Patent strategy in the digital transformation era

The digital transformation and big data paradigms have expanded across many research fields, including both strategy and innovation. Although existing research attempts to keep up with the pace of these phenomena, more in-depth knowledge of how patent big data can help firms and managers in their decision-making process is still needed. Based on patent co-classification analysis, this paper aims to provide two different but complementary patent tools; the first exploits ex-ante patent information whereas the latter integrates it with ex-post details extracted by patent documents. We further investigate the technology positioning and links as well as examine the industry’s «excellence» technology structure conceived as the combination of the technology elements that has yielded high-impactful inventions

Smart Grid Domain: technology structure and innovation trends

Smart grids are an impactful emerging technology in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field. Different from prior research, the present study aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the smart grid domain by disentangling the technology structure, depicting the technology landscape, identifying the innovation trends, and highlighting the major players. Specifically, using a patent co-classification analysis and examining the U.S. patents granted from 2010 to 2017, we identified three different technology structures: (1) core structure, (2) supportive structure, and (3) complementary structure. The last two can be conceived as layers that encompass on and gravitate around the core technology of the smart grid. The framework provided can offer insights into a deeper understanding of entry dynamics and standards emergence

Technology Emergence as a Structuring Process:A Complexity Theory Perspective on Blockchain

Drawing on complexity theory, we investigate the structuring processes and underlying mechanisms underpinning the emergence of a new technology. Empirically, we track the emergence of blockchain technology by examining international patents issued between 2009 and 2020. Our results indicate that technology emergence follows an evolutionary trajectory that progresses from disordered to structured interactions among the technological elements, culminating in the formation of a technological core that acts as a pole of attraction for further interactions and delineates boundaries within the technological domain. Technology structuring is fueled by what we term “technology fitness” and “self-reinforcing” mechanisms that progressively transform primitive structures into more complex, self-organized configurations. Our study offers a novel framework of technology emergence, highlighting how dispersed bits of technological knowledge gradually aggregate into complex structures that define the specific trajectory of a particular domain

Measuring Innovation Quality: A Patent Analysis

Patents have been widely used in innovation literature as a reliable and meaningful measure of innovation performance. However, existing research has mostly used the mere number of patents as a rough indicator of innovation success, lacking to provide insights on innovation quality. Additionally, less is known about how firms are grouped in highly competitive markets and which are the strategies adopted in their inventive activities. To better understand these dynamics, this paper aims to investigate the innovation quality of firms operating in a high-tech industry employing multiple patent-based indicators. Explorative findings on patent strategies as well as patent trends are discussed

Identities of a peri-urban habitat : The potential for agricultural cluster development in Tirana

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility, Prague, 13-16th July, 2015As often the case with the newly formed peri-urban areas in the outskirts of expanding cities, the territories that surround Tirana face the pressure of converting agricultural fields into urbanized land, resulting in identity loss, environmental deterioration, and high unemployment companioned by poverty and ultimately a low quality of life. Besides the challenges, the proximity to the capital city provides also advantages, such as economies of scale and scope deriving from the agglomeration of the activities, good access to labor force, market, infrastructure, as well as educational and research facilities, constituting therefore the basics for cluster development. This paper explores the evolution and present state of one of the first environments, in sequence, encountered by the visitors approaching the capital of Albania, Tirana. Once a carefully planned agricultural landscape, today it’s a hybrid urban-rural spatial continuum, a peri-urban habitat searching for a proper identity. We will try to elaborate on the potential of the area to host cluster development, with a specific attention paid to agricultural clusters that would have an important effect not only to its economic performance but also on the preservation of the territory and landscape.Published Versio

Technology Emergence as a Structuring Process:A Complexity Theory Perspective on Blockchain

Drawing on complexity theory, we investigate the structuring processes and underlying mechanisms underpinning the emergence of a new technology. Empirically, we track the emergence of blockchain technology by examining international patents issued between 2009 and 2020. Our results indicate that technology emergence follows an evolutionary trajectory that progresses from disordered to structured interactions among the technological elements, culminating in the formation of a technological core that acts as a pole of attraction for further interactions and delineates boundaries within the technological domain. Technology structuring is fueled by what we term “technology fitness” and “self-reinforcing” mechanisms that progressively transform primitive structures into more complex, self-organized configurations. Our study offers a novel framework of technology emergence, highlighting how dispersed bits of technological knowledge gradually aggregate into complex structures that define the specific trajectory of a particular domain

Proof-of-concept canvas: how to turn a blurry idea into a real-life application

Proof-of-concept (PoC) projects are significantly driven by the awareness that a technological concept is potentially feasible. As PoC runs, this awareness should be transformed into practical knowledge to inform PoC final decision. This paper aims to explore how PoC moves from awareness to practical knowledge by examining the main PoC activities, challenges, and knowledge features. We take a qualitative approach, performing a case study of a design-led technological studio. The research consists of two stages, with the first employing participatory observations to conceptualize the PoC process and the second stage relying on expertise-sharing through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Our findings show that PoC goes through a set of specific stages and related steps that helps to cross Value and Expectations Chasms. As PoC runs and chasms are crossed, the initial situational awareness is fed by need, market, and technology awareness, transforms into informed awareness, and finally grows into practical knowledge. A conceptual framework presenting this complex process is developed. This pioneering research contributes to the technology innovation literature by comprehensively exploring PoC activities and offering a first fine-grained PoC canvas on PoC activities while moving from awareness to practical knowledge