Understanding the knowledge-diffusion
network can help government and businesses effectively use their investment to
stimulate science and technology development. We are interested in the roles
that innovators play in the cooperative network and how the structural characteristics
of innovator cooperative network affect innovative knowledge diffusion in terms
of patent citation frequency. We propose an improved model for innovative
knowledge diffusion by incorporating the innovator cooperative network with
Jaffe’s double exponential model, which has been verified as effective, to
evaluate the relationship between the innovator cooperative network and
innovative knowledge diffusion. We conduct empirical analysis with the proposed
model using patent data from the Derwent database, and discover a positive
correlation between the innovator cooperative network and innovative knowledge
diffusion. Our results also reveal several interesting patterns of innovative
knowledge diffusion in the field of nanostructures. We also discuss the practical
implications in knowledge management that analyzing patents, as a form of
innovative knowledge, can unveil knowledge diffusion patterns and urge
organizations to learn the technology development trend and advance their
technology progress.
