Technology networks: the autocatalytic origins of innovation.

ABSTRACT: We analyse the autocatalytic structure of technological networks and evaluate its significance for the dynamics of innovation patenting. To this aim, we define a directed network of technological fields based on the International Patents Classification, in which a source node is connected to a receiver node via a link if patenting activity in the source field anticipates patents in the receiver field in the same region more frequently than we would expect at random. We show that the evolution of the technology network is compatible with the presence of a growing autocatalytic structure, i.e. a portion of the network in which technological fields mutually benefit from being connected to one another. We further show that technological fields in the core of the autocatalytic set display great

SUBMITTER: Napolitano L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6030307 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature