The Effect of Patent Citation Relationship on Business Performance : A Social Network Analysis Perspective

With an advent of recent knowledge-based society, the interest in intellectual property has increased. Firms have tired to result in productive outcomes through continuous innovative activity. Especially, ICT firms which lead high-tech industry have tried to manage intellectual property more systematically. Firm's interest in the patent has increased in order to manage the innovative activity and Knowledge property. The patent involves not only simple information but also important values as information of technology, management and right. Moreover, as the patent has the detailed contents regarding technology development activity, it is regarded as valuable data. The patent which reflects technology spread and research outcomes and business performances are closely interrelated as the patent is considered as a significant the level of firm's innovation. As the patent information which represents companies' intellectual capital is accumulated continuously, it has become possible to do quantitative analysis. The advantages of patent in the related industry information and it's standardize information can be easily obtained. Through the patent, the flow of knowledge can be determined. The patent information can analyze in various levels from patent to nation. The patent information is used to analyze technical status and the effects on performance. The patent which has a high frequency of citation refers to having high technological values. Analyzing the patent information contains both citation index analysis using the number of citation and network analysis using citation relationship. Network analysis can provide the information on the flows of knowledge and technological changes, and it can show future research direction. Studies using the patent citation analysis vary academically and practically. For the citation index research, studies to analyze influential big patent has been conducted, and for the network analysis research, studies to find out the flows of technology in a certain industry has been conducted. Social network analysis is applied not only in the sociology, but also in a field of management consulting and company's knowledge management. Research of how the company's network position has an impact on business performances has been conducted from various aspects in a field of network analysis. Social network analysis can be based on the visual forms. Network indicators are available through the quantitative analysis. Social network analysis is used when analyzing outcomes in terms of the position of network. Social network analysis focuses largely on centrality and structural holes. Centrality indicates that actors having central positions among other actors have an advantage to exert stronger influence for exchange relationship. Degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality are used for centrality analysis. Structural holes refer to an empty place in social structure and are defined as efficiency and constraints. This study stresses and analyzes firms' network in terms of the patent and how network characteristics have an influence on business performances. For the purpose of doing this, seventy-four ICT companies listed in S&P500 are chosen for the sample. UCINET6 is used to analyze the network structural characteristics such as outdegree centrality, betweenness centrality and efficiency. Then, regression analysis test is conducted to find out how these network characteristics are related to business performance. It is found that each network index has significant impacts on net income, i.e. business performance. However, it is found that efficiency is negatively associated with business performance. As the efficiency increases, net income decreases and it has a negative impact on business performances. Furthermore, it is shown that betweenness centrality solely has statistically significance for the multiple regression analysis with three network indexes. The patent citation network analysis shows the flows of knowledge between firms, and it can be expected to contribute to company's management strategies by analyzing company's network structural positions.

특허 인용 관계가 기업 성과에 미치는 영향 : 소셜네트워크분석 관점

최근 지식기반 사회의 진입과 더불어 지식재산에 대한 관심이 증가하고 있다. 특히 하이테크산업을 이끌고 있는 ICT기업들은 지식재산의 체계적 관리를 위하여 끊임없이 노력하고 있다. 기업의 지적 자본을 대표하는 특허정보가 지속적으로 축적됨에 따라 정량적인 분석이 가능해졌다. 특허정보를 통하여 특허수준부터 기업수준, 산업수준, 국가 수준에 이르기 까지 다양한 수준에서의 분석이 가능하다. 특허정보는 기술 현황을 파악하거나 성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하는데 활용되고 있다. 특허 인용 정보를 활용한 분석은 크게 두 가지로, 인용 횟수를 활용하는 인용지표 분석과 인용관계를 바탕으로 한 네트워크분석으로 나뉜다. 네트워크를 통한 분석은 지식 영향의 흐름을 나타내며, 이를 통하여 기술의 변화를 확인할 수 있을 뿐만 아니라 앞으로의 연구 방향을 예측할 수 있다. 네트워크를 활용한 분석 분야에서는 기업이 차지하는 네트워크상에서의 위치가 기업성과에 미치는 영향을 다각도에서 분석하는 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 소셜네트워크분석 기법을 활용하여 특허 인용을 기반으로 한 기업 간의 네트워크를 도출하고 특허 인용 네트워크에서 차지하는 기업의 위치적 특성이 기업성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 이를 위해 미국 S&P500에 등록된 IT 및 통신서비스 기업 가운데 74개 기업을 표본으로 선정하였다. 소셜네트워크분석을 통하여 개별 기업들의 아웃디그리 중심성, 매개 중심성, 효율성(구조적 공백)을 측정하여 네트워크 상에서의 위치적 우위를 나타내는 독립변수로서 이용하였으며, 기업성과 변수로는 순이익을 사용하였다. 실증 분석 결과, 각각의 네트워크 지표는 기업성과인 순이익에 통계적으로 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 두 가지 중심성 지표는 기업성과에 정(+)의 영향을 미친 반면, 구조적 공백으로 인한 위치적 우위를 나타내는 효율성은 기업성과에 부정적(-)인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 세 가지 네트워크 지표를 동시에 고려할 경우에는 매개 중심성만이 기업성과에 대해 통계적 유의성을 보였다. 분석 결과를 토대로 연구의 발견점을 토의하고 시사점을 논의하였다.