An Evolutionary Study On The Synthetic Biotechnology From The Perspective Of Multilevel Knowledge Networks

In the context of knowledge networks,the boundary between science-based innovation and technology-based innovation is becoming so blurred that the relationship between scientific and technological knowledge turns out to be more and more complex,especially for the cross-disciplinary fields represented by synthetic biotechnology whose innovation paradigm,featured with standardization,decoupling and abstraction,reconstructs rather than goes through existing social institutions.In 1990 s,the initiation of human genome project and the emergence of systems biology marked the birth of synthetic biotechnology.From the laboratory research conducted by two American universities in the early 2000 s to the global strategic layout led by America,England and China today,the synthetic biotechnology has undergone the phases of emergence,exploration,and growth.Its disruptive innovation and potential to address global food as well as energy challenges are fueled by a large body of scientific discoveries and technological progress.An evolutionary study from the perspective of multiple knowledge networks will shed light on the strategies for achieving technological potential and for enhancing industrial competitiveness.An empirical framework that integrates scientific and technological knowledge networks is required to address this problem.Based on a set of patent and literature data retrieved from the Web of Science database,this paper first employs the network indicators(density,degree centrality,diameter,cohesive clustering;TF-IDF)to conduct exploratory analysis on the possible relationships between scientific and technological knowledge networks at different stages.In the light of the primary relationships,we further design a constructed approach combining patent citation and text mining,which employs the multilevel networks based on patent citation relationships to bridge knowledge flows and on the data mining techniques to measure the linkages between focal patent network,cited patent network,and cited literature network.This method decreases the noise intrinsic in patents and literature and therefore improves the explanation ability of the indicators relating to patents and literature in terms of knowledge flows.With the unbalanced panel data of 41 technology portfolios,this paper makes multivariate regression analyses on the phases of emergence(2000-2003),exploration(2004-2007),and growth(2008-2014)of synthetic biotechnology,studying the effects of scientific linkage,technological linkage and their interaction on technological potential.The results show that in the development of synthetic biotechnology,scientific and technological knowledge demonstrate an unbalanced independent evolution at the emergence stage,a co-evolution at the exploration stage,and a balanced independent evolution at the growth stage.Specifically,at the emergence stage,the technological knowledge linkage has a significant positive impact on the technological potential,while the scientific knowledge linkage and their interplay are not significantly correlated with the technological potential.At the exploration stage,not only the scientific and technological knowledge linkages but their interplay also shows significant positive impacts on the technological potential.At the growth stage,both the scientific and technological knowledge linkages have significant positive impacts on the technological potential,while their interplay is not significantly correlated with that.In the light of the econometric conclusions and scientometric implications,this paper proposes some policy recommendations for latecomer countries to grow catch-up strategies.