Patent citations and value: through the lens of a social network approach

Abstract

Identifying valuable technological inventions in a timely manner for further development and commercialisation has important strategic implications for organisations to maximise social welfare and return on investments. Building upon the advantages that social network approach can predict performance in short investigation periods, this study develops a conceptual and novel framework to predict patent value through analysing patent citations network structural indicators. Our proposed approach helps alleviate truncation problems suffered by existing patent evaluation methods. Testable propositions are also offered. This study contributes to patent economics literature and research fields that would benefit from a more accurate measure of valuable technological inventions. The proposed approach also has practical and commercial values to research institutes and industrial firms.