Predicting Technical Value Of Technologies Through Their Knowledge Structure

This thesis tests the hypothesis that the characteristics displayed by the knowledge structure of a high technical value invention is different from that of a low technical value invention. The knowledge structure crystalizes at the inception of the invention making it ideal for evaluating new inventions. More specifically, this research investigates two characteristics of the knowledge structure: knowledge accumulation and knowledge appropriation. Knowledge accumulation is defined as the collective body of knowledge gathered in a sector over time that has contributed to the creation of the invention. A higher degree of accumulated knowledge is more likely to be associated with high technical value inventions. Knowledge appropriation describes absorption of knowledge in the creation of the invention. From knowledge structure perspective knowledge absorption is observed by the emergence of edges that connect knowledge elements together. The robustness of this emergent knowledge structure is thus an indicator of the amount of knowledge appropriated by the invention. This research introduces a new metric for the measurement of knowledge accumulation and presents structural robustness as an indicator of knowledge appropriation. Knowledge accumulation and knowledge appropriation are hypothesized to be positively correlated with the technical value of the invention. This research tests the hypotheses by examining the citation networks of patents in four sectors: thin film photovoltaics, inductive vibration energy harvesting, piezoelectric energy harvesting, and carbon nanotubes. In total 152 base inventions and over 4000 patents are investigated. This research shows that knowledge accumulation is a significant predictor of the technical value of an invention and that high value inventions show a higher level of knowledge appropriation

Forging Ahead : Technology Development & Emerging Economies

Against the pressing challenge of climate change, solar photovoltaic technology is widely considered as a clean and renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Landscaping the development of solar technology worldwide, the case of China is prominent, as it experienced a successful catching-up and a dramatic growth in production, deployment, and development of solar modules over the past few years. This dissertation takes you on a magic carpet ride through the technological innovation system of photovoltaics in China. Through the pages of this book, you will be introduced to the technical components of the solar technology. You will track the development stages of the innovation system in China, meet the main actors, get to know their capabilities, specialization profiles, and interactions. Additionally, you will see how their knowledge networks evolve over time. The dissertation further tells the story of political economy, solar wars, and the role of governmental policies in shaping the present status of the global system and protecting the environment

Text mining-based patent analysis of BIM application in construction

As a data tool applicable to the full life-cycle of construction engineering and management, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has great potential for significantly increasing project productivity and performance. Awareness of BIM application hotspots and forecasting its trends can drive innovations in construction field. Using patents as data resources, this study develops an effective framework integrating the citation network analysis and the topic clustering technology to identify BIM application information and forecast its trends. This framework comprises three-step analysis:(1) quantitative characteristic analysis of patent outputs; (2) Social Network Analysis (SNA)-based co-occurrence network analysis; and (3) identification of BIM topics using a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Finally, the case demonstrates the effectiveness of this framework contributing to promote technological development and innovation of BIM. The contributions of this study are threefold: (1) an innovative text mining-based framework for BIM patent analysis in construction is developed; (2) patents that have focused on identifying the application hotspots and development trend of BIM in accordance with our developed framework are reviewed; and (3) a signpost for technological development and innovation of BIM is provided

Indirect ties in knowledge networks:a social network analysis with ordered weighted averaging operators

This PhD thesis analyses networks of knowledge flows, focusing on the role of indirect ties in the knowledge transfer, knowledge accumulation and knowledge creation process. It extends and improves existing methods for mapping networks of knowledge flows in two different applications and contributes to two stream of research. To support the underlying idea of this thesis, which is finding an alternative method to rank indirect network ties to shed a new light on the dynamics of knowledge transfer, we apply Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) to two different network contexts. Knowledge flows in patent citation networks and a company supply chain network are analysed using Social Network Analysis (SNA) and the OWA operator. The OWA is used here for the first time (i) to rank indirect citations in patent networks, providing new insight into their role in transferring knowledge among network nodes; and to analyse a long chain of patent generations along 13 years; (ii) to rank indirect relations in a company supply chain network, to shed light on the role of indirectly connected individuals involved in the knowledge transfer and creation processes and to contribute to the literature on knowledge management in a supply chain. In doing so, indirect ties are measured and their role as means of knowledge transfer is shown. Thus, this thesis represents a first attempt to bridge the OWA and SNA fields and to show that the two methods can be used together to enrich the understanding of the role of indirectly connected nodes in a network. More specifically, the OWA scores enrich our understanding of knowledge evolution over time within complex networks. Future research can show the usefulness of OWA operator in different complex networks, such as the on-line social networks that consists of thousand of nodes

Text mining techniques for patent analysis.

