On the geography of emerging industry technological networks: the breadth and depth of patented innovations

We study an emerging industry’s technological network in which the patented technologies of the industry are connected to the geographic locations of the inventors. Our research context is the global wind turbine industry. The network maps the geography of the industry’s patented technologies over time. It shows the locations’ patenting activities in different technologies, centered around the core classes of electricity and aerodynamics. These activities shape the locations’ positions in the global patent network and indicate their relative importance to the industry’s innovations. We note that the network and thus the relative positions of the locations within it are constantly changing. We examine how the existing patented knowledge stock at a location affects its position in this technological network. Further, we analyze how locations that enter the global technology network attain centrality.