Tracing the technology transfer of battery electric vehicles in China: A patent citation organization network analysis

Technology transfer is an active process in which advanced technologies are transferred between two different actors. In a fiercely competitive environment, the development and commercialization of new technology, such as battery electric vehicles (BEV), increasingly depend on technology transfer across organizational boundaries. To further explore technological transfer across organizations, it needs to combine the related information with patent citations. However, the existing literature usually ignores the diversity and difference of patent citations across jurisdictions. To close the gap, the paper takes the difference of patent citations into account. The paper gains an insight into the evolutionary pattern of BEV technology transfer across organizations in China by constructing multi-category citation networks. We find that the technology transfer networks are increasingly complex over time, but technology transfers between organizations are uneven. An important characteristic of technology transfer is that it follows the power-law distribution with a very long tail. More importantly, both large car manufacturers and new entrants play an important role in technology transfer, followed by top automotive suppliers, while the role of universities is limited. Our findings can help policy-makers or company managers better understand the evolutionary pattern of BEV technology transfer at the organizational level. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.