Monitoring patterns of open innovation using the patent-based brokerage analysis

As the paradigm of open innovation continues to proliferate in both academia and practice especially for the last decade, many studies have attempted to investigate patterns of open innovation. However, empirical and quantitative approaches to monitoring the patterns of open innovation are less conducted because of the difficulty in data collection and the lack of effective methods. Also, it is difficult to identify the patterns of open innovation when there are many cases of open innovation in a wide range of technology areas. In this respect, this paper aims to quantitatively monitor the patterns of open innovation using the patent-based brokerage analysis in the case of mobile communications technology. Using patent citation information, the knowledge flow between technology fields and firms is identified, especially for structuring the open innovation network of 5G technology. Then, the patent-based brokerage analysis based on the open innovation network is conducted to extract brokerage patents that present the patterns of open innovation: inbound and outbound innovation. Furthermore, the brokerage firms are explored to recommend the partnerships in the open innovation network. According to the results, it is expected that strategy for open innovation dynamics is systematically formulated based on the brokerage patents and partners in various technology areas.