Beyond the front page: In-text citations to patents as traces of inventor knowledge

Cyril Verluise, Gabriele Cristelli, Kyle Higham and Gaetan de Rassenfosse
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Cyril Verluise: QuantumBlack
Gabriele Cristelli: London School of Economics
Kyle Higham: Motu Economic and Public Policy Research
Gaetan de Rassenfosse: Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne

Working Papers from Chair of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Abstract: This study introduces in-text patent-to-patent citations—references embedded in the body of patent documents—as a novel data source to trace knowledge flows. Unlike front-page citations, which often reflect legal requirements, in-text citations are more likely to originate from inventors and signal meaningful technological linkages. We show that they exhibit stronger geographic and semantic proximity, greater self-referentiality, and closer alignment with inventor knowledge. Though less frequent than front-page citations, they yield robust results in models of knowledge diffusion. We release a validated dataset and reproducible code to support future research. Our findings offer new opportunities for strategy scholars interested in the microfoundations of innovation, the geography of knowledge flows, and the role of inventors in shaping firms’ knowledge trajectories.

Keywords: citation; patent; knowledge flow; open data; spillover (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 D83 O31 O33 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-knm, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iip:wpaper:30

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