Abstract Patent documents contain important research results. However, they are lengthy and rich in technical terminology such that it takes a lot of human efforts for analyses. Automatic tools for assisting patent engineers or decision makers in patent analysis are in great demand. This paper describes a series of text mining techniques that conforms to the analytical process used by patent analysts. These techniques include text segmentation, summary extraction, feature selection, term association, cluster generation, topic identification, and information mapping. The issues of efficiency and effectiveness are considered in the design of these techniques. Some important features of the proposed methodology include a rigorous approach to verify the usefulness of segment extracts as the document surrogates, a corpus-and dictionary-free algorithm for keyphrase extraction, an efficient co-word analysis method that can be applied to large volume of patents, and an automatic procedure to create generic cluster titles for ease of result interpretation. Evaluation of these techniques was conducted. The results confirm that the machine-generated summaries do preserve more important content words than some other sections for classification. To demonstrate the feasibility, the proposed methodology was applied to a realworld patent set for domain analysis and mapping, which shows that our approach is more effective than existing classification systems. The attempt in this paper to automate the whole process not only helps create final patent maps for topic analyses, but also facilitates or improves other patent analysis tasks such as patent classification, organization, knowledge sharing, and prior art searches

Dynamics in Science-Based Markets: Two Phases of Development

This thesis analyzes the development of science-based (SB) technologies. In general, technology evolution is influenced by different factors. There are two different development phases in the SB technology cycle. The first phase is denoted as the science-push and the second as the demand-pull phase. Most studies dealing with the evolution of SB technologies are of rather descriptive nature. The aim of this thesis is the identification and quantification of the differences in the two phases

The impact of printed electronics on product design

Printed electronics (PE) is a disruptive but growing technology that is beginning to integrate its way into viable applications for product design. However, the potential for future impact of the technology on product design and the designer s role and contribution to this has yet to be established. Interest is increasing in the potential for product designers to explore and exploit this technology. Technologies can be seen as being disruptive from both a business, and an adoption point of view. For a business, changing from one technology to another or incorporating a new technology and its production processes can be difficult if they already have their suppliers established and existing relationships in place. Understanding and adopting a new technology can be challenging for a business and individuals working within an established industry as it can cause many questions to be raised around its performance, and direct comparison with the technology they already have in place. However, there have been many technologies that could be seen as disruptive in the past, as they offered an alternative way of working or method of manufacture, such as Bluetooth, 3D printing, and automation (manufacturing/assembly/finishing), etc., and their success has been dictated by individual s perception and adoption of the technology, with their ability to see the worth and potential in the technology. Cost comparison is also an important aspect for a business to consider when choosing whether to change to a new technology or to remain with their existing technology, as changing can disrupt the manufacturing line assembly of a product, and direct cost comparisons of components themselves, such as the cost of buying silicon components in bulk verses printing the components. The new technology needs to offer something different to a product to be worth implementing it in a product, such as its flexible form or lightweight properties of printed electronics being of benefit to the product over what a silicon electronic component/circuit could offer (restricted to rigid circuit boards), the functionality/performance of the components themselves also need to be considered. Performance, availability and maturity of the technology are some of the essential aspects to consider when incorporating a new technology into a product and these can be evaluated using a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale. Interest in the stage of development for a technology lies not only with designers; industry and academia also contribute to knowledge by playing a central role in the process of determining a TRL scale that is universally recognised. However, a TRL separation issue occurs between academia (often the technology only reaching an experimental proof of concept stage, a lower number on the TRL scale indicating that the technology is at an early stage of development) and industry (not considering technology for commercialisation until it reaches a stage where there is a demonstration of pre-production capability validated on economic runs, a much higher number on the TRL scale - indicating that the technology is at a much more advanced stage of development). The aim of this doctoral research was to explore the contribution of PE to product design. The researcher experienced the scientific development of the technology first-hand, and undertook a literature review that covered three main topics: 1) printed electronics (the technology itself), 2) impact (approaches to assessing impact and methods of judging new technology) because together they will identify the state of the art of printed electronics technology, and 3) education - educational theories/methods for designers - studying how designers learn, explore different methods in educating them about new technologies, and start to find appropriate methods for educating them about printed electronics technology. A knowledge framework for PE technology was generated and utilised to produce a taxonomy and TRL scale for PE and confirmed by PE expert interview. Existing case studies in which PE technology had been presented to student designers were investigated through interviews with participants from academia and industry to solicit perception and opinions on approaches for the effective communication of PE knowledge to student designers within an educational environment. The findings were interpreted using thematic analysis and, after comparing the data, three main themes identified: technical constraints, designer s perspective, and what a designer is required to do. The findings from the research were combined to create an educational approach for knowledge transfer aimed specifically at meeting the needs of product designers. This resulted in the need for PE technology to be translated into both a visual and written format to create structure and direct links between the technological elements and their form and function in order to facilitate understanding by designers. Conclusions from the research indicate that the translation of this technology into an appropriate design language will equip designers with accessible fundamental knowledge on PE technology (i.e. electrical components: form, function, and area of the technology), which will allow informed decisions to be made about how PE can be used and to utilise its benefits in the design of products. The capabilities and properties of this technology, when paired with product design practice, has the capacity to transform the designs of future products in terms of form/functionality and prevailing/views towards design approaches with electronics. If exposed to a variety of PE elements ranging across different TRLs, designers have the capacity to bridge the TRL separation issue (the gap between academia and industry) through their ability to create design solutions for an end user and provide a commercial application for the technology

