Journal of vascular surgery.

[4]  R. Westrum.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems , 1989 .

[5]  G. Ferro-Luzzi.  On Evolutionary Epistemology , 1982, Current Anthropology.

[6]  S. L. Griffith,et al.  A Multicenter Retrospective Study of the Clinical Results of the LINK®SB CharitéA Intervertebral Prosthesis. The Initial European Experience , 1994, Spine.

[7]  Vladimir Batagelj,et al.  Efficient Algorithms for Citation Network Analysis , 2003, ArXiv.

[8]  Norman P. Hummon,et al.  Connectivity in a citation network: The development of DNA theory☆ , 1989 .

[9]  F. Geels.  Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study , 2002 .

[10]  H A Yuan,et al.  The artificial disc: theory, design and materials. , 1996, Biomaterials.

[11]  C. Petersilge,et al.  Lumbar disc replacement. , 2006, Seminars in musculoskeletal radiology.

[12]  E. von Hippel,et al.  Sources of Innovation , 2016 .

[13]  Douglas Allchin,et al.  Do We See through a Social Microscope?: Credibility as a Vicarious Selector , 1999, Philosophy of Science.

[14]  Rosemarie H. Ziedonis.  Don't Fence Me in: Fragmented Markets for Technology and the Patent Acquisition Strategies of Firms , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[15]  T. Hedman,et al.  Design of an Intervertebral Disc Prosthesis , 1991, Spine.

[16]  P. Saviotti.  Technological Evolution, Variety and the Economy , 1996 .

[17]  Walter Guido Vincenti,et al.  What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History by Walter G. Vincenti , 1992, Technology and Culture.

[18]  Bart Verspagen,et al.  Mapping Technological Trajectories as Patent citation Networks: a Study on the History of Fuel Cell Research , 2007, Adv. Complex Syst..

[19]  R. Swinburne,et al.  The Philosophy of Karl Popper , 1975 .

[20]  John Metcalfe,et al.  Mapping evolutionary trajectories: Applications to the growth and transformation of medical knowledge , 2007 .

[21]  Ghislaine M. Lawrence.  The social construction of technological systems: new directions in the sociology and history of technology , 1989, Medical History.

[22]  T. Friesem,et al.  Shock Absorption in Lumbar Disc Prosthesis: A Preliminary Mechanical Study , 2003, Journal of spinal disorders & techniques.

[23]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation , 1996 .

[24]  Koen Frenken,et al.  Toward a Systematic Framework for Research on Dominant Designs, Technological Innovations, and Industrial Change , 2005 .

[25]  M M Panjabi,et al.  Basic biomechanics of the spine. , 1980, Neurosurgery.

[26]  Rosemarie H. Ziedonis,et al.  The patent paradox revisited: an empirical study of patenting in the U , 2001 .

[27]  K. Sliwa,et al.  Kineflex (Centurion) Lumbar Disc Prosthesis: Insertion Technique and 2-Year Clinical Results in 100 Patients , 2007, SAS Journal.

[28]  Helmut D. Link,et al.  History, design and biomechanics of the LINK SB Charité artificial disc , 2002, European Spine Journal.

[29]  Edward Constant.  Recursive practice and the evolution of technological knowledge , 2000 .

[30]  W. Jacobs,et al.  Total disc replacement for chronic low back pain: background and a systematic review of the literature , 2003, European Spine Journal.

[31]  Karin Hoisl,et al.  Inventors and invention processes in Europe: Results from the PatVal-EU survey , 2007 .

[32]  P. McAfee,et al.  The Artificial Disc , 2003, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[33]  T. Dublin,et al.  Research policy , 2021, The Routledge Handbook of Gender and EU Politics.

[34]  W. Skalli,et al.  Intervertebral Disc Prosthesis: Results and Prospects for the Year 2000 , 1997, Clinical orthopaedics and related research.

[35]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  An Overview of Innovation , 2009 .

[36]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994, Structural analysis in the social sciences.

[37]  S. Wheelwright,et al.  The interaction of design hierarchies and market concepts in technological evolution * , 2003 .

[38]  C. Slipman,et al.  A historical review and current perspective on the intervertebral disc prosthesis. , 2003, Pain physician.

[39]  Davide Consoli,et al.  An evolutionary perspective on health innovation systems , 2009 .

[40]  Walter G. Vincenti,et al.  Real-world variation-selection in the evolution of technological form: historical examples , 2000 .

[41]  P. Baert.  Time in contemporary intellectual thought , 2000 .

[42]  D. Harhoff,et al.  Citation Frequency and the Value of Patented Innovation , 1997 .

[43]  Roberto Fontana,et al.  Mapping technological trajectories as patent citation networks. An application to data communication standards , 2009 .

