Developing patent and paper-based composite indicators for comparative technological-level evaluation at the country level: model and application in mobile communications

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been the key driving force in development and diffusion for knowledge-based economies. A knowledge-based economy is a kind of economic and social system that is based mainly on the producing, distributing, and utilizing of information and knowledge. Therefore, it means that the most important things in the economic and social model are information, knowledge, and skills, rather than real material products. More recently, as competition in ICT innovation among nations becomes more intense in the theoretical, economic, and social paradigms of a national innovation system (NIS), there are growing demands for improved judgment, evaluation, and prediction of ICT capacity in order to improve a nation’s competitiveness. Technological competitiveness is important for national economic and social performance, particularly with national introductions of stronger intellectual property rights (IPRs), regulatory harmonization and standardization, and the worldwide spread of emerging ICT. Technological capabilities are the conceptual-level elements that capture technological competitiveness in operation. A technological-level can be defined as the relative technological capability to use technological knowledge efficiently and refers to the extent to which technological knowledge is accumulated, invested in, produced, and innovated. A technological-level refers to the present status of technological accumulation and accomplishment based on past technological activities. Therefore, a technological-level evaluation (TLE) can be defined statistically by estimating and assessing the technological status in terms of technological performance and capacity at the time of the evaluation. Moreover, a TLE can be used whenever we want to compare one technological capacity with another. A kind of several models for national TLE have recently been developed, with the research being enabled by a certain theoretical and empirical co...