Citations Profile And The Complexity Of Innovation

Patent or paper citations reflect the consequences of a published idea on the discovery of new ideas. The authors draw a simple theoretical model predicting that the shape of the future citations of an idea can reveal the complexity of its innovative research spillover. They apply this method to the patent forward citations in the US industries. This paper has suggested a model for the mechanics of the production of ideas by means of ideas. Unlike the existing literature on technological spillovers, the authors focus on the direct citations of each idea.