The Longitudinal Study of Highly-Impact-Technology Enterprises in the ICT Industry: A Social Network Perspective

Patent citation can be viewed as an indicator for technical impact and technical invention. Highly cited patents represent the “prior art” of many issued patents and are likely to contain significant technological advances. Enterprises that produced these highly cited patents may influence industrial technological development. Because the technologically intensive industries require technology innovation to constantly adapt to the changing environment, any enterprises can disrupt the market and produce high impact technologies. This study aims to explore highly cited technologies in the ICT industry and uses social network analysis and knowledge-based characteristics to investigate the transitions of highly-impact-technology enterprises. The longitudinal analysis of technological leaders examines competitive tendency in specific fields to anchor the positions of the enterprises. This study proposes a different viewpoint to analyze highly-impact-technology enterprises based on social network perspective and knowledge-based characteristics.