The combination of the disciplines of Techmining and semantic TRIZ for better and faster analyzing technology evolution

Tesis por compendioThe purpose of the present thesis is to explore and to demonstrate how the combination of two methodological approaches, text mining plus the systemic vision of TRIZ empowered by semantics, can bring a larger and more comprehensive analysis of the evolution of a technology. Both approaches had been not combined before the first of the four papers constituents of the present thesis based in a compendium of publications. However, this combination applied to the evolution of technologies is increasingly being published in the scientific literature. Such combination shows a second benefit in the form of an improvement in accessing and connecting knowledge from disparate scientific literatures in a systematic manner. The common element in all these papers is the use of the technology mining approach, 'techmining', the application of text mining techniques based on technology management knowledge, combined with the use of semantic TRIZ, the advantage of syntactic applied to the systemic vision of TRIZ. These papers show that a better analysis of evolving technologies, e.g. by profiling technologies from a systemic point of view or, a better access to knowledge, e.g. by semantically connecting concepts with meaning, can be achieved. The research on applying the combination of these approaches to scientific and technological information analysis explores the advantages and new possibilities for technology trends assessment as well as the semantic connection of concepts which represents a change in the way information research can be done. The different applications of the aforementioned combination are explored by means of the here presented articles. The structure followed in this research is the collection of three papers published in international academic journals indexed in the most prestigious databases and one chapter in a proceedings book of an international congress. The attached articles show the research undertaken to demonstrate the aforementioned benefits of the proposed combination. Despite it can be found many methods and approaches about the assessment of the evolution of technologies, distributed across the literature, there is still a need to better understand which technologies may emerge, which may evolve faster and at what pace can they reach the market. The combination of the techmining approach and the semantic TRIZ approaches allows understanding the trends enriched with a systemic vision of the links, functions, and influences of constituent and enabling elements of a technology. Such systemic link of elements with its components and ecosystem also allows for a multi-dimensional view of a technology and further reduces the uncertainty to preview the progress of a technology. The papers presented in this dissertation are based on the combination of the TRIZ methodology, the techmining approach and the semantic TRIZ approach, applied to different technologies in different domains, to proof the advantages and implications of the combination. The articles try the different interactions of the combined approaches, applied to the assessment of different technologies, such as lithium batteries for the electric car, a medical case linked to a disease known as Meniére's Disease, the prognosis of prostate cancer, and the usage of probiotics as substitutes of antibiotics in the animal health. The wide range of technologies was selected to show the clear benefits of either combining the two approaches or applying predominantly one of them in the case of the Meniére's disease article. That difference in the nature of technologies also helped to better understand the systemic point of view of the technology, exploring new applications based on the general system theory from Bertalanffy as well as other related approaches about technologies.El propósito de la presente tesis es la exploración y la demostración de la combinación de dos enfoques metodológicos, la minería de textos y la visión sistémica de TRIZ reforzada con la semántica, pueden aportar un mayor y mas exhaustivo análisis de la evolución de una tecnología. Ambos enfoques no habían sido combinados antes del primero de los cuatro artículos que representan esta tesis por compendio de publicaciones, aunque dicha combinación ha sido crecientemente publicada en la literatura científica, para multiples propósitos desde entonces. Un segundo aporte proporcionado por esta combinación es la mejora de la capacidad de acceso al conocimiento y cómo ello supone un avance para el descubrimiento a través de literaturas no relacionadas "disparate literature discovery" de una forma metódica y científica. El elemento común en los artículos aquí presentados es el aprovechamiento de techmining, esto es, la minería de textos con base en la gestión tecnológica, por ejemplo mediante el perfilado de tecnologías, junto al enfoque de la metodología TRIZ potenciada por el análisis sintáctico y semántico, esto es, mediante la conexión semántica de conceptos, para un análisis más completo de la evolución tecnológica, proporcionando al mismo tiempo un acceso más racional al conocimiento. La investigación sobre la aplicación de la citada combinación al análisis de información científica y tecnológica explora las ventajas y nuevas posibilidades en la evaluación del avance de la tecnología, así como la conexión semántica de conceptos que representa nuevas posibilidades en la forma en que la investigación textual puede hacerse. La estructura de la investigación aquí presentada se muestra a través de los artículos publicados en revistas internacionales de alto impacto y el capítulo de los 