Global and domestic utilization of industrial relevant science: patent citation analysis of science–technology interactions and knowledge flows

The development of science-based technologies may draw heavily on codified and tacit outputs from both domestic research bases and foreign sources. Having a view of the scientific underpinnings of these technical innovations and related knowledge diffusion and utilization processes, especially those concerning public-financed basic research, is of major importance to policymakers nowadays. Some of those scientific and technical inputs are pivotal to technical inventions and are acknowledged as such by explicit references (“citations”) to related research papers in the reference list on the corresponding patents. This case study deals with citations to Dutch-authored research papers on USPTO patents granted during the period 1987–1996. Results of the citation analysis reveal several important features of contributions made by the Dutch science base to Dutch-invented and/or foreign-invented patents such as (1) a marked overall increase of patent citations to Dutch research papers, and (2) significant differences between domestic and foreign citation patterns where (3) domestic citation links are dominated by author–inventor self-citations and patents originating from the large R&D-intensive multinational firms such as Philips. These findings provide new empirical evidence that patent citation analysis produces systemic quantitative data providing strategic background information regarding nation-specific and sector-specific factors in domestic and cross-border science–technology linkages and knowledge flows.