[44]  John Metcalfe,et al.  Emergent innovation systems and the delivery of clinical services: The case of intra-ocular lenses , 2005 .

[45]  A NACHEMSON,et al.  Some mechanical properties of the lumbar intervertebral discs. , 1962, Bulletin of the Hospital for Joint Diseases.

[46]  Bart Verspagen,et al.  Patents, citations, and innovations , 2004 .

[47]  D. Ku,et al.  Biomechanical comparison between fusion of two vertebrae and implantation of an artificial intervertebral disc. , 2006, Journal of biomechanics.

[48]  Juan Alcacer,et al.  How Do I Know What You Know? Patent Examiners and the Generation of Patent Citations , 2004 .

[49]  S. Garfin,et al.  History and evolution of disc replacement. , 2004, The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society.

[50]  N. Langrana,et al.  A review of spinal fusion for degenerative disc disease: need for alternative treatment approach of disc arthroplasty? , 2004, The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society.

[51]  R. Fraser,et al.  AcroFlex design and results. , 2004, The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society.

[52]  H M Mayer,et al.  Total lumbar disc replacement. , 2005, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. British volume.

[53]  Rosemarie H. Ziedonis,et al.  Reprinted Article The patent paradox revisited: an empirical study of patenting in the U.S. semiconductor industry, 1979–1995 , 2009 .

[54]  Walter G. Vincenti,et al.  What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History. , 1992 .

[55]  W J VIRGIN,et al.  Experimental investigations into the physical properties of the intervertebral disc. , 1951, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. British volume.

[56]  F. Chiappelli,et al.  The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller.Carlo Ginzburg , 1981, Renaissance Quarterly.

[57]  T. Zdeblick,et al.  Design rationale and biomechanics of Maverick Total Disc arthroplasty with early clinical results. , 2004, The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society.

[58]  J. Revel.  Jeux d'échelles : la micro-analyse à l'expérience , 1996 .

[59]  M. Gittelman,et al.  Patent Citations as a Measure of Knowledge Flows: The Influence of Examiner Citations , 2006, The Review of Economics and Statistics.

[60]  Arianna Martinelli,et al.  TECHNOLOGICAL TRAJECTORIES AND INDUSTRY EVOLUTION: THE CASE OF TELECOM SWITCHING INDUSTRY , 2008 .

[61]  M. Trajtenberg.  A Penny for Your Quotes : Patent Citations and the Value of Innovations , 1990 .

[62]  Chapter 9 Real time and relative indeterminacy in economic theory , 2000 .

[63]  Neus Palomeras,et al.  Sleeping patents: any reason to wake up? , 2003 .

[64]  Raimar Richers.  The theory of economic development , 1961 .

[65]  M. Gittelman,et al.  Applicant and Examiner Citations in US Patents: An Overview and Analysis , 2008 .

[66]  N. Rosenberg,et al.  The dynamics of technological change in medicine. , 1994, Health affairs.

[67]  F. Oner,et al.  Complications of Artificial Disc Replacement: A Report of 27 Patients with the SB Charité Disc , 2003, Journal of spinal disorders & techniques.

[68]  I. Lieberman,et al.  Disc bulge bubble: spine economics 101. , 2004, The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society.

[69]  A J Moskowitz,et al.  Capturing the unexpected benefits of medical research. , 1998, The New England journal of medicine.

[70]  D. S. Bright,et al.  Replacement of intervertebral discs in chimpanzees by silicone-dacron implants: a preliminary report. , 1973, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[71]  C. Ames,et al.  Emerging directions in motion preservation spinal surgery. , 2005, Neurosurgery clinics of North America.

[72]  D. Harhoff,et al.  The Value of European Patents , 2008 .

[73]  Martin Meyer,et al.  What is Special about Patent Citations? Differences between Scientific and Patent Citations , 2000, Scientometrics.

[74]  B. Freeman,et al.  Total disc replacement in the lumbar spine: a systematic review of the literature , 2006, European Spine Journal.

[75]  W. Brian Arthur,et al.  The structure of invention , 2007 .

[76]  H A Yuan,et al.  Artificial disc technology. , 2000, Neurosurgical focus.

[77]  Thorsten Teichert,et al.  Inventive progress measured by multi-stage patent citation analysis , 2005 .

[78]  John Metcalfe,et al.  Knowledge of growth and the growth of knowledge , 2002 .

[79]  Robert Gunzburg,et al.  Spine arthroplasty: a historical review , 2002, European Spine Journal.

[80]  F. Postacchini,et al.  Results of Disc Prosthesis After a Minimum Follow‐Up Period of 2 Years , 1996, Spine.