Knowledge creation and diffusion of Taiwan's universities: Knowledge trajectory from patent data

•Knowledge flows occurred in university research can be traced with patent data.•We investigates the knowledge creation and diffusion of Taiwan's universities by using university patents as the proxy.•The results find a dramatic increase in the number of university patent after 2002.•This phenomenon might be caused by Taiwan's Fundamental Science and Technology Act and increasing industry funding.•Taiwan's universities intend to respond the needs of domestic industry, especially the technological fields of ICT and biotechnology.

The university sector, receiving government funding to perform basic research, is designated to produce and widely disseminate innovative knowledge to industry in many countries, particularly in latecomer countries such as Taiwan. Knowledge flows occurring in university research can be traced with patent data. This exploratory study aims to investigate knowledge creation and diffusion of Taiwan's universities by using university patents as the proxy. The empirical analysis finds a dramatic increase in the number of university patents after 2002. Some implications are derived based on this empirical analysis. Moreover, the cross-national citation behavior of university research would be worthwhile for conceptualizing transnational innovation networks in future studies.