'proceedings' de un congreso internacional. Dichos artículos muestran la investigación llevada a cabo para demostrar los beneficios mencionados de la combinación propuesta. A pesar de la gran actividad de investigación y de la existencia de varios enfoques para la prospectiva y la previsión tecnológica presentes en la literatura científica, existe aún la necesidad de entender qué tecnologías pueden emerger, pueden evolucionar más rápido y a qué velocidad pueden llegar al mercado. La combinación de los enfoques de minería tecnológica o techmining y TRIZ semántico permite entender las tendencias de una tecnología dada, enriquecida con una visión de su sistémica, y teniendo en cuenta las conexiones de sus elementos y las influencias de sus elementos constituyentes. Tal conexión entre los components y su entorno permite una vision multidimensional de la tecnología reduciendo más aún la incertidumbre en la previsión de la evolución de una tecnología. Los artículos presentados en esta tesis son aplicaciones y exploraciones de la combinación de mencionada, a diferentes tecnologías de diversos ámbitos muy dispares entre sí, con el fin de demostrar sus ventajas e implicaciones. Los artículos tratan las diferentes interacciones entre ambos enfoques de trabajo, aplicados a tecnologías como baterías de litio para los vehículos eléctricos, un caso médico ligado a una dolencia como el síndrome de Méniere, a la prognosis del cáncer de próstata y al uso de probióticos en la alimentación animal como sustitución de los antibióticos. Este amplio rango de tecnologías han sido seleccionados para mostrar las ventajas, de forma más objetiva, de la combinación de ambos enfoques o con predominancia de alguno en particular, como es el caso del artículo explorando el síndrome de Méniere. Estas exploraciones permiten también entender mejor el punto de vista sistémico de una tecnología, descubriendo nuevas aplicaciones basadas en la teoría general de sistemas de Bertalanffy así como en otros enfoques relacionados.El propòsit de la present tesi és l'exploració i la demostració de la combinació de dos enfocaments metodològics, la minería de textes i la visió sistémica de TRIZ, reforçada amb la sintáctica i la semántica, mostrant que poden oferir un abast més gran i més holístic en l'enteniment de l'evolució d'una tecnología. Tots dos enfocaments no habían estat combinats abans del primer article dels quatre que composen aquesta tesi, però creixentment combinat dins la literatura científica per a múltiples propostes des de la primera publicació. Una segona aportació proporcionada per aquesta combinació és la millora de la capacitat d'accés al coneixement, i de com això suposa un avanç en l'àrea de recerca a traves de literatures no relacionades "disparate literature discovery" d'una forma metòdica i científica. L'element comú en els articles presentats en aquesta tesi és l'aprofitament de la mineria de textos amb base en la gestió tecnològica, 'techmining', per exemple mitjançant el perfilat de tecnologies, al costat de l'enfocament de la metodologia TRIZ potenciada per l'anàlisi sintàctica i semàntica, mitjançant la conexión semántica de conceptes, per assolir un anàlisi més complet de l'evolució tecnològica, així com per a garantir un accés més racional al coneixement. La investigació de l'aplicació de la combinació dels dos enfocaments a l'anàlisi d'informació científica i tecnològica realizat, exploren els avantatges i noves possibilitats en l'avaluació de l'avanç de tecnologies, així com la conexión de conceptes uqe representa noves possibilitats en la forma en què la investigació textual pot fer-se. L'estructura de la investigació ací presentada es mostra a través dels articles publicats i el capítol dels 'proceedings' d'un congrés internacional. Aquests articles mostren la investigació duta a terme per demostrar els beneficis esmentats. Tot i la gran activitat de recerca i enfocaments per a la prospectiva i la previsió tecnològica existents a la literatura científica, existeix encara la necessitat d'entendre quines tecnologies poden emergir, poden evolucionar més ràpid i a quina velocitat poden arribar al mercat. La combinació dels enfocaments de mineria tecnològica o 'techmining' i TRIZ semàntic permet entendre les tendències d'una tecnologia donada, amb una visió del seu sistema, les connexions dels seus elements i les influències dels elements constituents. Els articles presentats en aquesta tesi són aplicacions i exploracions de la combinació de la metodologia TRIZ, la seva potenciació mitjançant la semàntica i el techmining a diferents tecnologies de diversos àmbits, alguns molt dispars entre si, per tal de demostrar les seves avantatges i implicacions. Els articles tracten les diferents interaccions entre els dos enfocaments de treball, aplicats a tecnologies com bateries de liti per als vehicles elèctrics, un cas mèdic lligat a una malaltia com la síndrome de Ménière, a la prognosi del càncer de pròstata i en alimentació, a l'ús de probiòtics en l'alimentació animal com a substitució dels antibiòtics. Aquest ampli rang de tecnologies han estat seleccionats per mostrar els avantatges de forma més objectiva, de la combinació de tots dos enfocaments o amb predominança d'algun en particular, com és el cas de l'article explorant la síndrome de Ménière. Aquestes exploracions permeten també entendre millor el punt de vista sistèmic d'una tecnologia, descobrint noves aplicacions amb base en la teoria general de sistemes de Bertalanffy així com altres treballs relacionats.Vicente Gomila, JM. (2017). The combination of the disciplines of Techmining and semantic TRIZ for better and faster analyzing technology evolution [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/89088TESISCompendi

