Spatial Pattern and Evolution of Global Innovation Network from 2000 to 2019: Global Patent Dataset Perspective

Abstract

In the era of the knowledge economy, the improvement of national innovation systems is playing a significant role in the global entrepreneurship ecosystem. Entrepreneurs are accelerating international intellectual property applications to be competitive. What remains to be explored is the evolution of international intellectual property network in the globe. With the application of social network analysis and intellectual property application database, the global innovation network structure from 2000 to 2019 is explored. Results showed that (1) in the period 2000–2019, the global innovation network has been expanding rapidly from a sparse network to a dense and complex one. (2) Patent application is unevenly distributed in the globe. Countries such as the US, China, and Canada have been the top countries flowing in, while Japan, Korea, EU, and Switzerland have been the main countries flowing out. (3) Global innovation network shows an obvious “core-periphery” pattern. The distribution pattern presents a quadrilateral structure with the four core regions of “US, Japan, EU, and China” as the apex. This analysis contributes to the visualization of the global layout of intellectual property and the evolution trend by analyzing intellectual property application networks. This can provide important experience reference for enterprises to study the global entrepreneurship ecosystem.