An approach to identify emergent topics of technological convergence: A case study for 3D printing

Zhinan Wang, Alan L. Porter, Xuefeng Wang and Stephen Carley

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2019, vol. 146, issue C, 723-732

Abstract: Technological Convergence (TC) reflects developmental processes that overlap different technological fields. It holds promise to yield outcomes that exceed the sum of its subparts. Measuring emergence for a TC environment can inform innovation management. This paper suggests a novel approach to identify Emergent Topics (ETopics) of the TC environment within a target technology domain using patent information. A non-TC environment is constructed as a comparison group. First, TC is operationalized as a co-classification of a given patent into multiple 4-digit IPC codes (≥2-IPC). We take a set of patents and parse those into three sub-datasets based on the number of IPC codes assigned 1-IPC (Non-TC), 2-IPC and ≥3-IPC. Second, a method is applied to identify emergent terms (ETs) and calculate emergence score for each term in each sub-dataset. Finally, we cluster those ETs using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to generate a factor map with ETopics. A convergent domain – 3D printing – is selected to present the illustrative results. Results affirm that for 3D printing, emergent topics in TC patents are distinctly different from those in non-TC patents. The number of ETs in the TC environment is increasing annually.

Keywords: Technological Convergence (TC); Emergent Topics (ETopics); Emergent Terms (ETs); International Patent Classification (IPC); 3D printing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:146:y:2019:i:c:p:723-732

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.12.015

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