Scientometrics

The aim of the paper is to show how the transition from the emergence of a technology to its development phase impacts the evolution of the structure of the collaboration network. In order to identify these first phases of the life cycle of the technology a method is developed based on the International Patent Classification. Using this method, we identify when a technology transitions from an emerging technology to a stage in which applications of the technology are found. We then compare the moment at which this transition occurs to the evolution of the collaboration network for the same technology and show that there is a significant change in the structure of the network when this transition occurs