Knowledge dynamics and technological change: trajectories, networks and policies

Diese Dissertationsschrift untersucht die Prozesse der Entstehung neuen Wissens und des Wissensaustausches. Neues Wissen und die Übertragung in neue Technologien oder die Verbesserung von bestehenden ist ein wesentlicher Treiber wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung. Das bisherige Verständnis über technologischen Wandel und die Rolle, die Wissensgenerierung und Wissensaustausch in diesem Prozess einnimmt, ist jedoch nicht hinreichend ausgeprägt. Bei technologischem Wandel und der Entstehung neuem Wissens wirken dynamische Prozesse und Mechanismen auf der Mikro-Ebene, die nicht-linear, akkumulativ und unter Unsicherheit ablaufen. Dabei sind heterogene Akteure und ihre Interaktionen im Innovationsprozess von zentraler Bedeutung. Akteure verfügen über unterschiedliches Wissen, welches sie in die Generierung neuen Wissens einbringen und untereinander austauschen. Daraus entstehen neue Erkenntnisse und Lösungsansätze die technologischen Wandel fördern und dadurch zu wirtschaftlichem Wachstum führen können. Am Beispiel zwei erneuerbarer Energietechnologien wird in den fünf Hauptkapiteln der Dissertation mittels Patent- und Publikationsdaten empirisch aufgezeigt, wie sich die Wissensgenerierung innerhalb von Trajektorien über die Zeit verändert, wie Politikmaßnahmen auf Netzwerke des Wissensaustausches wirken und welche Probleme bei der Analyse solcher Zusammenhänge mittels Patentdaten bestehen. Die Ergebnisse tragen maßgeblich zur ökonomischen Theoriebildung bei und lassen sich in konkrete politische Handlungsempfehlungen überführen, insbesondere zur Weiterentwicklung umweltfreundlicher Technologien, zur Vermeidung des Klimawandels und für nachhaltiges Wachstum