Innovation today is certainly among the most important factors determining the success of organizations, universities, start-ups, etc. While innovation is often portrayed as the product of either one charismatic leader - or a ragtag team of geniuses - in reality we suspect that innovations, however important, happen in small steps supported by large networks of people.

We also believe that this former image of innovation is counter-productive, insofar as it creates unrealistic expectations of what it takes to be an innovator. We think that it is important for people to realize the extent to which innovation is mostly bred by networks of collaboration. But how to explore this issue in a quantitative manner?

One possible way is through patents. By looking at one patent’s citations, for instance, we can get an idea about which prior inventions either inspired, supported, or even made possible the other patents development. By peeling back these layers, we can then visualize a network of innovation steps, and the people behind them.

You can start by visiting the Methodology page to learn more about how the story was created. Otherwise, jump straight into the Analysis.

Our data is exclusively from the PatentsView database.