Patent citations as a tool for analysing the early stages of convergence

The objective of this paper is to enhance understanding of the evolution of convergence. Previous research has shown that the technological interfaces between distinct industries are one of the major sources of new radical cross-industry innovations. The study creates novel patent analysis methods to analyze technological convergence and provide tools for anticipating the early stages of convergence. Our case study is based historically on two very distinct industries of the paper and electronics companies as a test environment to evaluate the importance of emerging business sectors and technological convergence as a source of industry transformation. Patent data include citations to previous patents and to the non-patent literature. These citations open up the possibility of tracing technological trajectories of the industries. Patent data was collected from the 84 main players operating in the radio-frequency identification value chain. The test environment of selected patent data base is only used to use, develop and illustrate the patent analysis tools for researching convergence of industries. Patent citation indicators, like citations made and received to patents and non-patent literature, pioneering innovations and technology cycle time are used to evaluate importance of this technology based industry transformation. Overall results from the study are that the citation analysis method shed light of the future technology competitive arena. Further research is needed to understand more deeply the relations and interaction between different stages in the convergence or fusion process.