KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION IN NANOTECHNOLOGY Jaebong Son 1

Prior Research and Extension 2 Impact of public funding Topic Analysis To identify the major Nano research topics Topic distribution and evolution over time Descriptive Statistics USPTO (Patent) Top N assignee countries & institutions Top N U.S patent tech. fields NSF Award Top N NSF divisions & programs Trend Analysis To identify the trends of USPTO patents and NSF award Citation Analysis To analyze the impact of the patents and inventors on Nanotechnology research Emerging and developing Topics (Huang, Chen, Li, & Roco, 2006)

Why predicting topics is important? 3 Potential in shaping a country’s future earning More than 60 countries have invested in nanotechnology. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI, 2000) Dominant patents and topics in the near future Cumulative investment of $14 billion Since the year of 2000 To make investment effective (Dang, Chen, Zhang, & Roco, 2009)

Knowledge Diffusion in Nanotechnology 4 Patents (Topics) represent knowledge, therefore analyzing patents (topics) is an essential part of carrying out knowledge diffusion process. Citation network may show a way of transmitting knowledge among researchers.

Models for Knowledge Diffusion 5  The SIR Model  The purpose is to explain how an infectious disease spreads. SIR stands for Susceptible, Infected, and Recovered. The SIR model will be used for predicting the evolution and the development of research topics. Susceptible Infected Recovered Infection Rate Recovery Rate Kermack & McKendrick, 1925)(Goffman & Newill, 1964,

Models for Knowledge Diffusion cont’d 6  Analogy between Epidemics and Knowledge diffusion Comparison Compartments of SIR Model Epidemic Knowledge Diffusion (Information Diffusion) About DiseaseKnowledge / Topic (of Nanotechnology) Susceptible People who might make a contact with an infective Inventors who read a certain patent information Infected People who have disease and might infect others Inventors who conducted research on specific topics of nanotechnology and make citations on their research works Recovered People who are recovered from disease Inventors who no longer conduct research on specific topics of nanotechnology Infection Rate The probability of disease transmission from the susceptible to the infected The probability of conducting research on specific topics of on nanotechnology after reading a certain patent information related with ones research interests Recovery Rate The probability that the infected is recovered from disease The probability that inventors who conducted research on specific topics of nanotechnology lose their research interests

Methodologies and Research Approaches 7  System Design (Experiment Steps)

Methodologies and Research Approaches cont’d 8  The SEIR-F model  The SEIR-F stands for Susceptible, Exposed (to ideas), Infected (from ideas), Recovered, and Facilitator (public funding). S (Susceptible) I (Infected from ideas) I (Infected from ideas) R (Recovered) E (Exposed to Ideas) E (Exposed to Ideas) Idea Adaption Rate Recovery Rate Idea Incubation Rate Public funding as a Facilitator (Bettencourt, Clintron-Arias, Kaiser, & Castillo-Chavez, 2006)

Research Questions 9  Can the SIR model (or the SEIR-F model) explain knowledge diffusion in nanotechnology?  Have public funding facilitated research activities in nanotechnology?  Which model is better to describe the population dynamics?  Can the SIR model (or the SEIR-F model) predict the evolution, development, and disappearance of specific topics?

Results (Expected) 10  Epidemic models can be suitably used to describe the population dynamics.  It is shown that public funding has considerably contributed to the development of nanotechnology.  The SEIR-F model succeeded in predicting the emergence and developing topics.