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Using data on patent applications at the European Patent Office, we examine the structural properties of networks of inventors in France in different technologies. We find that the higher the presence of inventors from universities and public research organizations (PROs), the more likely the networks are to exhibit small world properties. University and PRO inventors contribute to reduce average path length insofar they are more mobile (across applicants) than other inventors, thus linking up otherwise disconnected cliques. We achieve these results by implementing an original methodology for detecting small world properties in one-mode projections of two-mode graphs.
Acknowledgements
We have benefited from comments by two anonymous referees and by participants to the following conferences and workshops: EMAEE 2011 (Pisa, 14–16 February 2011), DIME final conference (Maastricht, 6–8 April 2011), 4th ZEW Conference on Economics of Innovation and Patenting (Mannheim, 19–20 May 2011), 3rd APE-INV “NameGame” workshop (Brussels, 5–6 September 2011). Koen Frenken and Valerio Sterzi discussed early versions of the paper and provided key suggestions. Financial support came from AnCoRA, a project funded by ANR (ANR-06-APPR-003; Llerena and Sanditov); DIME, a network of excellence funded by the 7th FP (n°51 33 96-CIT3; Llerena); and APE-INV, a Research Networking Programme funded by the European Science Foundation (http://www.academicpatenting.eu; Lissoni and Sanditov). Marc Ledoux, former director of Direction de la Politique Industrielle of CNRS, provided access to CNRS data. Data collection was largely conducted by Antonio Della Malva, Samuela Bellini, GianPaolo Ziletti and Sebastiano Guarisco for their Master dissertation projects. Gianluca Tarasconi (KITES' database supreme architect) did as usual a splendid job.