Abstract
The citation network is considered as a hotpot to investigate the knowledge-transfer evolution tendency. Aiming to research the technology development trace, an advanced analysis method is proposed in this paper. Data of the patents granted between 1976 and 2017 are collected from the website database of United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In order to determine the knowledge-transfer evolution tendency, destabilization or consolidation, two novel indices, including mD t and mC t , are extracted through network structure analysis and the development trace is discussed with the statistical analysis for assessment results. It is demonstrated that destabilization dominates the citation network in 1980s while the patents granted after 1992 tend to consolidate the development trace. Besides, the results also validate the effectiveness of proposed indexes. Additionally, the contributions of this paper can be utilized and discussed further in detecting technology development opportunities.
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