Can technology life-cycles be indicated by diversity in patent classifications? The crucial role of variety

The Scientometric Measurement of Interdisciplinarity and Diversity in the Research Portfolios of Chinese Universities

Purpose

Interdisciplinarity is a hot topic in science and technology policy. However, the concept of interdisciplinarity is both abstract and complex, and therefore difficult to measure using a single indicator. A variety of metrics for measuring the diversity and interdisciplinarity of articles, journals, and fields have been proposed in the literature. In this article, we ask whether institutions can be ranked in terms of their (inter-)disciplinary diversity.

Design/methodology/approach

We developed a software application (interd_vb.exe) that outputs the values of relevant diversity indicators for any document set or network structure. The software is made available, free to the public, online. The indicators it considers include the advanced diversity indicators Rao-Stirling (RS) diversity and DIV*, as well as standard measures of diversity, such as the Gini coefficient, Shannon entropy, and the Simpson Index. As an empirical demonstration of how the application works, we compared the research portfolios of 42 “Double First-Class” Chinese universities across Web of Science Subject Categories (WCs).

Findings

The empirical results suggest that DIV* provides results that are more in line with one's intuitive impressions than RS, particularly when the results are based on sample-dependent disparity measures. Furthermore, the scores for diversity are more consistent when based on a global disparity matrix than on a local map.

Research limitations

“Interdisciplinarity” can be operationalized as bibliographic coupling among (sets of) documents with references to disciplines. At the institutional level, however, diversity may also indicate comprehensiveness. Unlike impact (e.g. citation), diversity and interdisciplinarity are context-specific and therefore provide a second dimension to the evaluation.

Policy or practical implications

Operationalization and quantification make it necessary for analysts to make their choices and options clear. Although the equations used to calculate diversity are often mathematically transparent, the specification in terms of computer code helps the analyst to further precision in decisions. Although diversity is not necessarily a goal of universities, a high diversity score may inform potential policies concerning interdisciplinarity at the university level.

Originality/value

This article introduces a non-commercial online application to the public domain that allows researchers and policy analysts to measure “diversity” and “interdisciplinarity” using the various indicators as encompassing as possible for any document set or network structure (e.g. a network of co-authors). Insofar as we know, such a professional computing tool for evaluating data sets using diversity indicators has not yet been made available online.

Betweenness and diversity in journal citation networks as measures of interdisciplinarity-A tribute to Eugene Garfield

Journals were central to Eugene Garfield’s research interests. Among other things, journals are considered as units of analysis for bibliographic databases such as the Web of Science and Scopus. In addition to providing a basis for disciplinary classifications of journals, journal citation patterns span networks across boundaries to variable extents. Using betweenness centrality (BC) and diversity, we elaborate on the question of how to distinguish and rank journals in terms of interdisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity, however, is difficult to operationalize in the absence of an operational definition of disciplines; the diversity of a unit of analysis is sample-dependent. BC can be considered as a measure of multi-disciplinarity. Diversity of co-citation in a citing document has been considered as an indicator of knowledge integration, but an author can also generate trans-disciplinary—that is, non-disciplined—variation by citing sources from other disciplines. Diversity in the bibliographic coupling among citing documents can analogously be considered as diffusion  or differentiation of knowledge across disciplines. Because the citation networks in the cited direction reflect both structure and variation, diversity in this direction is perhaps the best available measure of interdisciplinarity at the journal level. Furthermore, diversity is based on a summation and can therefore be decomposed; differences among (sub)sets can be tested for statistical significance. In the appendix, a general-purpose routine for measuring diversity in networks is provided.

Gauging a Firm’s Innovative Performance Using an Integrated Structural Index for Patents

Purpose

In this contribution we try to find new indicators to measure characteristics of a firm’s patents and their influence on a company’s profits.

Design/methodology/approach

We realize that patent evaluation and influence on a company’s profits is a complicated issue requiring different perspectives. For this reason we design two types of structural h-indices, derived from the International Patent Classification (IPC). In a case study we apply not only basic statistics but also a nested case-control methodology.

Findings

The resulting indicator values based on a large dataset (19,080 patents in total) from the pharmaceutical industry show that the new structural indices are significantly correlated with a firm’s profits.

Research limitations

The new structural index and the synthetic structural index have just been applied in one case study in the pharmaceutical industry.

Practical implications

Our study suggests useful implications for patentometric studies and leads to suggestions for different sized firms to include a healthy research and development (R&D) policy management. The structural h-index can be used to gauge the profits resulting from the innovative performance of a firm’s patent portfolio.

Originality/value

Traditionally, the breadth and depth of patents of a firm and their citations are considered separately. This approach, however, does not provide an integrated insight in the major characteristics of a firm’s patents. The Sh (Y) index, proposed in our investigation, can reflect a firm’s innovation activities, its technological breadth, and its influence in an integrated way.

Understanding the Dynamic Convergence Phenomenon from the Perspective of Diversity and Persistence: A Cross-Sector Comparative Analysis between the United States and South Korea

This study was designed to improve the explanation for the behavior of the phenomenon of technology convergence. The concepts and measurements of diversity and persistence, as inherent attributes of the phenomenon, were elaborated by reviewing different theories. Diversity was examined by analyzing the degree of capability to absorb heterogeneous technologies, while persistence was investigated by analyzing the degree of continuity in the usage of cumulated technologies. With these two dimensions, an analytic framework was proposed to compare the differences and dynamic patterns of convergence competence by countries at the technology sector level. Three major technology sectors in the United States and South Korea, namely, information and communication technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, were explored to explicitly illustrate the differences in technology convergence competence. The results show that although Korea has narrowed the differences of capabilities for technology convergence compared to the US, Korea not only has to continuously pursue the improvement of specialization for all three sectors, but also has to encourage the exploitation of different technology fields. The suggested framework and indicators allow for monitoring of the dynamic patterns of a technology sector and identifying the sources of the gaps. Thus, the framework and indicators are able to ensure the purpose of government innovation policy and to provide strategic directions for redistributing the proper combination of sources to accomplish technology convergence.