Examining the small world phenomenon in the patent citation network: a case study of the radio frequency identification (RFID) network

Abstract

Despite strategic research has been done in recent years to study how network topology shapes the evolution of competition in various industries, previous researches do not investigate the importance of high betweenness point on the connectivity of patent citation networks. The goal of this report is to examine and characterize the small world phenomenon in the patent citations network by analyzing the data of RFID patents. The results suggest that the patent citation network can indeed be characterized as “small world”. Additionally, the patent citation network resembles the power-law connectivity distribution and exhibits preferential connectivity behavior. In other words, a few key patents have a great many more connections than the majority of patents with few connections. Furthermore, the patents of high betweenness centrality were identified. It is found that 81% of the patent citation activities have relations with the patents of high betweenness centrality. The result of this analysis will provide a specific way for managers to identify key patents, to map their own patent deployment and to derive insight into the best ways to navigate within such networks.