Identification of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies using PATSTAT data

Maria Menéndez de Medina, Önder Nomaler and Bart Verspagen
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Maria Menéndez de Medina: RS: GSBE MGSoG, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance
Önder Nomaler: RS: UNU-MERIT

No 2023-023, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: This document provides a methodological procedure to identify the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies using patent data. Attempts to distinguish these technologies have frequently relied on the European Patent Office (2017, 2020a) methods or have mainly leaned on technical codes and keyword classifications. Frequently, these studies have the limitation of collecting technologies arbitrarily and without a deep justification. Only the latest report from the European Patent Office (EPO, 2020b) attempts to detail the procedure to recognize the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. However, it does not offer the possibility of being replicated by scholars outside the organization. This article delivers a procedure to collect Fourth Industrial Revolution patents relying on key concepts from a detailed literature review - focused on whether they make up a new revolution and its conceptualization over time- and the EPO (2020b) report identification method. Subsequently, the evol ution of these technologies and the principal trends are exposed. Finally, the search queries and the list of identified patents are available (in the Appendix) to replicate or adapt for other academic purposes.

JEL-codes: O14 O30 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-06-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino and nep-ipr
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