Article on Technological Knowledge in Wind Power published
Researchers from SusTec and the Energy Politics Group (EPG) have analyzed the patent-citation networks in wind power and show how the design hierarchy shapes the focus of inventive activity and the expansion of the underlying body of knowledge.
Our analysis suggests that the evolution of an industry’s knowledge base along a technological trajectory is not a unidirectional process of gradual refinement.
Instead we find that the focus of knowledge generation shifts over time between different sub-systems in a highly sequential pattern, its order being strongly influenced by the product's design hierarchy.
In addition, we point to the fact that each of these shifts initiates the integration of new domains of industry-external knowledge into the focal knowledge base. Hence, these phases can be regarded windows of competitive opportunity for potential entrants with strong knowledge positions in the new focus of inventive activity.
The article, published in Research Policy, can be external page downloaded for free until May 12th.