TY - UNPB
T1 - Patent Citations as Signals of Technical Interactions: The Case of a Turbofan Jet Engine
AU - Ruiz Pava, Guillermo Antonio
AU - Triulzi, Giorgio
AU - Magee, Chris
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The notions of knowledge flow and technological (or knowledge) relatedness is a common interpretation when researchers consider citations between patents belonging to different organizations, inventors, or technological domains. We borrow from the engineering design literature to introduce the concept of technical interactions (intended as flows of energy, matter, or information between components of a technology) to provide a microfoundation of one type of technological relatedness, and test it as a complementary interpretation of patent citations. We hypothesized that patent citations, besides social (i.e. relationships between inventors or organizations) and knowledge interactions (i.e. different forms of knowledge relatedness), could also signal technical interactions between components of a technology. We tested this idea and found supporting evidence using the design structure matrices (DSMs) data of the Pratt & Whitney PW4098 turbofan model, which contain information on flows of energy, information or matter between its components. We used a proven patent selection method and followed an empirical strategy to determine if citations contained information on technical interactions. We found that pairs of components with positive DSMs values also have a higher intensity of front-page citations between their patents. In addition, we found that a measure of technological relatedness between pairs of components mediates the relationship of technical interactions with citation intensity. This measure could be used as a proxy if the knowledge of technical interactions (DSMs) is absent and could be used to organize R&D activity among other applications.
AB - The notions of knowledge flow and technological (or knowledge) relatedness is a common interpretation when researchers consider citations between patents belonging to different organizations, inventors, or technological domains. We borrow from the engineering design literature to introduce the concept of technical interactions (intended as flows of energy, matter, or information between components of a technology) to provide a microfoundation of one type of technological relatedness, and test it as a complementary interpretation of patent citations. We hypothesized that patent citations, besides social (i.e. relationships between inventors or organizations) and knowledge interactions (i.e. different forms of knowledge relatedness), could also signal technical interactions between components of a technology. We tested this idea and found supporting evidence using the design structure matrices (DSMs) data of the Pratt & Whitney PW4098 turbofan model, which contain information on flows of energy, information or matter between its components. We used a proven patent selection method and followed an empirical strategy to determine if citations contained information on technical interactions. We found that pairs of components with positive DSMs values also have a higher intensity of front-page citations between their patents. In addition, we found that a measure of technological relatedness between pairs of components mediates the relationship of technical interactions with citation intensity. This measure could be used as a proxy if the knowledge of technical interactions (DSMs) is absent and could be used to organize R&D activity among other applications.
U2 - 10.2139/ssrn.4602700
DO - 10.2139/ssrn.4602700
M3 - Preprint
BT - Patent Citations as Signals of Technical Interactions: The Case of a Turbofan Jet Engine
ER -