The impact of university–industry collaboration networks on innovation in nanobiopharmaceuticals

This paper investigates the effects of multiplicative interaction between clustering and reach on members' knowledge creation and patent value based on complex network analysis in nanobiopharmaceuticals field. In order to avoid the high skew of patent value among patents, we use the weighted patent value as a proxy index of the invention's innovation performance rather than simple patent counts. The university–industry collaboration networks in the emerging and rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field are examined at firm-level. We further detect the impact of small world properties as well as the size of largest component on patent value and find that small-world structure has parabolical effect on patent value at firm-level. We add new evidence to the literature on this topic with an empirical investigation for the university–industry patent collaboration in the nanobiopharmaceutical field. The findings broaden and enrich the existing literature and can contribute to policy makers and relevant managers when making decisions for university and firm locality as well as the choices of the collaborators.

► The paper provides new insight into development in emerging nanobiopharmaceuticals.
► The paper uses weighted patent values as a measure of the invention's innovation performance.
► We explore the relationship between small world collaboration network and weighted patent value.