Technological Innovation Index : A novel innovation indicator and its implications for technology evaluation

Not all innovations are equal. Though recent economic literature on the evaluation of technological change acknowledges this reality, actual evaluation methods suffer from numerous limitations. Technological Innovation Index uses patent citation analysis to highlight the enormous variation in the characteristics, importance and evolution of technology over time and outlines a set of sophisticated tools for its analysis. Prominent among them is ?Patent Importance Technology Factor? (PITF), an improved algorithm for the calculation of patent impact using citation scores. The usefulness of PITF is illustrated by examining the evolution paths of high-impact innovations. The methods proposed have important implications for the measurement of technological change and would be of interest to a wide range of patent specialists, including economists, technology evaluators, finance and law professionals.