Visualizing the Structure and Bridges of the Intellectual Property Management and Strategy Literature : A Document Co-Citation Analysis

This article uses Document Co-citation Analysis to objectively explore the underlying structure of the Intellectual Property research domain, taken from a Managerial and Strategic standpoint. The goal of this study is identifying its main research areas, understanding its current state of development and suggesting potential future directions, by analyzing the co-citations from 181 papers published between 1992 and 2011 in the most influential academic journals. Five main clusters have been identified, mapped, and labeled as follows: Economics of Patent System, Technological and Institutional Capabilities, University Patenting, Intellectual Property Exploitation, and Division of Labor. Their most active areas on this topic, and the most influential and co-cited papers have been identified and described. Also, intra- and inter-cluster knowledge base diversity has been assessed by using indicators stemming from the domains of Information Theory and Biology. A t-test has been performed to assess the significance of the inter-cluster diversity. The knowledge bases of these five clusters are significantly diverse, this meaning that they are five co-existing paradigms